When we initially installed the Home Assistant Android apps on our phones, I did what I could find to try to get higher frequency (like 4x per minute) update rates on both phones, granting permissions, adjusting settings, etc. as best as I could find them all.
On my phone (a Pixel 7a) I had good high frequency position reporting for a few weeks, but my wife’s phone was a bit less cooperative, it might update once every 5 minutes or so. This is while driving, walking, bike riding, sitting around the house… the position update reporting on her Samsung phone just wasn’t as fast as on the Pixel.
Then, after a couple of weeks, with no conscious intervention by either of us, my Pixel’s update reporting rate dropped to every 5 minutes or longer, and her Samsung started reporting more quickly, not the 4x per minute I tried to set it at, but maybe 2x per minute most of the time. That sort of came and went depending on whether her phone was locked or in use, but now it’s back down to the once per 5+ minutes rate, and so is my Pixel.
Is there a definitive guide for where to set these permissions and position update rates, and how to keep them as you set them?
Also dropouts in mobile network coverage can affect the reporting frequency, even just dropping down to a lesser standard like 5G to 4G can make a gap in the reporting frequency due to re-negotiating for the network.
Yeah, when my high frequency reporting was working I saw the occasional comm gap like when my phone was in my pocket instead of in the dashboard holder. This change in reporting frequency is more consistent than that, or at least not correlated to RF issues.