How much accurate does apps like Uber, GoogleMap, Life360 works, I mean what can be the minimum distanceFilterValue to listen to location updates?

Solution 1:

The distanceFilter and the desiredAccuracy go hand-in-hand. For the distance filter, it can be anything between kCLDistanceFilterNone and CLLocationDistanceMax. See the documentation.

Regarding what other people used, it will vary widely from app to app. For navigation apps, you tend to need high accuracy so you don't miss a turn. But a weather app might be perfectly happy with city-level accuracy.

If you really need reasonable precision and want to reduce volume, then a filter of 5–15 meters is a good starting point. Try different values yourself and see what the effect is.

But there is no magical answer to your question. You will have to balance the legitimate needs of your app with (a) the server load; and (b) the power consumption on the device.

By the way, if the app doesn't need high accuracy, you might contemplate the very efficient, but less accurate, significant change service which will report changes of roughly 500 meters, with a frequency not exceeding once every 5 minutes

Finally, remember, nowadays the user is in control of the accuracy. You can request whatever accuracy you want, but if the user wants to preserve their privacy, they can choose not to share their precise location, and there is nothing you can do about it (other than to try to make a case for why precise location data is essential for the proper functioning of your app).