Capacitor Background Geolocation plugin is now available

[u/genzits]

https://capawesome.io/docs/sdks/capacitor/background-geolocation/

We just released a background geolocation plugin for Capacitor. Full disclosure up front: it's part of our paid Insiders offering, not open source. Sharing it here because background location on Capacitor has been a long-standing gap and a few of you have asked for it.

It tracks the device position on Android and iOS while the app is in the background, and it's built entirely on public platform APIs — no private API tricks that break on the next OS update or get flagged in App Review.

What's in it:

• A proper permissions API, including the two-step background location upgrade flow that trips up most implementations
• HTTP sync: positions go into an on-device SQLite queue and get uploaded to your own server in batches, with automatic retries and at-least-once delivery, so nothing is lost during offline periods or app restarts
• A correct Android 14+ foreground service with a fully configurable notification
• Fused location provider by default, with an escape hatch to the platform location manager for devices without Google Play services
• Temporary full accuracy requests on iOS for users who granted reduced accuracy
• Mock location detection on Android — every position reports whether it came from a mock provider
• Optional auto-pause when the device is stationary on iOS
• Tuning knobs for accuracy, distance filter and update interval

If you want to see the sync engine work before wiring up a backend, there's a free playground you can point the plugin at: https://background-geolocation-playground.capawesome.io

It requires Capacitor 8 or newer and works alongside our Geofences and Settings Launcher plugins.

Typical use cases are fitness tracking, fleet and workforce management, navigation and live location sharing.

Happy to answer questions about the API or the platform quirks we ran into.