Option to track location less blatantly

[c00ller]

Consider the case where a phone is suspected to be stolen. In this case, one would certainly not want the thief to see a new Locating window brought into the foreground when trying to locate the device, let alone giving the thief immediate access to the "Disable tracking" button. An option to make the current behavior more subtle might be desirable.

[Decad3nce]

I'm hesitant to do this, because it may lead to someone using the software with bad intentions.

[c00ller]

You're right, that's a good point.

[pgschk]

Both points are absolutely valid. How about this:

• Location tracking is activated via SMS
• Aegis will silently track the location and send it back
• Aegis will trigger a notification, informing the current user of the phone that its location was tracked, maybe with a dialog that opens on click which explains what Aegis is and what just happened

In this scenario the phone could silently track the location in case of theft, but Aegis would not be suited to be abused for other purposes (since it will blow the whistle on itself).

I still think that any thief would most likely change his location and try to get rid of Aegis as soon as the notification popped up, but compared to the current behaviour it would not be worse, I think.

[Decad3nce]

I could do that. Problem with notifications are that they could even alert the culprit if they know what aeGis is.

Alternatively I could make a transparent icon for the notification(foreground service in this case), but I'd need more feedback.

Expanding a dialog from notification is simple.

[pgschk]

When the screen is unlocked, there is no big difference between having an Activity or a service with a notification when it comes to being identified by the current user. Of course the drawback of the notification is, that it is visible even with the screen locked. I understand that is what you are worried about?

I thought about the same issue. A transparent icon would of course help. On JB devices you could also make it a low priority notification, which, if I am not mistaken, does not show up with an icon or text unless the notification drawer is pulled down.

There is also the possibility to behave differently while the screen is locked, which seems to be an easy test (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8317331/detecting-when-screen-is-locked).
For example Aegis could track the screen locked state after tracking was enabled, and notifiy the user as soon as he successfully unlocks the device.

[Decad3nce]

Handling lock/unlock may not be a bad idea, but I would not be able to do low priority notifications if I do a foreground service. Foreground services are force to display an icon in the notification tray.

[pgschk]

And you want to use a foreground service to make sure it is not killed to free up memory?

[Decad3nce]

Yep.

[pgschk]

Got it. Well I think using a transparent icon would be one option. Another one would be to just use a generic icon, like an exclamation mark, which does not offer much information without pulling down the drawer and reading the notification itself.

What kind of feedback would you need?