Google Play Store: Required declarations for “Foreground Services” and “Health”

2 min readJun 17, 2024

With Android 14 (targetSdkVersion 34 ), the Google Play Store now requires declarations for a couple of permissions that the background-geolocation SDK automatically inserts into your app’s AndroidManifest :

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACTIVITY_RECOGNITION" />
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE_LOCATION" />

These permissions are crucial to the operation of the Background Geolocation SDK.

ACTIVITY_RECOGNITION

TheACTIVITY_RECOGNITION permission allow the SDK to monitor the Android Motion API to automatically toggle location-tracking ON/OFF based upon the detected motion-activity of the device (eg: on_foot, in_vehicle, on_bicycle, running, still ).

Provide the following required declaration, selecting the category “Other”:

“The app uses the ActivityTransition API to automatically toggle location-services ON when the device is detected be in-motion. When the motion API reports the device is “still”, the app turns OFF location-services to conserve battery. This is a documented use-case for the Activity Transition API according to https://developer.android.com/develop/sensors-and-location/location/transitions”

Permissions — Describe your app’s use of the android.permission.ACTIVITY_RECOGNITION permission

In the next screen, post the same message as above for the “Activity recognition” permission:

I don’t want this permission

Removing the ACTIVITY_RECOGNITION permission will have major consequences on the performance of the SDK — it will require a much longer distance before the device is detected to be moving (200–1000 meters). With the ACTIVITY_RECOGNITION permission, the plugin is allowed to monitor the Android Motion API in the background, allowing the SDK to quickly detect when the device is in-motion, typically with just a few meters of movement.

If you want to remove this automatically-added permission from your app, add the following override with tools:node=”remove" to your AndroidManifest:

<manifest>
  <uses-permission
    android:name="android.permission.ACTIVITY_RECOGNITION"
    tools:node="remove" />
  .
  .
  . 
</manifest>

You should also configure the plugin in .ready(config)with:

disableMotionActivityUpdates: true

FOREGROUND_SERVICE_LOCATION

The FOREGROUND_SERVICE_LOCATION permission allows the SDK to turn on a foreground-service to constantly monitor the device location, regardless if app is terminated or device rebooted.

The Background Geolocation demo app was successfully published using the following declarations, enabling both “User-initiated location sharing” and “Geofencing”.

The following very simple video was provided for both:

“Your update is live”

After providing the declarations above, the Google Play Store allowed the Background Geolocation demo app to be published.