[BUG] - Excessive auto-tunnel location checks on Wi-Fi

[iskunk]

Describe the bug
I am using auto-tunneling on Wi-Fi and mobile data, with a trusted Wi-Fi SSID.

When I am on a Wi-Fi connection (home or foreign) and using an application that accesses the network, the green location-services indicator at the top-right of the screen pops up repeatedly despite the Wi-Fi connection remaining stable. This is especially noticeable when I browse the catalog in the official F-Droid app.

Smartphone

• Device: Motorola
• Android Version: 13
• App Version 3.6.6
• Backend: Userspace

To Reproduce
(see description)

Expected behavior
The location check occurs only when a Wi-Fi connection is initiated.

Additional context
The trusted SSID is matched using a wildcard.

[schafskopf]

Same for me, without wildcard.

[i7andy]

Same with me, I must get a location check every minute or so.

[zaneschepke]

Hello! I've done all I can to optimize this so we only query the wifi name when we detect that the wifi network has changed.

Despite these changes, this location checking persists. Unfortunately, I don't think there is much else I can do at this point to reduce this.

The old way of doing this type of network change monitoring via broadcast receiver is deprecated.

Android's APIs really are a mess. :(

We can continue this conversation, but I'll mark this as closed for now. Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything actionable for this issue. I'll reopen if we come up with something.

One note: If your device is rooted, we have a feature that bypasses the need for this location permissions and we get the wifi name via shell.

[iskunk]

Thanks for considering this, @zaneschepke. I think I'll need to forego the trusted-Wi-Fi feature, then. Excluding local IP ranges from the tunnel already avoids the issue of connecting to local resources, but as I also use a VPN on my home network, it was nice to avoid double-stacking the home + phone VPNs.

(Greatly appreciate your work on this app! I don't fully understand the brouhaha with the official WG app in F-Droid, but I'm glad that a well-maintained alternative is available)

[dmsimard]

I don't have a suggestion or a workaround but chiming in to say that I am also seeing the "an app is using the location permission" green notification every minute or so on GrapheneOS which isn't rooted.

I hope we can eventually find a way that doesn't require the location permission.

This app is otherwise fantastic AND open source, great work.

Thanks.

[rhoot]

The old way of doing this type of network change monitoring via broadcast receiver is deprecated.

Please excuse if I'm missing something (I'm not an Android programmer), but are you talking about SUPPLICANT_CONNECTION_CHANGE_ACTION being deprecated? If so, WIFI_STATE_CHANGED_ACTION does not appear to be deprecated. Would that not work?

If so I think it'd be perfectly acceptable to use the current location service path to get the SSID in response to that broadcast. Then the green indicator would only show up when the wifi state changes.