We had a mix of 7s and 8s. All of them are running on iOS 11.3.
Today, I tested my iPhone 7 at my home. Here is the workflow:
1. I opened Apple Maps first and it was reporting my location accurately.
2. Then I turned Apple Maps off and Workforce on while the phone was still on Wi-Fi. I ran the app for about 15 minutes on Wi-Fi while tracking at 1 minute intervals. The average accuracy was 65 meters which is not great but better than the other tests.
3. I then turned off Wi-Fi and ran for another 10 minutes just on the cell network. Once again, the location services on the phone started reporting miles away with an average accuracy of 3,370 meters.
4. I turned Apple Maps back on and ran both Workforce and Apple Maps (in foreground) for another 10 minutes without locking the phone. Voila! Workforce started reporting my location almost to the exact spot of where I was in my house with an average accuracy of 7.3 meters. But, hang on just a minute…..
5. I turned Apple Maps off and ran Workforce for another 20 minutes. Workforce continued to report my location correctly for several minutes and then the same behavior started again. Workforce was yet again reporting locations 1.5 to 3 miles away from my actual location.
6. I turned Apple Maps back on and ran alongside Workforce and my location immediately started reporting correctly for a few minutes just to go back to sporadic location reporting again. This led me to further investigate. I put Apple Maps in the foreground (didn’t hit the home button to place app in background) and I also didn’t lock my phone this time. Workforce started reporting my location accurately again and stayed pretty consistent until I tested with the phone locked. When I locked the phone, Workforce started reporting way out again.
7. Unlocked the phone, ran Apple Maps in foreground alongside Workforce and everything worked as expected.
Final Recommendation: Best practice is to run Apple Maps in the foreground while running Workforce in order for the location services to report correctly in Workforce. Also do not lock the phone as this will also cause inaccurate location reporting.
Limitations: Test was only run over an hour period in a neighborhood. More tests need to be ran out in the field for a longer period of time.
Notes: Workforce on Android can be run without opening Google Maps. It can also run in the background while the phone is locked and still report accurately. This seems to be the limitations of iPhones 7 and 8 but those phones were all we had to test.
