Share Location Plugin for Conversations

This plugin adds location sharing capabilities to the open source Jabber/XMPP client Conversations.

Why a plugin?

One of the design principles of Conversations is to require as few permissions as possible. Not every user might be comfortable with Conversations accessing the device location at any given time. On top of that this plugin makes heavy use of Google Play Services and the Google Maps API to improve the user experince. (Better location detection using cell towers and display of an actual map to verify the users position.) Both of which are not really suitable for mainline Conversations.

How to use

This plugin requires Conversations >= 1.2.0. If installed Conversations will show a Send location in the attach menu. (Next to Choose picture, Take picture and Choose file)

How does it work

The Share Location Plugin offers an intent called eu.siacs.conversations.location.request which returns (after user confirmation) a latitude and longitude as well as accuracy and altitude information (which currently are not being used). Corresponding to that the plugin also offers an intent eu.siacs.conversations.location.show to simple display a marker on a map. This is being used to display a contacts location in a more lightweight enviroment than the actual Google Maps application.

How to build / install

The primary distrubution channel for this plugin is the Google Play Store because it just won’t run on AOSP. If you do want to run your own version you will need a Google Maps API Key and place this in a string resource called google_maps_api_key.