GPS slower & less accurate than others??

[dallas77us]

My Moto X4 upgraded to 9.0 from 8.1 yesterday and among other things I discovered the location accuracy settings have changed.

I didn't find the three-option settings I was used to so it was off to a search.

Now there is just a toggle for what is and has been high accuracy (GPS, WiFi, cellular & device sensors) when on and GPS only when off, the latter formerly called "device only."

The "battery saver" (high accuracy minus GPS) mode has been abandoned.

That's where I bumped into that ubiquitous explanation: "GPS can be slower and less accurate than other sources."

Given that the acclaimed apps GPS Test Plus and GPS Status report a 2-3 second fix and a 10 foot accuracy, even with AGPS cleared, even on my old Moto G3 clunker, I wonder how WiFi, cellular, etc. can make it any more accurate than that? A better showing at eight or nine feet? Can it determine I'm not visiting the "gentlemen's club" next door to the Starbuck's I'm seated in?

Heck, even my ancient Garmin GPS III+ is still good to ~30 feet (it does take a few minutes at that).

So if I find myself in the remotest of the Rocky Mountains or the Gobi Desert... "Gosh, no bars. Sure wish there was some access points out here to tweak the GPS."

I can't come up with a good keywords/Boolean search to guide me to an explanation.

Can anyone with expertise in this point me to where Google defines "GPS can be slower and less accurate than other sources"?

Thanks!

 

[Hadron]

In my experience WiFi etc does not make it more accurate when you have a clear view of the sky. Wireless location is inherently less accurate, and adding it to GPS does nothing significant to the overall accuracy. Where it can help is where you cannot get or maintain a GPS fix (indoors, or when surrounded by high buildings): in those cases it will be faster and might be the only fix you can get.

I personally think that Google like to be ambiguous about this because they want you to use the WiFi+cellular location, since enabling that gives consent to allow Google's location service to collect location data periodically and "use this data in an anonymous way to improve location accuracy and location-based services". And Google, like other companies of that type, always want to encourage you to share more information with them, so implying that this is "more accurate" (without saying "in particular circumstances") helps them.