Less than a year ago I became a motorist: I attended a driving school, passed all the exams and finally closed my long-standing gestalthaving the opportunity to get behind the wheel.
However, until recently, my travel routes lay away from the center of Moscow. So when I found myself behind the wheel on Tverskaya, moving towards the Kremlin, for the first time I experienced the same problems with navigation that many motorists in the capital complain about.
And indeed, Yandex on my iPhone just went crazy, showing that I am completely on the other side of the city. I was lucky that I just had to drive through the center, otherwise I would have spent quite a lot of time searching for the right address in this “dead zone”.
The problem with location determination is not new, so subsequently I asked taxi drivers how they deal with it in Moscow, and there is a solution. True, it is not suitable for me and all iPhone owners; you need a smartphone with Android version 10 or higher.
How to improve navigation accuracy in Moscow
The most important thing is that for more accurate operation of the same Yandex.Navigator, you should use a smartphone with Android, no iPhones. This is due to the fact that the “green robot” has the ability to activate one setting, which is simply not accessible in iOS.
Also, this setting cannot be accessed in Huawei and Honor smartphones.
Therefore, if you are planning to drive around the central part of Moscow and do not know the city very well, then pick up your Samsung, Xiaomi, Redmi, Oppo, or Realme, install your usual navigator on it and do the following:
1. Enter developer mode in your smartphone settings
2. Disable Wi-Fi Request Limiting
3. Make sure Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are turned on
The meaning of these actions is this: if there are problems determining location using GPS, the smartphone begins to read the geolocation using the nearest Wi-Fi points. But by default it does this once every few minutes. After disabling request limitation in the settings, this time is reduced to a few seconds, so the device practically stops losing touch with reality and shows your location much more accurately.
Well, except in the vicinity of the Kremlin, where even this life hack no longer works.
How to find this developer mode, you ask. This is done differently on different smartphones, here are the instructions for several popular brands:
realme
in your smartphone settings, open “About device”
go to the “Version” section
click 7 times on the line “Version number”
go back to settings and open the “Advanced settings” section
select “Developer Options”
Xiaomi or Redmi
in your smartphone settings, select “About phone”
press 7 times on the line “MIUI Version”
go back to settings and open the “System” section
select “For Developers”
Samsung
in your smartphone settings, open “Phone information”
go to “Software Information” and click on the “Build Number” line 7 times
go back to settings and open the “System” section
select “For Developers”
Oppo
in your smartphone settings, open “About device”
tap 7 times on the line “Android Version”
go back to settings and open the “System” section
select “For Developers”
In the section for developers that appears, you need to find the item “Limit search for networks over Wi-Fi” or “Limit Wi-Fi requests”. This item is called one way or another depending on your smartphone model.
In addition to this, you can completely disable the GPS module so that your smartphone determines your location only to cell towers and Wi-FI points. Personally, I have not noticed an improvement in the accuracy of determining the geoposition, but many taxi drivers drive this way and say that it helps to navigate around Zaryadye Park, for example.
I specifically went with several smartphones on which I disabled the restriction of Wi-Fi requests in the Maroseyka area and the devices really did not transfer me to Yandex.Maps to the other end of Moscow. Unlike the iPhone, which stubbornly proved that I was in the Vykhino area.
What to do with the iPhone?
Alas, in our iPhones there is no way to disable the restriction of searching for networks over Wi-Fi, even in beta versions of iOS, where there is a menu specifically for developers. Such a point simply does not exist there.
So if you are new to the road or planning to come to Moscow for the New Year holidays in your car from another city, I recommend preparing your Android smartphone in advance so as not to get lost in the dense traffic in the center when the navigator suddenly goes crazy.
Source: www.iphones.ru
