Changing Your Location on Android Devices – How to Go About It
An android device comes with a lot of interesting features that can be unlocked with the right changes to the configuration and apps. One of the most interesting features that can be unlocked in an Android device is the ability to change the virtual location of the device. By default, the device's GPS is used to tell its location and it's pretty accurate especially when you use the maps application for directions and even timeline of locations visited.
Unlocking Developer Options
Developer Options is usually found in System options depending on the mobile device.
More often than not, there are additional actions required to unlock Developer Options. For example, Samsung Devices require their users to tap "Build Number" seven times with the security unlock screen to activate this feature. Check your mobile phone's guide to learn more.
Once you have unlocked Developer Options, you can access the menu and find the mock location menu on your device. It will tell you that you need to install a mock location application
There are a good number of applications on the Play Store that you can use as your mock location tool. Just follow their directions to create a virtual fake location of your device.
While it will tell your device's GPS that you are in another location. It's not a fool proof solution if you really want to fake your location. A lot of powerful apps and games in Android PlayStore are also designed to counter mock location apps. Sometimes, an app will not run at all if the mock location is activated. However, it's still a fun experiment to check the capabilities of your device.
Using a VPN
Unlocking developer options and using a fake GPS app for virtual change of location may sound fun but it's just a fun feature to explore the capabilities of an Android device. If you really want to mask your actual location, the best solution is to use a VPN or Virtual Private Network. With the help of a VPN, you can set your server location within the app and it will tell websites and other applications you use that you are actually on that server location.
The good advantage of using a VPN for changing virtual location is the fact that it's powerful enough to access other geo-blocked services. There are a lot of websites and videos that are geo-blocked for various reasons but a good VPN can tell these sites that you are in a location allowed to access these videos.
But the main advantage of using a VPN is security. With the help of a VPN, the user's activity online is encrypted which means they are secured and could not be read easily by anyone including your Internet Service Provider. Because of the encryption, the VPN will shield the connection of their user to the internet with the help of a server the user selected.
Challenges in Using VPN and Fake Location Tools
VPNs and Fake Location Apps are persistent applications that run in the background. Since it continuously runs in the background, it will require some additional processing power which means a low-end device may experience some problem along the way. Make sure that when you use these apps to launch only a handful of apps or use a more powerful device.
These applications that hide your location can also be a battery hog especially when you run them with heavy applications. This is the reason why an Android device that uses a VPN should have a relatively large battery capacity to prevent quick draining.
Using VPNs and fake location apps can help you in hiding your actual locations. Just make sure to set-up these devices correctly to take full advantage of their features.
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