I am a software developer in the field of online maps. Here are a few tips to help you get the best location accuracy from your smartphone.
Android
Go into settings and display the screen where you turn location services on/off. You should see three options. They have slightly different names on different phones.
1. High accuracy
If this setting is selected then your phone will determine your location using data from the satellites, cell towers, wi-fi hotspots, etc. This setting should really be called medium accuracy since the reality is that data from cell towers can degrade the more accurate data from the satellites.
2. GPS only
This setting only uses data from the satellites and will give you the most accurate location.
3. Power saving
This setting does not use any data from the satellites and will give you the least accurate location.
iPhone
You can make an iPhone use data from only the satellites by putting it into airplane mode. You can test your standalone navigation apps to see if they work in airplane mode. And if you use any web page that displays your location then you can try opening the web page while you are online and then putting your phone into airplane mode.
Beginning with iOS 14 Apple has added a feature that can decrease the accuracy of your coordinates. See this article.
https://9to5mac.com/2020/08/12/ios-14-precise-location/
I tested this on my iPhone 11 by telling safari to *not* use precise location. Then I opened a webpage that displayed my coordinates and accuracy value. Yikes! The accuracy value was a bit over 2 miles. So if you are using an iPhone with iOS 14 and you want accurate coordinates then you need to make certain that the phone is set to use “precise” location for whatever software you are using. Of course an accuracy value of 2 miles should be a clue to you that something needs to be tweaked….
Bonus tip
If you are conveying your coordinates to anyone then always give three pieces of information:
1. Coordinates
2. Format (decimal degrees, degrees and decimal minutes, UTM, etc)
3. Accuracy value
GPS chips always produce both coordinates and an accuracy value. If you are using software that only displays the coordinates and does not also display the accuracy value, then get rid of that software and find something that does what you need while also displaying the accuracy value.
