Location info being requested more frequently than every 15 minutes

[MustardCat]

Home Assistant Android app version(s):

Android version(s): 16

Device model(s): Pixel 9 Pro

Home Assistant version: version 2026.3.2-full
io.homeassistant.companion.android

Last working Home Assistant release (if known): Unknown

Description of problem, include YAML if issue is related to notifications: I am noticing that the Home Assistant companion app is requesting my location more frequently than the 15 minutes stated by the sensor update frequency. It seems to be closer to every 2-5 minutes.

Companion App Logs:

Screenshot or video of problem:

Additional information:

I do not know if this always the case but have noticed this recently due to Android's change to show a blue dot in the top right corner when location is being requested by an app.

[jpelgrom]

The latest Android 16 update on Pixels added a "location permission" privacy indicator. The Home Assistant app uses features which require location permission other than sensors, like when you use the app normally, use widgets/tiles/device controls, receive notifications with attachments, checking your Wi-Fi network name for the persistent connection, ...

At first glance this seems correct. Because you can have multiple URLs HA can show up quite a lot.

[MustardCat]

Hi jpelgrom,

Thanks for the response. I do have 3 HA servers in my companion app but none of them were sending any notifications within the time period of those screenshot timestamps and I do not have any automations which directly query my device's location.

For the screenshot above, my phone was not in use (screen was off/AMOLED always on) and I was not on any wifi network. Looking at the history of all permission queries, HA is definitely dominating the logs and the second-most app is not even close.

Because you can have multiple URLs HA can show up quite a lot

Does this mean each HA server instance may query the location sensor individually? Or does the companion app broadcast a location update to each instance all at once?

HA needing to query the phone's location ever 2-5 minutes seems like a lot (and I only began to look into this due to noticing a recent decrease in phone's battery life)

Thanks again

[jpelgrom]

If your phone was off during this time, it is bit more than expected but hard to tell exactly whether something's wrong from this list. Screen on/off may also trigger it as the app will check for persistent connection (you mention always on; I think proximity sensor enabling/disabling the always on display also count). There is a change in the next version of the app that may reduce it when not on Wi-Fi.

Does this mean each HA server instance may query the location sensor individually? Or does the companion app broadcast a location update to each instance all at once?

Let me emphasize again this screen is for the notification permission. That does not mean the app is actively requesting your (gps) location for location tracking.

Location tracking is received once by the app and then broadcast to each server all at once. If you have multiple servers it does not start requesting gps location more often.