Since 2011, I’ve been using an Omron Pedometer to measure how many steps I take. I’ve resisted buying a Fitbit or similar device largely because I hate the idea of wearing something on my wrist, and from what I can tell the Omron is still the most accurate device out there.
Unfortunately, it has also been discontinued by Omron and the replacement models are unimpressive. So recently I started using Google Fit on my phone to measure my activity. It doesn’t seem quite as accurate as the Omron pedometer was, but it is close enough. It also let me eliminated yet one more device I needed to remember to replace batteries and carry around with me.
So all was good until Pokemon Go came along. So Pokemon Go also appears to measure the steps you take in order to track how far you’ve walked before an incubating egg can hatch.
Which would be fine, except Pokemon Go and Google Fit do not work well together. If I’m playing Pokemon Go, then Google Fit simply will not record any steps I take. I’m assuming that Pokemon Go accesses my phone’s sensors in a way that precludes other apps from doing so as well.
I’m not sure if this is due to a poor implementation by Niantic (which would not be surprising at all given how buggy Pokemon Go is), or some sort of limit to how the sensor data can be accessed. I suspect the former, as I’ve noticed something similar with apps that access the microphone. I have an app that records audio from the microphone. While it is running, some apps that also rely in microphone input will report they cannot run because the microphone is already in use, while other apps will have no problem accessing the mic audio and acting normally.
Knowing very little about how Android works, I would assume that there are APIs for accessing sensor and audio data on phones, and that apps would access these APIs rather than trying to access the devices directly. But it appears that some apps may, in fact, use the later method which is a bit head scratching.