As of April 2024 - Before getting started, ensure you are using the right Airthings app today for your products by reading this article here.
The Airthings Wave Gen 1 app uses Bluetooth low energy to search for and communicate with your Airthings devices.
To be able to do so, Android requires the Airthings Wave Gen 1 app to have access to location data from your phone. This is because, in theory, Bluetooth low energy can be misused to estimate your geographical position through scanning for devices with a known location.
For Bluetooth to work, location services (GPS) also needs to be enabled. If not, scanning for devices will fail silently. The Airthings Wave Gen 1 app will remind you to turn this on again.
Requesting location permission
The first time your Airthings Wave Gen 1 app opens, it will explain this to you. When you tap "Proceed", an Android system popup will show. To enable your Airthings Wave Gen 1 app to use Bluetooth, you need to accept this permission.
If you do not accept to share location data with the app, the request will show again.
Android 11 and later
If you are using Android 11 or later, it is possible to provide access to location data only when the Airthings Wave app is in use or always give access.
When you give access to location data only when the app is in use, background syncing of data and sending push notifications to your phone will not be possible for Bluetooth connected devices*. Hub connected devices will not be affected.
*Background syncing is attempted on Android once per hour when the Wave devices are nearby. However, syncing efficiency will vary due to constraint from phone vendors' power management restrictions for background execution.
Denying location permission
If you choose to deny location permission several times, the system popup will no longer show after the explanation. To recover from this situation, follow the below steps:
On your phone, open the Settings app.
Tap Apps & notifications.
Tap the Airthings Wave Gen 1 app. If you can't find it, first tap See all apps or App info.
Tap Permissions. If you allowed or denied any permissions for the app, you'll find them here.
To change a permission setting, tap it, then choose Allow or Deny.
Use of location data
By granting the Airthings app access to your location data, Airthings will not use your location for anything.
Your location data is only stored in Airthings' systems if you share it explicitly when adding a device to a location. This information is then used to provide you with outdoor air quality data on the Web Dashboard ( https://dashboard.airthings.com ).
If you chose to share location data when adding a device to it, radon data is also used anonymized for research and educational purposes (https://radonmap.com).
Read More
If you are interested in reading more about the requirements from Android for location permissions and Bluetooth low energy, the following link will provide more details:
https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/bluetooth-le#permissions