Change your GPS location with Floater Fake Location

The geolocation capability on your Android has become a must for most of apps you use every day, so a system that can trick your device’s GPS might prove useful indeed. Whether it’s to carry out development tests, get around geographical restrictions, or play a harmless joke on your mates, Floater – Fake Location is one of the best apps you can find for this purpose.

To activate the fake-location generator you first have to switch on an option in the device’s settings, in the developer options to be exact. That section doesn’t usually appear by default, and to get to it you need to go to the Phone information section and tap several times on the bit where it says Build number. That done, you’ll see the new Developer options submenu under Settings, and from there you’ll have to tick the Fake Locations option and then Floater Fake Location by default.

The app displays a floating window over the home screen where you mark the exact place you want your GPS to show – you can even manually set the exact coordinates, latitude and longitude, or postal address. The window can be resized as needed, and when you minimize the app a notification will stay in your taskbar with the current location alongside buttons to pause or shut down the simulation.

Digging a bit deeper into the options, you’ll see that you can customize the service in lots of ways – refining the precision of the virtual location, modifying aspects of the connections, choosing a refresh interval, or even fiddling with fine details like a motion simulator. (This is cool – you just set a start point, a destination, and an average speed, then it simulates you taking a fake walk.)