Situm can be used with most Android and most iOS smartphones. However, your smartphone must comply with at least some requirements in order to get the best performance.




1. Hardware requirements


You can check the technical features of your smartphone in the following link: http://www.gsmarena.com/. Please also check the factors that may influence the positioning accuracy.


Mandatory:

  • Wi-Fi or BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) chipset: Your smartphone must have a WiFi and/or BLE chipset, in order to read WiFi/BLE scans to compute indoor positions. Almost every smartphone in the market will fulfill this requirement. However, note that some devices allow to retrieve WiFi / BLE scans at a higher speed than others, which impacts significantly in the accuracy level.  
  • No metallic covers. We advise against the use of smartphone metallic protective covers, since they alter the sensor meassurements of the device and favor internal heating on it.


Recommended (to get the best performance):


  • Gyroscope:  This sensor can detect orientation changes of the smartphone.  Most modern smartphones have this sensor
  • Magnetometer / Compass: Measures the direction and strenght of the magnetic fields around the smartphone. You can check if your smartphone has this sensor by downloading an app for this purpose in the Google Play or Apple Store.
  • Compatibility with the GSM network of your country: Required to connect to the mobile data network and be able to communicate with our cloud without a WiFi connection. If you bought the phone in your country and from a validated seller, you will not have problems in this regard. Anyway, you can check it out by visiting:  http://willmyphonework.net/

Important: The devices must be featured, at least, with one of both sensors: gyroscope or compass. If the device has none of these sensors, it is not compatible.



 

2. Android compatibility



VersionCompatibility comments
Android 5, 6, 7, 8 Not known compatibility issues.
Android 9We recommend to use BLE beacons in combination with WiFi networks to achieve acceptable performance.

Android 9 devices limit the capacity to scan WiFi signals (one scan per 30 seconds vs one scan per 1-6 seconds in previous versions). This restriction is called “WiFi throttling”, and it:
  • Significantly reduces the accuracy when using WiFi.
  • Impedes the WiFi calibration of a building.    
Android 10Android 10 introduced a developer option to deactivate the "WiFi Throttling". This allows Situm to scan WiFi networks at normal rate.

This option can be turned on by any user. However, being a developer option it is un likely that end-consummer users (e.g. users of a shopping mall app) activate it. On the contrary, corporate users (e.g. professional workers using a tracking app) are likely to activate it.

We recommend:
  1. For wayfinding apps: use BLE beacons like in Android 9.
  2. For tracking apps: you may use WiFi networks only (no BLE beacons required in general), but only if your users can deactivate the WiFi Throttling. 



3. iOS compatibility



VersionCompatibility comments
iOS 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14Apple does not allow to scan for Wifi access points. Therefore, it is mandatory to use BLE beacons to achieve an acceptable positioning performance.



 

4. Black list

 


Smartphone
Reason
Affects Wayfinding, Tracking or both
Nexus 5XCompass issues: orientation may be unaccurate from time to time.Affects both but effects are not catastropic.
Samsung S4Gyro issues: orientation may be unaccurate from time to time. Affects both but effects are not catastropic.
Any Xiaomi model with MIUIThe MIUI personalization layer prevents continuous positioning in the background unless specific configurations are applied to the smartphone.Only affects tracking use cases. Can be corrected by applying the mentioned configurations.
Any Huawei or Honor model The EMUI personalization layer (under 8)  prevents continuous positioning in the background. However, it is possible to use EMUI 8 if some device settings are changed (contact our Support Team for more information)

*Please, remember that we are not compatible with Android 9.  		Only affects tracking use cases. Can be corrected by applying the mentioned configurations.
Any Meizu modelCompass issues: orientation may be unaccurate from time to time. Affects both but effects are not catastropic.
Any Huawei (Android 10) It is not possible to deactivate WiFi Throttling Only affects tracking use cases.