How to determine location of device in Android using IP address

Question

I am developing an Android app. I want to determine the location of the device using its IP address. Where do I start? The links on Google APIs are not conclusive enough. Thanks.

Confederation

Answer 1

We can get the location by simple API call, but it will have low accuracy.

LocationApiService apiService = getGeoApiService();
    apiService.getLocation().enqueue(new Callback<GeoResponse>() {
        @Override
        public void onResponse(Call<GeoResponse> call, Response<GeoResponse> response) {
            response.body().getLatitude();
            response.body().getLongitude();
        }

        @Override
        public void onFailure(Call<GeoResponse> call, Throwable t) {
            t.getMessage();
        }
    });

LocationApiService

public interface LocationApiService {
    @GET("json")
    Call<GeoResponse> getLocation();
}

getGeoApiService()

public static final String BASE_URL = "http://ip-api.com/";

public static LocationApiService getGeoApiService() {
        return new Retrofit.Builder()
                .baseUrl(BASE_URL)
                .addConverterFactory(GsonConverterFactory.create())
                .build()
                .create(LocationApiService.class);
    }

GeoResponse

public class GeoResponse {

    private String as;
    private String city;
    private String country;
    private String countryCode;
    private String isp;
    @SerializedName("lat")
    private double latitude;
    @SerializedName("lon")
    private double longitude;
    private String org;
    private String query;
    private String region;
    private String regionName;
    private String timezone;

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "countryCode: " + countryCode + ", isp: " + isp + ", city: " + city;
    }

    public String getAs() {
        return as;
    }

    public void setAs(String as) {
        this.as = as;
    }

    public String getCity() {
        return city;
    }

    public void setCity(String city) {
        this.city = city;
    }

    public String getCountry() {
        return country;
    }

    public void setCountry(String country) {
        this.country = country;
    }

    public String getCountryCode() {
        return countryCode;
    }

    public void setCountryCode(String countryCode) {
        this.countryCode = countryCode;
    }

    public String getIsp() {
        return isp;
    }

    public void setIsp(String isp) {
        this.isp = isp;
    }

    public double getLatitude() {
        return latitude;
    }

    public void setLatitude(double latitude) {
        this.latitude = latitude;
    }

    public double getLongitude() {
        return longitude;
    }

    public void setLongitude(double longitude) {
        this.longitude = longitude;
    }

    public String getOrg() {
        return org;
    }

    public void setOrg(String org) {
        this.org = org;
    }

    public String getQuery() {
        return query;
    }

    public void setQuery(String query) {
        this.query = query;
    }

    public String getRegion() {
        return region;
    }

    public void setRegion(String region) {
        this.region = region;
    }

    public String getRegionName() {
        return regionName;
    }

    public void setRegionName(String regionName) {
        this.regionName = regionName;
    }


    public String getTimezone() {
        return timezone;
    }

    public void setTimezone(String timezone) {
        this.timezone = timezone;
    }
}

Enschede

What it means you said «‎but it will have low accuracy.»? – Layne

The location won't be precise. It could return location data a couple of miles away from you. – Enschede

In my case, I need to find out the country, and it is based on the ip address, so I think that in this case the country will be determined quite accurately, no? – Layne

I would assume so, yes. – Enschede

Answer 2

Checkout Google Maps Geolocation API

Sample POST:

https://www.googleapis.com/geolocation/v1/geolocate?key=YOUR_API_KEY

Sample response:

{
  "location": {
    "lat": 51.0,
    "lng": -0.1
  },
  "accuracy": 1200.4
}

Limits:

Users of the standard API:

2,500 free queries per day 10 query per second, per user Enable pay-as-you-go billing to unlock higher quotas:

$0.50 USD / 1000 additional queries, up to 100,000 daily.

MORE

Crespo

Answer 3

There are several web-services, which provides you latitude and longitude value from IP address.

one such is api.ipinfodb.com

for ex, you can latitude and longitude by sending request like

 http://api.ipinfodb.com/v3/ip-city/?key=<your_api_key>
               &ip=74.125.45.100&format=json

this returns the data in json format and you can get response in XML by setting format=xml.(you need to register to get your API key).

or you can download database from this and this link.

you can download datasets but u have to constantly update it.

Jettiejettison

i have tried obtaining the API key for this site but unsuccessfully.It keeps on requesting for my location even when i have provided it.Are you willing to share your key? – Confederation

Answer 4

I use this to get ip, country and city of device

to test you can use RESTCLIENT , the firefox addon for making HTTP requests.

simply copy https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/restclient/ this URL and test in RESTCLIENT or just past in browser address bar

Hope This helps!

Amorete

Answer please, is this url has some limits? Thanks – Layne

Answer 5

You can use freegeoip.net.

It's a free, open source service. You can use the service directly or run it on your personal server. It can also get deployed to Heroku pretty easily.

To get the IP location simply use OkHttp to send a http/https request:

String url = "https://freegeoip.net/json/"
Request mRequest = new Request.Builder()
        .url(url)
        .build();
Context mContext // A UI context
new OkHttpClient().newCall(mRequest).enqueue(new Callback() {
    Handler mainHandler = new Handler(mContext.getApplicationContext().getMainLooper());

    @Override
    public void onResponse(Call call, Response response) {
        String responseBody = null;
        try {
            responseBody = response.body().string();
        } catch (final IOException e) {
            mainHandler.post(new Runnable() {
                @Override
                public void run() {
                    // handle error
                }
            });
        }

        final String finalResponseBody = responseBody;
        mainHandler.post(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                // handle response body
                try {
                    JSONObject locationObject = new JSONObject(finalResponseBody);
                } catch (JSONException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        });
    }

    @Override
    public void onFailure(Call call, final IOException e) {
        mainHandler.post(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                mNetworkListener.onNetworkError(e.getMessage());
            }
        });
    }
});

And the response will look like something like this:

{
    "ip": "192.30.253.113",
    "country_code": "US",
    "country_name": "United States",
    "region_code": "CA",
    "region_name": "California",
    "city": "San Francisco",
    "zip_code": "94107",
    "time_zone": "America/Los_Angeles",
    "latitude": 37.7697,
    "longitude": -122.3933,
    "metro_code": 807
}

Othella

Answer 6

Fetch location details using ip address

https://geolocation-db.com/json/your_ip_address

Limit: 45 requests per minute from an IP address

Documentation : https://ip-api.com/docs/api:json

Namtar