GPS Location Tags

What are GPS Location Tags?

GPS Location Tags are location properties stored in image files (via EXIF tags) or video files (via QuickTime/MP4 tags).

VisionCamera provides an API to easily add such location tags to captured photos or videos.

Configure Location Permissions

First, you need to add the required permissions to access the user's location:

React Native

iOS

Open your project's Info.plist and add the following lines inside the outermost <dict> tag:

<key>NSLocationWhenInUseUsageDescription</key>
<string>$(PRODUCT_NAME) needs access to your location.</string>

Android

Open your project's AndroidManifest.xml and add the following lines inside the <manifest> tag:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" />

Expo

Managed Expo

Enable the enableLocation property inside your app's Expo config (app.json, app.config.json or app.config.js):

{
  "name": "my app",
  "plugins": [
    [
      "react-native-vision-camera",
      {
        // ...
        "enableLocation": true,
        "locationPermissionText": "[my app] needs your location."
      }
    ]
  ]
}

Finally, compile the mods:

npx expo prebuild

To apply the changes, build a new binary with EAS:

eas build

Request Location Permissions

After adding the required permissions to your app's manifests, prompt the user to grant location permission at runtime:

Hooks API

Get or request permissions using the useLocationPermission hook:

const { hasPermission, requestPermission } = useLocationPermission()

Imperative API

Get the current permission status:

const permissionStatus = Camera.getLocationPermissionStatus()

And if it is not granted, request permission:

const newPermissionStatus = await Camera.requestLocationPermission()

Enable GPS Location Tags

Use the enableLocation property to start streaming location updates and automatically add GPS Location Tags to images (EXIF tags) and videos:

<Camera {...props} enableLocation={true} />

Once enabled, all captured photos (see "Taking Photos") and videos (see "Recording Videos") will contain location tags.

Enable or disable Location APIs

Location APIs are considered privacy-sensitive APIs by Apple. When you are not using privacy-sensitive APIs (like location) but still include them in your app's code, the Apple review team might reject your app.

To avoid that, you can disable the location APIs and VisionCamera will not compile those privacy-sensitive APIs into your app. Simply set the required flag before building your app:

React Native

Inside your Podfile, add the VCEnableLocation flag and set it to false:

$VCEnableLocation = false

Expo

Inside your Expo config (app.json, app.config.json or app.config.js), add the enableLocation flag to the react-native-vision-camera plugin and set it to false:

{
  "name": "my app",
  "plugins": [
    [
      "react-native-vision-camera",
      {
        // ...
        "enableLocation": false
      }
    ]
  ]
}

Then rebuild your app and any location-related APIs will be excluded from the build.

🚀 Next section: Performance