Lifecycle¶

Dhruva integrates with the platform's standard lifecycle tools, no custom service, no Application.onCreate hook required.

Compose-bound¶

rememberLocationTracker() is a Composable factory. The returned tracker:

• Survives configuration changes (the remember cache is keyed on the host activity).
• Cleans up its state when the Composable leaves the composition.
• Holds a reference to the host ComponentActivity (Android) or a fresh CLLocationManager (iOS).

You can capture the tracker into a ViewModel by passing it as a constructor argument from a LaunchedEffect. It is safe to keep around for the lifetime of the activity.

Stopping tracking¶

A continuous Flow<Location> ties tracking to its collector. Cancelling the collector stops the underlying platform updates:

LaunchedEffect(streamEnabled) {
    if (streamEnabled) {
        tracker.startTracking().collect { /* ... */ }
        // Tracking auto-stops when this LaunchedEffect leaves the composition
        // or when its key (streamEnabled) changes.
    }
}

For imperative use cases, tracker.stopTracking() cancels any active continuous flow without needing to navigate via the collector.

Foreground-only behavior¶

• Android: FusedLocationProviderClient will continue to deliver updates while the app is in the foreground. Going to the background does not automatically stop tracking, that is your call. To pause / resume on lifecycle events, observe the hosting LifecycleOwner and call stopTracking() / collect a fresh flow as needed.
• iOS: CLLocationManager automatically stops startUpdatingLocation when the app moves to the background. There is nothing to do on your side; updates resume when the app returns to the foreground if the flow is still being collected.

Configuration changes¶

On Android, configuration changes (rotation, theme switch) destroy and recreate the activity. The remembered tracker is recreated against the new activity, but any in-flight Flow<Location> collector is cancelled along with the old composition. If you want updates to continue across rotation, hoist the tracker into a ViewModel or collect into a StateFlow that survives configuration changes.

What Dhruva does not do¶

• It does not start a foreground service.
• It does not declare any permission in its manifest.
• It does not subscribe to lifecycle events for you.

These are all reasonable behaviors for some apps but not for others; Dhruva picks neither default.