expo-horizon-location

A fork of expo-location that provides two implementations:

• The default expo-location behavior using Google Play Services.
• A Meta Horizon–compatible implementation that does not rely on Google Play Services.

You can choose which implementation to use with the quest / mobile build variants. See expo-horizon-core for more details. This makes it compatible with Meta Horizon devices, while remaining a drop-in replacement for expo-location on Android and iOS.

Prerequisites

• Expo SDK 54 or later (expo package version 54.0.13+)
• (Recommended) expo-horizon-core package installed. See expo-horizon-core for more details

Usage

1. (Recommended) Install and configure the expo-horizon-core package:

npx expo install expo-horizon-core

For detailed setup steps and configuration options, refer to the expo-horizon-core documentation.

2. Install the package:

npx expo install expo-horizon-location

# and remove the old package:
npm uninstall expo-location
# or
yarn remove expo-location

3. Update your app.json / app.config.js to replace expo-location with expo-horizon-location.
4. Use the questDebug / questRelease build variants to run the app on Meta Quest devices. See expo-horizon-core for more details.
5. Update your imports:

import * as Location from 'expo-horizon-location';

Behavior

• On Meta Quest devices → Uses the Meta Horizon–compatible push notification service.
• On standard Android devices → Falls back to the default expo-location behavior using Google Play Services.
• On iOS it should have no effect; behavior is always the same as expo-location.

[!IMPORTANT] The quest build variants are intended specifically for Meta Quest devices. Using them on standard Android devices is not recommended, as certain features may be unsupported or behave differently.

Additional features

You might need additional features like isHorizonDevice or isHorizonBuild to check if the device is a Meta Horizon device. See expo-horizon-core for more details.

Features supported on Meta Horizon OS

| Function Name | Android Devices | Horizon OS | Notes | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------- | ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | enableNetworkProviderAsync | ✅ Supported | ✅ Supported | | | getProviderStatusAsync | ✅ Supported | ✅ Supported | | | hasServicesEnabledAsync | ✅ Supported | ✅ Supported | | | requestForegroundPermissionsAsync requestBackgroundPermissionsAsync | ✅ Supported | ✅ Supported | | | getForegroundPermissionsAsync getBackgroundPermissionsAsync | ✅ Supported | ✅ Supported | | | getCurrentPositionAsync watchPositionAsync | ✅ Supported | ✅ Supported | The GPS provider is not available on Quest devices. If selected, the network provider will be used instead. Note that, based on experiments, the network provider updates no more frequently than every 10 minutes. | | getLastKnownPositionAsync | ✅ Supported | ✅ Supported | | | watchHeadingAsync getHeadingAsync | ✅ Supported | ❌ Not supported | Magnetic and accelerometer sensors are not available on Quest. | | geocodeAsync reverseGeocodeAsync | ✅ Supported | ❌ Not supported | The Geocoder is not present on Quest. | | startGeofencingAsync stopGeofencingAsync hasStartedGeofencingAsync | ✅ Supported | ❌ Not supported | Meta Horizon Store doesn't support ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION Android permission. | | startLocationUpdatesAsync stopLocationUpdatesAsync hasStartedLocationUpdatesAsync | ✅ Supported | ❌ Not supported | Meta Horizon Store doesn't support ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION Android permission. |

Version compatibility

Our goal is to align the version numbers of expo-horizon-location and expo-location for easier upgrades. However, since this fork is still under development, we are currently using a separate versioning scheme.

| expo-horizon-location | expo-location | | ----------------------- | --------------- | | 0.0.4-0.0.5 | 18.1.17 |

Expo Horizon Location is created by Software Mansion

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