Skip to content

GPS triggers

A GPS trigger fires when the listener's phone reports a location inside a defined geographic shape. SoundSpots supports two shapes:

  • GPS area — a polygon you draw on the map. Use for irregular regions like a park section or a building footprint.
  • GPS circle — a centre point with a radius in metres. Use for "anywhere within X metres of this spot" rules.

When to use GPS triggers

  • Outdoor experiences where beacons aren't practical (parks, walking trails, neighbourhoods).
  • iOS-compatible coverage of large areas as a fallback to beacons.
  • Loose proximity logic where centimetre-level precision isn't needed.

GPS accuracy varies wildly: 5–15 m in open sky, much worse near tall buildings or indoors. If precise positioning matters, use beacons or WiFi.

Adding a GPS area (polygon)

  1. Select the spot or zone.
  2. Open the Triggers section, click Add GPS area.
  3. The admin drops a default triangle near the centre of the map. Drag its vertices to shape your polygon. Click an edge to insert a new vertex; right-click a vertex to remove it.

A spot can only have one GPS trigger at a time. To replace it, delete the existing trigger first.

Adding a GPS circle

  1. Select the spot or zone.
  2. Click Add GPS circle.
  3. The admin places a circle centred on the spot's marker (or the map centre for zones), with a default radius of about 10% of the visible map height. Drag the centre to move it; drag the edge to resize.

GPS triggers and the iOS check

GPS triggers count as iOS-compatible — a spot or zone with at least one GPS trigger will not fire the iOS warning, even if it also has a MAC-based beacon trigger.

Tips

  • Test in the field. Build a draft, publish it to a test version, walk the route, and adjust the shapes.
  • Indoor venues should not rely on GPS. Use beacons or WiFi instead.
  • Keep polygons simple. Concave or self-intersecting shapes can produce surprising hit-test results on some devices.