Ever need an easy way to spoof locations on your physical iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV to pretend that the device is somewhere you currently are not? Maybe you're like us, and you've built an application that requires location services, and you need to test it your development work? Would you prefer to not jailbreak your phone in order to do this?
Let me introduce you to Hope Point. We've been building a location-based application, and with this, needed a way to fake our device's location in order to better mimic what we would see out in the real world. Hope Point was a quick way for us to trick our physical iPhones and iPads into believing we were in Point Hope, Alaska, or one of several other test locations we needed. We've used this method directly into our project for testing, but we've created a sample project here so that you can spoof your device's location for testing, and copy our work for integration into your own testing. It's a simple addition of a GPX file into a standard Xcode Scheme launch option. But if you're a novice developer, you may have never heard about this valuable iOS tool. To help, we've built this sample repo for you to learn and test with.
Note, there is no code required in your app to do this, the project here is simply a standard shell starter project. Location spoofing is performed entirely using the Debug Scheme default location launch option for when the app is launched using the Run action in Xcode.
So if you need a way to make your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV think it's in Alaska, New York, London, Chicago, or any other city worldwide, just clone this repository and you're halfway there.
Note - There's been increasing interest in HopePoint. We hope it's making your app testing life easier. A good deal of questions have been sent to us about how to get a GPX location for specific cities like Miami, Boston, or anywhere else. To do this, we would recommend using a tool like GPX POI. Some other users have asked about creating GPX files that mimic traveling along a specific route by foot or bike, and for that, we'd suggest Maps to GPX. Just create a GPX file with these sites, drag them into the Xcode project, and select that GPX file from the menu.
Installation Tip - Having troubles with this project? New to developing in Xcode? One thoughtful developer put together a guide to help walk through the setup steps, including photos and a bit more information. We welcome you to check out their anonymous guide here. If you continue to have issues, Apple has created an extensive guide to help walk through the process as well.
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Clone this repository, or download the ZIP of the latest source code directly from from GitHub.
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Make sure that you have the latest version of Xcode installed on a Macintosh computer. It is available from the Mac App Store. This application will not work through an AdHoc build, so you will need a Mac and Xcode to install directly. After you've downloaded the code, open hopepoint.xcodeproj if you need this app to work with an iPhone or iPad. Or open highpoint_tv.xcodeproj if you want to spoof location on an Apple TV. If you'd like to swap quickly between iOS or tvOS devices, open highpoint.xcworkspace, and flip between schemes.
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Connect the iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV that you would like to location spoof to your Macintosh.
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You'll likely need to change the application's Bundle Identifier. Currently it is set to com.9magnets.hopepoint. Change this to com.whateveryouwant.hopepoint, and you should be good.
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In the Xcode project navigator, choose your device from the Scheme toolbar menu. Then click on the Run button. The first time you run the app, you may need to allow Xcode to set up a proper signing and provisioning. If prompted with "Fix It", feel free to hit Yes, and you should be good to go.
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Hope Point should run on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV using the default GPX file, and your device's location services should automatically set your current location as Point Hope, Alaska. When you use Maps.app, or any other application that uses location services, you will now be in Alaska. Give it a shot by opening Maps.app, and see if you're in beautiful Point Hope, Alaska. If your device does not update and continues to have you at your actual physical location, continue to Step 7.
- Troubleshooting tip: if your location does not change automatically, try the following. From the Edit Scheme option in the Xcode project navigator, Edit the Options under the Run/Debug to set Point Hope (or whatever location you prefer) as the default location for location services at app launch time. For more information on how to do this, see this Apple iOS Developer document.
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If you need to change your location from Point Hope to a different city or if the app does not automatically set your city, go into Xcode's Debug menu. Once in the Debug menu, scroll down to Simulate Location, and select a different city or add a new GPX file to the workspace. We've included our common test cities inside the workspace's Supporting Files.
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Do you need to have your device continue to fake your location while not connected to Xcode? This was crucial for us, as we often had to spoof our iOS device's location when not connected to a computer for user testing. To have your device continue to spoof location when not connected to your computer, DO NOT stop the project in Xcode and instead just disconnect your device from your computer's USB port. You should receive an error from Xcode that device connection has been lost. This is expected, just hit OK.
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Your device should continue to report Point Hope, Alaska in location services for a significant period of time, potentially as long as until the iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV is restarted. Take note of this, if you go to use your device for directions, mapping, or any other third-party app that uses location services, as your device will be inaccurate and may cause you some headache. For example, if your device clock is set to change automatically based upon your current location, your device will soon change it's clock to match the Alaska Time Zone.
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If your device ever resets to your actual location and you need it back in Alaska, just connect your iOS device back to your Mac, launch the project in Xcode, and hit run.
As this location spoofing method does not have a considerable amount of documentation, we can't say exactly how long your device will remain in the spoofed location. We've seen it last several days, but your mileage may vary. Eventually, you'll want your actual location back, and a device restart will resolve this.
Good luck, and happy spoofing! Hope this helps out with your location sensitive iOS apps!