Using the Geolocation API

The Geolocation API that web applications use to figure out where the user is located can also be used by React Native applications because the same API has been polyfilled. Other than maps, this API is useful for getting precise coordinates from the GPS on mobile devices. You can then use this information to display meaningful location data to the user.

Unfortunately, the data returned by the Geolocation API is of little use on its own. Your code must do the legwork to transform it into something useful. For example, latitude and longitude don’t mean anything to the user, but you can use this data to look up something that is of use to the user. This might be as simple as displaying where the user is currently located.

Let’s implement an example that uses the Geolocation API of React Native to look up coordinates and then use those coordinates to look up human-readable location information from the Google Maps API.

Before we start...