# WindSportTracker and Android's "Force Full GNSS Measurements"
**URL:** https://forum.windsporttracker.com/t/windsporttracker-and-androids-force-full-gnss-measurements/545
**Category:** Feature Requests
**Tags:** gpx
**Created:** [September 27, 2026, 12:03am UTC](https://forum.windsporttracker.com/t/windsporttracker-and-androids-force-full-gnss-measurements/545 "2026-09-27T00:03:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@glagron](https://forum.windsporttracker.com/u/glagron)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2026, 12:03am UTC](https://forum.windsporttracker.com/t/windsporttracker-and-androids-force-full-gnss-measurements/545/1 "2026-09-27T00:03:22Z")
Hi Matthias,
Thank you very much for your great app and the numerous feature improvements in v2!
Does WST v2 take advantage of the Android phone’s **{}** **Developer Options “Force full GNSS measurements”**?
If so, what is the order of magnitude in accuracy improvements which we can expect from some WST metrics like **Best 2s** , Best 5s?
Will it compare to GPS watch ⌚ accuracy (e.g. Coros, Garmin, etc…)?
Is it worth the battery 🪫 consumption trade-off?
Thanks,
Guislain
PS: Refer to [What Is Force Full GNSS Measurements & Why It Matters](https://scienceinsights.org/what-is-force-full-gnss-measurements-why-it-matters/) article for reference.
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### Author:  [@WST](https://forum.windsporttracker.com/u/WST)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2026, 3:49pm UTC](https://forum.windsporttracker.com/t/windsporttracker-and-androids-force-full-gnss-measurements/545/2 "2026-09-27T15:49:08Z")
Hi,
thanks for the kind words and the good question.
**Short answer: no, WST v2 doesn’t benefit from “Force full GNSS measurements”, so I’d leave it off.**
**Why:** The setting stops the GNSS chip from duty cycling, so it tracks satellites continuously. That matters for **raw carrier-phase measurements** , which are used for post-processing techniques like RTK or PPP. It is not what drives speed metrics in a sports tracker, so the effect on WST is not measurable.
The article you linked shows the catch as well. The impressive accuracy numbers (around 20 cm) come from PPP processing with the phone **standing still in open sky** , and it takes **roughly 38 minutes to converge** before it reaches that precision. With the phone moving, even that approach drops to around 7 m in their example. I don’t think anyone wants to stand on the beach for 40 minutes before getting on the water 😃
That’s also why the option lives in the **developer settings** (and apps can only request it explicitly through the API). It’s a tool for developers and scientific use cases, not for day-to-day tracking.
**Best 2s / Best 5s:** Expect no measurable improvement from this setting. What actually affects these metrics:
- **Phone placement:** a clear view of the sky, not tucked under a harness or buried in a pocket. Body and water shadowing is the biggest error source.
- **Phone model:** dual-frequency (L1+L5) chipsets generally do better.
- **Good fix before you start:** wait until accuracy has settled.
**Compared to GPS watches:** A well-positioned phone can even be **more accurate** than a watch, because phones have room for larger antennas. Watches have very limited space, so a lot depends on how well the manufacturer placed the antenna.
With watches, **where you wear it** matters a lot too. The wrist is actually a poor spot: the watch is exposed to constant arm movement and vibration, and with an underhand grip it faces down towards the water instead of up at the sky.
The best position for both phone and watch is **high up on the shoulder / upper arm**. The downside for watches: you lose wrist heart-rate data unless you pair a chest strap.
So it’s always a bit of a compromise. WST works hard to filter out these disturbances as well as possible, which is why the results are very accurate.
**Battery trade-off:** Not worth it for WST, because there is a cost and no gain.