LocationSimulator

[Schlaubischlump]

TL;DR: Download BOTH apps from here, but only open bugs if you read the full text below.

It's been quite some time since I last had the opportunity to work consistently on LocationSimulator. That's also why the update for iOS 17+ took much longer than I had hoped. Calling it an “update” isn’t entirely accurate, though. I rewrote the entire application from the ground up using UIKit instead of AppKit. As a result, I was not able to reuse much of the code currently found in this repository.

But it’s finally here, and beta testing can begin!

Before I provide the download links, let me first explain how LocationSimulator2 works, why it's not open source, and what the plans are going forward.

LocationSimulator and LocationSpoofer

LocationSimulator is no longer a single app. Instead, there are now two apps: LocationSpoofer and LocationSimulator.
LocationSpoofer is the backend application, while LocationSimulator is the frontend that communicates with it.

So why split it this way? There are two main reasons:

1. If I want to publish LocationSimulator on the App Store, it must not communicate with usbmuxd in any way. In other words, it is not allowed to handle any of the backend communication with iOS devices.
2. If I want to support iOS in addition to macOS, the backend cannot be integrated into the app. In particular, iOS does not natively support this kind of communication with other iOS devices, and even if it did, it would again not be App Store compliant.

This means the workflow is now slightly different. First, start LocationSpoofer, then start LocationSimulator. If both apps are running on the same Mac, everything should work automatically and you can use the app as usual.

If you're running LocationSimulator on iOS, you'll need to manually connect it to a LocationSpoofer instance running on a Mac. LocationSpoofer shows up in the menubar and displays a pairing code.

App Store and Open Source

Currently, I'm not planning to open source LocationSimulator2 or LocationSpoofer. There are multiple reasons for this. I won't go into all the details, but the short version is: LLMs have changed the situation and donation-based financing simply isn't working. Donations don't even cover the cost of the developer license, let alone make the project financially sustainable.

For now, LocationSimulator is in beta and you can test it for free. Once the beta period is over, it will probably be available on the App Store for a small one-time payment.
Everyone who has contributed to LocationSimulator over the years or donated money up until today will get LocationSimulator2 for free. And yes, the donation has to be more than 1 cent, because after transaction fees that is 0. Very funny, guys.
If you're not financially able to pay for LocationSimulator, send me a message at the support email address. I'm sure we can find a way to provide it to you for free. However, for now I have not looked into any of this, so as long as the app is not in the AppStore please don't contact me.

For now, however, none of this is particularly relevant. You can simply sign up for the beta and download LocationSpoofer from GitHub. You can find both links here.
There are 499 beta slots available. I don't expect that many people to test the app, but if they aren't sufficient, I can probably increase the capacity.

That being said: this is the first beta. Go easy on me and expect bugs. If you want to report a bug, I prefer a github issue in the LocationSimulator2 repo.

Next, a few technical notes for those of you who still enjoy AppleScript.

AppleScript

LocationSimulator and LocationSpoofer are still fully scriptable, although the API did change. However, there is another important difference.
Previously, there was a no-ui flag for starting LocationSimulator headlessly. That's no longer necessary. If you want to run things headlessly, simply communicate with LocationSpoofer directly. If you want to automate the UI, target LocationSimulator instead. That also means that if you're only interested in automating things with AppleScript, it's free. Just grab LocationSpoofer and you're good to go.

Enjoy the update!