I have turned off Google location history on this phone, cos it slashes battery life. I think that I can still use Google Now for voice searches, sending texts, making appointments and so on, but I don’t care about stuff like automatic traffic reports about home and work.

Is there any benefit to using Google now for voice commands over the default? Will it work at all without location history?

I tend not to use location base cards. I like the recommended stories to read cards. I often use “OK Google” to answer a quick question. The timeline function in your console is very useful. e.g. a colleague drove me to a meeting, I wasnt paying attention of the address. Using timeline I could get details for when I went to the same location on my own.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/timeline?

Thanks to a recommendation in here not long ago Mrs Stoner and I now both share each other’s location via google+ (its the ONLY time I ever open G+) so I can tell how late she will be for dinner, and she can tell how long Ive been in the pub/ditch on my night rides.

But do you have location history on for those things to work?

yes, but not neccessarily on High Accuracy all the time.

I turn High accuracy (i.e. gps) on when using glympse, for example. But day to day, it will determine location from cell tower info and wifi hot spots it sniffs, i.e. low accuracy, lower power drain.

It seems to be the history that’s the issue rather than accuracy..? When I turn on history the battery will drain itself without me using the phone in about 18 hours. With it off, it ony drops about 20% in a day even with light use.

That could still be related to high accuracy GPS. It’ll be polling more often for a GPS fix.

When I used to have an Android phone I would just turn the GPS off unless I was lost and using Maps. Google Now still worked fine and gave me location specific cards.

So what’s on the location specific cards, generally?

So what’s on the location specific cards, generally?

Commute times
Nearby Parking
Weather

Bars and restaurants nearby, also shows things like museums and attractions if you are in a touristy place.