Create Geo-Zones
In these pages you'll learn how to create Geo-Zones. Before you start, please review some of the best practices when creating geo-zones.
Regions should be not be too small or too big
Because we depend on the most battery effective APIs to receive location data even when your app is not used, creating regions smaller than 100 meters or 320 feet will decrease accuracy and some triggers might be missed. You should consider using beacons inside your regions if that is really needed. You should also consider to not create regions bigger than 20km or 12mi as operating system will cap the maximum monitored distance.
Avoid creating regions too close to each other
If regions are too close to each other (less than 500m/1640ft apart) and you add geo-triggered messages in all those regions, there's a chance that users will get all the messages at the same time. If you have a cluster of regions you might need to rethink your strategy whether by using beacons or by make a bigger region that encloses all the places you want and use a combination of filters and segmentation rules to in the geo-triggers so you can target several places.
Avoid creating many regions inside a small area
If you have more than 10 regions inside an area smaller than 1.50km2, there is a chance that there is not enough location updates that allows us to start monitoring for those regions in time, which can result in some regions being missed or triggered later.
Geo-Fencing relies in WIFI/cellular networks
When troubleshooting geo-fences, please bear in mind that this technology will require devices to have a network connection, ideally devices should have at least connected to a cellular network and have WIFI turned ON (doesn't mean devices need to be connected to a WIFI hotspot). Both iOS and Android device rely heavily in these radio signals to accurately retrieve your location.
Location accuracy degrades outside urban centers
When Wi-Fi location isn’t available (for example, when you are driving in rural areas) the location accuracy degrades. The accuracy range can be as large as several hundred meters to several kilometers. In cases like this, you should create geofences using a larger radius.
Re-Launch your app after creating new regions
Whenever you create new region your app will only know about them if you re-launch it or you move enough (more or less 500m/1640ft) to trigger a new location update. Keep that in mind every time you create new regions.
To access this area, expand the Locations menu and click in Geo-Zones:
In the list of geo-zones, click in the New Geo-Zone button located in the top right corner:
In that page you'll be creating your geo-zone. Optionally you can add an icon to your geo-zone:
This icon can be eventually used by your app when displaying information about the region, building a store locator or any other use case you can think of.
If you've setup your app to use iBeacons (like described here) and you going to use beacons in this geo-zone, you should insert an identifier that matches your beacon's major:
You should also insert a name for your region:
Optionally, you can assign one or more tags to your geo-zone. This can help you filter out geo-zones based on your own categories. Use the field below to add tags to your geo-zones:
To add a one or more tags simply search for an existing tag:
You can select one or more tags for your geo-zone by clicking in the ones you want to select:
And click the Done button when you are ready to proceed, it will look like this:
In case you did not create the tag yet and you can not find one that you want, you will be able to create it on-the-fly by simply clicking in the Create it? link:
Optionally if you have your own identifier for regions, you can provide it in the following field:
You can also provide the address for your region:
You can also add extra optional information about your geo-zone in the following field:
Finally you should provide the exact area you wish to use for your geo-zone. You can choose between a circular or polygon shape by simply using the buttons found in the map:
If you do not know exactly the location you want to use for your geo-zone, you can use the search field to center the map on a certain address or latitude and longitude intersection. You can even reuse other POIS, cities or countries previously created.
Once you are ready to create your region, simply click in the Create Geo-Zone button to save it:
Keep reading our guides and learn how to manage a geo-zone.