The WeChat platform is a hugely popular mobile application ecosystem in mainland China. Hundreds of millions of WeChat users are engaging with a plethora of diverse mini-programs every day on this platform. WeChat mini-programs are architecturally similar to web applications. Like applications in other mobile platforms such as iOS and Android, the support of geolocation API in web application / WeChat mini-programs is critical to the use cases of location service. Google Geolocation API and W3C Geolocation API provide geolocation service to web applications but their indoor performance is hampered by the unavailability of GPS signals inside buildings and the lack of floor detection capability. Some technology providers of indoor positioning systems are available in the market but most of them only provide SDK for mobile app integration, which cannot be used in WeChat mini-programs.

The IndoorAtlas REST Positioning API is a key technology enabler for WeChat positioning. Together with our sensor fusion SDK, the IndoorAtlas product suite provides a truly cross-platform positioning capability covering iOS, Android, WeChat and Web. The implementation of location-aware WeChat app by using IndoorAtlas REST Positioning API is simple: The developers of WeChat mini-program just need to scan the Beacon and Wi-Fi signals and include the scanned results in the Locate Request of the Positioning API, then the mini-program will get the position estimate response from the API. The position estimate comes together with VenueId and FloorPlanId and other information related to the venue can be fetched through IndoorAtlas Venue API.

For more information about our offering in WeChat positioning, please contact IndoorAtlas Sales and Support.