How mock location works
Android includes a developer feature for testing: choose a mock location app, and that app can feed the system invented coordinates. It needs no root and installs in minutes.
The catch is openness. The system knows the location is mocked, and that fact is visible to other apps. Many apps check it directly and refuse, degrade or flag the result.
For casual testing of your own app, that openness is fine. You control both sides, and a detected mock changes nothing about the feature you are checking.
How GPS Setter works instead
GPS Setter never touches the mock location setting. As an Xposed module, it hooks the location APIs inside the system and inside chosen apps, and answers them with your set coordinates.
Because the answer comes from the API itself, there is no mock provider to select in developer options. The setup cost is higher instead: a framework, usually root, scope settings and reboots.
The module can also work at two levels. Hook the system for a device-wide answer, or hook one app for a private answer that leaves the rest of the phone honest.
Tip: Work through this guide in order the first time. Most GPS Setter problems come from one skipped step early on, not from the step where the problem appears.
A side-by-side summary
Setup: mock location needs developer options only. GPS Setter needs LSPosed or Vector, usually on a rooted device, or LSPatch for one embedded app.
Detection: a mock provider is openly flagged by Android. A hooked API answer carries no such flag, though determined apps can still look for frameworks and tampering.
Control: mock apps usually set one moving point for the phone. GPS Setter adds per-app profiles, saved favourites, randomised nearby points and, in some forks, voice or joystick control.
Which should you choose?
Choose a mock location app for quick tests of software you own, on an unrooted phone, where detection does not matter. It is the fastest route from install to a moved pin.
Choose GPS Setter when the app under test rejects mocks, when different apps need different locations, or when the same test points must repeat reliably over weeks of work.
Neither tool changes your IP address, and neither is a VPN. If a service locates you by network rather than GPS, both tools will look ineffective for reasons explained in our FAQ.
Download: GPS Setter itself is free from its LSPosed listing. Go to the download section for the file information and the external download button.
Related guides
How to Install GPS Setter with LSPosed: Step-by-Step
From APK to a working set location: enabling the module, choosing scope, and the reboot most people skip.
GPS Setter Full vs FOSS: Which Build Should You Download?
Same module, different foundations. A clear comparison of maps, location providers, and which phones each build suits.