com.google.android.gms.location.history Copy

This is a Google Mobile Services component that backs the Location History feature surfaced in Google Maps as Timeline. It is Google-signed and shipped as part of the GMS suite rather than as a separate user-facing app, and it is dormant unless a signed-in user has turned Location History on. With that setting off, which is the default, it does not collect Location History; enterprise and managed deployments commonly leave it off by policy. The version dimension is significant here, though the change is product-driven rather than tied to a specific Android release. Google announced in December 2023 that Location History would move from cloud storage to on-device storage, and from late 2024 this rolled out widely: Timeline data is now saved per device rather than centrally, the web version of Timeline was withdrawn, and history no longer syncs across a user's devices into one unified record, as reported in the cited coverage of the December 2024 rollout. Older references describing Location History as a purely cloud-stored, cross-device Google Account feature therefore no longer reflect current behaviour. For Android Enterprise, EMM and kiosk fleets it is best understood as a privacy-relevant GMS sub-component rather than something to disable directly: GMS internals are generally managed as a whole, and the feature is controlled by the Location History account setting rather than by removing this package. If location tracking is a concern, control it through the user or account setting and policy rather than by attempting to disable this component in isolation.

• Google Maps widely rolling out on-device Timeline history notice - 9to5Google →
• com.google.android.gms.location.history - sysapps.bayton.org (observed signers and device spread) →

• Signed by Google's own signing key (the same key Google uses across devices), so it is a Google-provided preinstall that updates independently of the system image, and that single certificate is consistent across all 48 device profiles. This certificate spans 18 device makes - the hallmark of a globally distributed Google key.
• Its largest observed manifest declares 5 permissions: 5 runtime (user-granted).
• APK size ranges from 0.0 MB to 2.6 MB across the reporting device profiles, so the build differs substantially between them.
• Never reported as user-facing, so it runs as a background or system component rather than an app the user opens.