The weakest point of most tracking apps is when the phone gets stolen and a Factory Reset is performed, which nullifies its purpose in case of theft. If the app can be made to survive a Factory Reset, it would become the most effective and by far the best tracking app for Android. To keep the app persisting on the system is not so hard: install it as a system app. The other requirements to remain functional are: 1. keep app-data (not necessary with implementation described below) 2. dispose of necessary permissions out-of-the-box 3. run at boot Strategies (suggestion) 1. keep app-data: since it seems quiet difficult to retain user-data after a reset, a solution would be to send the IMEI to the server (which is linked to the account) ALTERNATIVE: generate a unique APK for each phone that registers, which has the necessary data hard-coded The extra benefit is that both techniques are waterproof when the SIM is changed. 2. obtaining necessary permissions by default: don't know if this is hard to achieve? 3. run at boot: I think easily doable? The only app I know that is able to do this is Cerberus Anti-Theft, which unfortunately uses Google Servers (probably Firebase Cloud Messaging) to send the location to, which doesn't work if you haven't got Google Services Framework and Google Play Services installed. They charge 5 € for each device per year. Me and probably many others would happily pay you at least the same to make use of your servers with these features. Congratulations already for making the app that many have been waiting for!