What took them so long?
Since day one, the custom (de-G**gled) Android ROMS (LineageOS, AOKP, Oxygen OS, Paranoid Android, et al) have offered the ability to deny location information to any and all apps.
Plus with Android Firewall (AFW), you can deny each app individually the ability to communicate with with the rest of the world.
We’ve been able to do that for a long time in iOS. But it’s been learned that even with apps denied the ability, or for apps with various abilities for certain things, they sometimes have background stuff that doesn’t play by those rules and go around those lockouts. They exist on Android too to a greater extent than on iOS. This monitors that at the system level and alerts the user when it occurs. Google and Facebook have been notorious for finding ways to hide such background things in their ads regardless of where they show up. For example in ad supported "free" apps that may have been denied access to various functions yet suddenly that app is accessing your location and wants to transmit it and other data somewhere. Could have been a Google or other third-party ad. Now you’ll receive an alert before it can do it.
But then the app won’t work without it all turned on. And “I would just die without my Farmville!”. The users are their own worst enemy, they just can’t live without these apps that make them ignorant.
Apple has always allowed iOS users to deny location services, app by app (and often “all the time” vs “only when using the app”) as well as turning off Location services completely.
They also showed in iOS Prefs/Privacy/Location Services/what apps have been requesting the location data.
I am pretty sure this new “feature” is a real time user alert with ability to approve or deny on the fly.
(Swordmaker ?)