Not so many years ago the Google Playstore had many reliable and free GCS (I personally used Tower).
1.What’s the reason so many of these apps are no longer available for download ?
2.What free GCS do you use on your Android device ?
- No one to support it. I wouldn’t say “many” but they were one man shows.
- QGC and to a degree Mission Planner.
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Are you sure that QGC is available at the Play store ?
I couldn’t find it there.
Maybe not, I suppose it was the last time I installed it. Go here and download the APK QGC
Looks like it’s there to me:
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There have been many developers over the years contributing to QGC.
As time went by the project got much larger and much more complex without the help of more developers.
Given that the source files are made in such a way that all regular platforms are supported, including Android, it is a huge task to keep updating all files at all times whilst trying to keep up with FC development and support of newly introduced functions & features.
On top of that Google Play has repeatedly changed the requirement for being a “compliant” App in order to publish via Google Play.
Some examples:
- Right now a change will be introduced in regards to Gradle version being accepted. In recent years had to be at least 4.2 whilst QGC is based on 3.6.0
- 32 Bit versions haven’t been accepted since 2019
- Minimum API 32 is required (Android 12 compatibility) Yet QGC was designed for 28 or in recent years 29
On top off all that the Java version originally used was based on Java 8 and then upgraded to Java 11. Now we have just seen release of Java 21. (September 2023)
…So if you happen to know a developer or two who are willing to contribute feel free to encourage them.
In the meantime I can confirm the link provided by Dave gets you the most recent stable version for Android.
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