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Comment by sschueller | Hacker News Reader

That maybe due to US sanctions against DJI and they can't put apps in the play store. [1]

[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59703521

DJI used to have the "Mimo" app in the play store. It was rated very low, 2.3 stars. The app required users to allow the permission to read the phone's IMEI. If you denied that permission, the app closed. Myself, and I'm sure plenty of others, have reported this to the play store as something against the play store policies. Perhaps Google gave in to the complaints eventually and told DJI, enough is enough with your crap, who knows... And that made DJI say, "enough is enough with _you_, we're big enough to distribute these outside the play store and keep our invasive tracking and permissions".

Page visible only if you have installed the app in the past: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dji.mimo

The drone apps work for me although installing the APKs is annoying and I moved on to litchi anyway. At least my very old spark still works.

The mimo app on the other hand is straight up garbage. The thing never works right if it even connects to the device at all. I regret buying that thing (it's the osmo mobile version 2 or 3). It's so bad I don't think I will ever buy a new dji device.

I love flying my spark but the battery life is trash and my Air 2 isn't fun to fly (it's more of a utility van than a fun little sports car). I'd love to get a replacement for my spark. It's probably better to just build my own at this point.

Nope. They have apps on the iOS App Store just fine. DJI Fly for iOS was last updated 4 days ago.

Apple may have paperwork DJI can fill out while Google may not. Being compliant can be a huge ordeal and it is quite possible Google does not offer what is required.

Alternatively it's probably a lot cheaper to offer an apk while for Apple there is no other option than the app store requiring all kinds of paperwork and lawyer fees.

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