I think the author is being too hard on himself. Investing massive effort to maintain a free app for people who don't invest anything themselves is not a personal failure.

As is, their app got pulled and they said f-it, I don't care enough anymore to invest that time.

Contrast that to Microsoft, who (at least used to) really get backwards compatibility. I bet I could dig out a Win32 program I wrote 20 years ago for NT4 and compile it today, and it would run on Windows 10.

And perhaps that kind of app that are well regarded, needs no maintenance, AND not growing X% YoY IAP yadda yadda is unsightly in their eyes, so they remove it.

Sure financial incentive would have greased the wheels, but it might have undermined the spirit of the project in the first place

The difference is the seller gets to share some of the benefit.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overjustification_effect

I'm sad this app has been removed because A. I use it semi-frequently, and B. The play store is FULL of malicious software/spamware.

JFTR, There are actually 2× apps with very similar names:

- "GPSLogger" (mentioned in this thread);[0]

- "GPS Logger" (I use this one).[1]

[0] https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/com.mendhak.gpslogg...

[1] https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/eu.basicairdata.gra...

Google will drive legit apps off the store but allow malware to linger for months or years. If there was ever a public failure by a company then this is it.

Where is the failure occurring in Google? I know it to be their outsourced India workforce. Some disagree. If not India, then what is the reason?

Maybe they (google) should support older devices but the author chose to swim upstream to some extent here. Admirable goal but perhaps as a decision, one that comes with a lot of hassle and inevitable conflict with the platform they chose.

Switch to F-Droid!

- Remove GDrive/Dropbox and other proprietary features;

- Add Nextcloud/ownCloud/Syncthing and similar open-source features;

- Fully move to F-Droid;

- Remove page from Google Play Store.

Considering this app is used a lot on older secondary phones, it’s actually very likely people who want to use it would go to the little bit of extra effort required to use it via F-Droid.

If you want rooting and a bunch of storage, your non-cheap options get harshly limited. Looking for such a phone over the last few months, the options for my carrier were Motorola or bust. Which means getting an Edge, which are goofy and expensive and have defective screens.

So I gave up and got my first unrootable phone, from Samsung.

You _can_ install it with Magisk (which also provides root) but it can also be flashed as a regular flashable ZIP (which just requires an unlocked device).

Last (and best) of all, it can be added to an unrooted ROM. RattlesnakeOS[0] for example includes it.

[0]: https://github.com/dan-v/rattlesnakeos-stack

edit: typo

https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/09/listening-...

It's gotten some attention, and I've addressed all the requests for changes I've gotten. But still, no resolution after 4 months.

In contrast it took me a few days at most to publish to Google Play and the App Store, which I did at the same time as I submitted to F-Droid. And I've shipped numerous updates to both since then.

So "Switch to F-Droid!" rings a little hollow for me.

[0]: https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/com.mendhak.gpslogg...

You mean why there's a separate "Izzy's F-Droid" repo?[0]

[0] https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/info

The enforced obsolescence is infuriating. Whilst you can argue the security implications of older devices, an offline task like being thrown in the top of a backpack recording a gps trace is a great use of old hardware. Google making it difficult for devs going out of their way to support this is upsetting.

This does mean that apps now need to take such new features into account and not horribly crash when users want to use them on the phone.

Requesting compliance with all new privacy features on Android 9,10,11 is not unreasonable for a store IMO. Especially when sideloading exists.

Or, since it’s a self serve platform, let the author decide not to show it to new devices.

Delisting seems rather extreme to me.

It does suck for abandonware apps though.

Judging by the author’s comment, it's not easy, that's the whole point.

Besides Google Location History / Google Timeline, GPSLogger is pretty much the only way to have records of your location. I've used it for research (we mention it in an academic paper on location-based memories), for my own records to see where I've been (like "how many times have I been to this area before"), and statistical analysis of my everyday habits. If you want long-term location history, GPSLogger is probably the only way to do this.

The alternate, Google Location History, has only been really reliable for the past few years, whereas there was a long period when GPSLogger beat it hands down in terms of accuracy because it would do GPS with cell tower fallback, which is probably the best setup in terms of battery-accuracy tradeoff. The author implemented this in 2013 (it was an issue I filed [0]), and combined with the configurability of when it should try to get your coordinates, you can get long/lat records for almost no battery. If you want to own your own data, and export data automatically, GPSLogger is also the only way since Google doesn't let you automate data export as far as I know (plus if they did, you'd have to rewrite that code every year). My instance of this app has run in the background, syncing data hourly for months without needing a restart.

GPSLogger is one of the reasons I stick with Android. I'll keep using it even if I have to sideload the APK. It's really sad that the author has had to go through all this stress. But it's also worth noting there isn't a way to collect location records on iPhone at all, or sideload an app (ipa/apk), so Android is still the more open of the two platforms. The buffet of apps that used to do this type of location tracking (Moves, Gyroscope, Foursquare, and a bunch of indie apps) are basically all gone or pivoted away.

I'm disappointed that there's such a mindset here that apps should have subscriptions / revenue to be worth maintaining. Freeware and "indie" open source supports the long tail of usage. The popular apps can only get to 80% of the use cases out there. This also shows the inadvertent double-edged sword of privacy/security of indie apps, as they often use more hack-ey techniques which are the first to get blocked out. The most private/secure app is one that does nothing more than a website.

[0] https://github.com/mendhak/gpslogger/issues/184

It would be nice to finish the review process before approving an app. If you have new policies apply them on the next review or ask your questions when a future update is submitted.

Could you elaborate? Which mobile platforms demanded what sorts of conditions?

I don't, that's why I ask. And are these conditions only for being placed in Apple's/Google's app stores?

> You are free to read up on their relevant documentation.

I imagine there's a lot of it - I was hoping you'd spare me the effort.

Do you have any sources . Thank you