Got a DJI drone as a birthday present and instead of having me install from the Play store they want me to install an apk directly from their website.
Does anybody know why this app isn’t on the play store? Is this legit or just a vector for malware?
Regardless of company size or popularity, that is sketchy. While not perfect by any means , google play affords some security scanning and privacy awareness info on apps that are published there. Others are probably right. And I bet DJI probably wanted to skip that step to trade for ease of management. But any time you install something off a non play store repo you take on a little extra risk.
First of all: DJI is on a sanctions blacklist, so I doubt they’re even allowed to upload apps to the Play Store.
Second: Google Play’s privacy dashboard is entirely based on what the developer provides and some “AI” analysis that checks things like “is there a link to a file called privacy.html”. Their security scanners often miss malware as well.
Google runs some malware analysis on their servers (and on your phone) but if you download a candy crush clone from a no-name developer through the Play Store, I wouldn’t trust their checks to keep viruses out.
I’ve owned two dji products, the Air2S and osmo… 3? Both needed apps downloaded not via Google Play.
Given the size and reputation of DJI, you shouldn’t have any concerns.
Given the size and reputation of DJI, you shouldn’t have any concerns.
I’m sorry, but i disagree with this mentality. The size of a company means nothing. We’ve had so many security breaches from companies large and small. Be it from malice or incompetence.
And speaking of reputation, this, this, and this doesn’t really scream “good reputation” to me.
Yeah remember the time that Sony (a large and well-respected company) intentionally included a rootkit on some 22 million audio CDs?
Good points and solid sources.
Thanks for the correction.
Given DJI is Chinese and a similar size Chinese company was found spreading malware you should worry.
On the other hand, the article you linked is talking about an app on the Play Store, so it doesn’t really matter whether the app is on the Play Store or not.
You might consider buying a cheap 7" tablet on Amazon and using that for your dji. Assuming your controller can handle the size. I have an older dji and that’s what I do. Nothing of importance on the tablet. I think a Lenovo 7" was like $99 when I got it.
That’s a good idea, I think I have an old fire tablet bouncing around somewhere
i sold my DJI drone recently but used their app. I couldn’t tell you why they want it off the play store, but i never experienced an issue with viruses. Google play protect should scan it regardless i believe
I didn’t know that Play did that but apparently it will scan the app and remove it is anything is found so that does make me feel a little better about trying it out
From memory there’s a fee in order to publish an app the the play store so I would assume they’re circumventing that by hosting the app on their own website. You could also upload the app to virustotal and see what that says if you are concerned.
There are no fees to publish on the Google Play Store.
There’s a one-time $25 fee for a developer account. Not that DJI can’t afford to pay that.
Edit: actually, they’re sanctioned by the US government, so maybe they’re not allowed to pay that even though they definitely could.
DJI is a chinese company and it is easier for them to just publish an apk rather than submit to all app stores
DJI is a Chinese company. There is no Google Play in China and the Chinese alternatives for Google Play aren’t exactly popular in the west, so website APK downloads are the obvious way to serve both markets in case the Tencent/Play Store isn’t available for a particular device.
I wouldn’t recommend downloading APKs/.EXEs from random websites, but with DJI I would trust the downloads to be Official Enough. Compare it to downloading a setup.exe for your computer.
If you don’t trust the file (any file, really!), try uploading it to virustotal.com first. This will run the APK through a whole bunch of virus scanners, many of which will recognize Android malware as well.
However, don’t assume apps don’t have malware just because they’re on Google Play or the Apple App Store. Malware is routinely found on there as well. There’s a theoretical advantage of the unified stores, but huge companies can and have uploaded malware (like) content to these stores.
Lastly, if you have Google Play on your phone, you probably have Google’s antivirus, Play Protect, on your phone as well. It’s not exactly the best antivirus app but it’s probably Good Enough™ for these cases.
I thought I heard DJI was sanctioned by the US government; maybe that’s why it’s not in the Play store
I wouldn’t do it. Not on a device with other important information. Maybe on a separate one like some suggested.
