Post by UFOThank you for the replies, their website got back to me
and supplied a weblink so I guess I will have to find a wiFi hotspot
and download it.
They say there is a 64 bit and a 32 bit version. How can I tell if
this phone is 32 bit or 64?
And your version of Android is ...? Android has support 64-bit CPUs
since Lollipop (v5.0). You could look up the specifications for your
Moto G5 Plus phone, like at:
https://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_moto_g5_plus-8453.php
which says your phone has a Octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53 CPU. You could
then look online for the specifications on your phone's CPU, like:
https://developer.arm.com/Processors/Cortex-A53
which says both 32-bit AArch32 is supported and so is 64-bit AArch64.
You have a 64-bit phone with a 64-bit OS.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.generalmagic.magicearth
That is the app page at Google's Play Store. When you click on "About
this app", and if you have logged in (and you registered your phone), it
will tell you if your phone is compatible with the manifest published
for the app. When I login, and because I registered my phone, it says
"Requires: Android 8.0 and up". So my phone is barely acceptable as it
has Android 8.0 on it. LG discontinued my phone in 2019, so there was
never a later OS update, and then LG left the smartphone market in 2021.
The Play Store doesn't offer a 32-bit or 64-bit version of the app. It
offers what is found compatible with your phone.
The Play Store app page does not list minimum Android version, but what
is compatible with your phone. There is additional information at the
magicearth.com web site which says the minimum Android version supported
is 4.4 (Kitkat), and why they mentioned 32- and 64-bit versions of their
app. Have you visited the Play Store's app page to see if your phone is
listed as compatible?
I suspect if you are way back on Android 4.4 that you will need a very
old version of their app which means there will be many fixes and
features missing in the old version. According to the GSMarena specs
page for your phone, it comes with Android 7.0 (Nougat), but you may
have upgraded to a later Android version since then.
At their web site, they mention "If you use a degoogled phone, please
use the direct apk link on our website." However, I didn't see any
downloads offered from their web site. Their Support hyperlink points
to https://www.magicearth.com/faq-en. No downloads there. Maybe they
have a hidden web page: no links to it from their other web pages, so
their support has to give you the URL to the hidden web page. Maybe
their support provides a URL to the .apk file on a file server that they
inform you about when you contact them. I didn't spend much effort
digging through their web site other than to find obvious download links
since I'm not the one wanting their app.
There are no download links at the magicearth.com web site. There are
links pointing to: Apple Store, Google Play Store, Amazon Store (don't
have an account there to check if the link points to an existing app
page), and Huawei's AppGallery (which is a dead link).
Oh, by the way, did you ask their support if their app supports
turn-by-turn or other interactive features when your phone has no
Internet access (no wifi, no cellular data)? A lot of the features they
list, which is shared with other apps based on OpenStreetMaps, won't be
available when you are offline. GPS will still work, because that uses
a GPS radio inside the phone to get coordinates from satellites (and why
obstacles, like parking ramps, can make it impossible to get a GPS
signal). However, driving instructions are an interactive feature.
Perhaps they still provide voice instructions while driving when using
offline maps since I've seen other map apps using offline data claim the
same feature, but I didn't see that mentioned at their web site. If you
want driving instructions when using offline maps, better check with
their support if that feature is available when offline. Obviously
offline maps won't have traffic volume, accident, or other
current-condition information. You won't get "now" info when using
offline maps that were generated umpteen weeks or months ago.
While you can have an Internet connection using cellular data, that will
automatically jump between cell towers as you drive: the same reason you
can continue making a phone call while moving. Wifi doesn't work that
way. You could stop at a library, Internet cafe, or someplace that has
wifi connectivity, but once you move out of range of that wifi hotspot
then you lose your Internet connection. There is no automatically
jumping between wifi hotspots, and auto-reconnect is to hotspots to
which you previously connected which won't be true as you're driving
down the road hitting unvisited hotspots. wifi hotspots have very
limited range, like 150 feet for 2.4 GHz and 50 feet for 5 GHz. Having
to stop at someplace to use their wifi hotspot, and assuming it was open
with no login (public doesn't mean no-login) pretty much obviates the
convenience of navigation instructions as you are driving unless the app
specifically provides for navigation instructions based solely on the
offline maps you previously downloaded and stored on your phone.
