P4P+ remote - THIRD PARTY APPS. Big news out today!!

[RyanK]

Just saw this post over at the DJI forums. THIS IS NOT MY HACK, IT IS NOT MY VIDEO. I HAVE NOT TRIED IT YET. Just reporting it here for you folks. The credit belongs to Alper Suslu (a forum member here)
Also, I realize this is not technically a "hack", but I'm not sure what other term to use.
Phantom 4 Pro + (Plus) Third Party Apps

Here is the video the guy shows to prove it.

And here's the steps he reports he took to do it.
1- You need to install ADB to your computer.
2- And you need .apk file(under 20mb) of wanted app.
3- Move .apk file to ADB folder.
3- Than open your cmd on ADB folder. And write "adb install yourapkname.apk" But don't press enter.
4- Shut down the controller and connect to computer with usb cable from micro usb port.
5- Open your controller and wait for computers recognize the device.
6- When computer recognized your device press enter. (You need to be quick.) And wait for success message on cmd. If you see error message you should be faster.
7. Enjoy with your app on P4P+.

 

[alokbhargava]

Thus was bound to happen. Hope DJI doest start Cat and Mouse game.

 

[msinger]

The above steps definitely work. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like any DJI GO alternatives can be used. I installed Litchi and it fails to run.

Here are the exact steps I followed:

1) Download the Android SDK Platform-Tools from here and unzip the contents into "C:\ADB".

2) Get the APK file for the app you'd like to install. If you don't have the APK file, install Apk Extractor on your Android device to get it or download the APK from uptodown.

3) Move the APK file into the "C:\ADB" folder.

4) Press the Windows+R keys to open the Windows Run window, enter "cmd", and press the "OK" button to open a Windows command prompt window.

5) Enter "C:\ADB\adb install -r Litchi.apk" (without the quotes) in the command prompt window (don't press enter to run the command).

Note: Replace "Litchi.apk" above with the name of the APK file you copied in step #3 above.

6) Turn off the remote controller if it's powered on.

7) Connect the remote controller to your computer via a micro USB cable.

8) Power on the remote controller and press enter in the command prompt window as soon as you hear the remote controller connect to your computer (turn up your computer speakers). The remote controller should connect shortly after the DJI logo displays on the remote controller screen.

Note: If the APK is too large or you wait too long to start the install, you'll see the following message displayed:

Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_INSUFFICENT_STORAGE]

Note: If all works as expected, the command prompt window should show the APK being pushed to the remote controller and end with a "Success" message after the APK has been installed.

9) Click the gear icon at the top, left of the remote controller display and choose "All Applications" to view a list of your installed apps.

 

[RyanK]

The above steps definitely work. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like any DJI GO alternatives can be used. I installed Litchi and it fails to run.

So it shows up, but just won't load the app? What about DroneDeploy?

 

[msinger]

Stand by... I think I might be able to get Litchi to run. Gotta try one more thing

 

[RyanK]

If you've tried this hack, please post back what apps have worked successfully for you. Thanks!

 

[RyanK]

One more quick question . . . if we do this hack, does it affect our warranty?? I imagine it shouldn't be too hard to uninstall the apps or just reinstall the DJI firmware package, but will there be any residual info that DJI could use to deny a warranty claim?

 

[msinger]

I think it could just be an issue with Litchi. The app says it's not able to verify my license and shuts down.

 

[msinger]

if we do this hack, does it affect our warranty?

No idea. It's not really a hack at all. It's just an alternative way to install an APK on an Android device.

 

[RyanK]

I think it could just be an issue with Litchi. The app says it's not able to verify my license and shuts down.

Yeah, it probably needs the Play Store to verify you have paid for the app. We're getting closer though. Hopefully there will be a way to get the app store installed soon.

 

[Daskid]

In the event a user can install and run desired apps on the pro+ controller, is it worth purchasing the pro+ now versus the pro? Or does the display size still the deciding factor?

 

[msinger]

I guess it all depends on which apps you want to run. You should verify they work before purchasing the P4P+ remote controller.

The display size seems fine to me. Then again, I think the iPhone 7 screen size is okay too.

 

[smiller]

I guess it all depends on which apps you want to run. You should verify they work before purchasing the P4P+ remote controller.

And there's always the unknown as to whether they will continue to work, meaning if DJI doesn't try to close this vulnerability in a future software release.

But this is an interesting technique because as noted previously, it isn't really a hack per se. I had tried sideloading apps via ADB but didn't try the trick of doing this before full boot, and it seems that the ADB installation does work if the parameters that DJI loads to prevent it have not loaded yet during the boot process (very clever). This may be difficult or impossible for DJI to patch, but that doesn't mean that they can't employ another method in a future release. It will be interesting to see if they care enough to do so, and we can all hope not.

 

[msinger]

Apps like Litchi are going to be impossible to run without Google Play Services installed. I got a few older versions of Google Play Services installed, but they kept crashing. The more recent versions are too large to push in time before the installation starts.

 

[RyanK]

The guy who introduced this somehow got Google Maps on there, which is a pretty big APK I believe. So there must still be more to this that he hasn't released yet.

 

[RyanK]

If this method gets popular enough, maybe Litchi or AutoPilot will come out with an app that will work by installing this way.

 

[msinger]

The current Google Maps APK is 51 MB. Some of the older versions are half that size.

 

[sparky1111]

Fake. Check the spelling. Not loged in as apposed to logged in lol.

 

[msinger]

What's fake?

 

[Defishinsea]

Can someone explain what is the benefit of sideloading apks into the controller? Thanks