Google Play store returns different Apps on different Android device.

Factual Questions
1

This is nuts.

I am looking for an application called ‘Collector for ArcGIS’ in Google Play Store

I have two devices. An Android tablet and an Android phone. This application WAS installed and working on both devices.

For reasons I don’t need to go into, I have had to uninstall the App on both devices. I found the App in Google Play store (it’s not Available in Amazon) on the phone and installed it. No problem.

I can not find the APP in the play store on the Android tablet. Only the Beta version.

Has the Play Store decided that the device is incompatible? Does it do that? It WAS working on the device.

2

Are both the tablet and phone running the same Android version?

EDIT: If you go to the play store online, it will say which of your devices it’s compatible with:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.esri.arcgis.collector

3

It’s probably exactly that. The Play Store won’t pull apps from your device, once the app is there it will keep working unless the app itself has code that will keep it from running for whatever reason.

At some point the Play Store was probably told this app needs a particular Android version, either for necessary technical reasons, by mistake, or just because the app maker doesn’t want to support older versions of Android any more.

You may be able to download the app .APK file manually and tap it to install it, that’s called sideloading. This is one site where it can be found but I can’t vouch for it’s safety at all. If possible find a known/trusted source for the APK.

You will probably have to enable APK installation from unknown sources, how you do that depends on your Android version but here are some instructions: https://www.expressvpn.com/support/vpn-setup/enable-apk-installs-android/

4

The Play Store will filter apps based on the Android version, screen size, and device format. The most likely reason for what happened is the developer removed the existing tablet-compatible version of the app from the store since you last downloaded it.

5

Android 4.4.2 on phone

Android 5.1 on tablet

Thanks for link, was looking at that while on PC, didn’t notice that compatibility notice. Plugged the URL into the tablet and it says it’s compatible.

6

Bah. And it says it’s already installed, but I have uninstalled it.

7

I despise the Play store. Far too intrusive. When I want a program, I want it to be me who decides if it is right for me, and I want the actual installation files, not for some web site to install it for me. That’s why I use Apkpure and similar sites–it isn’t hacked versions of the files to bypass payment and ads, it is the original version, just with direct-downloading without the nanny. The Apkpure version will be fine.

8

Figured it out. The PREVIOUS version of this app did not require GPS on the device. The tablet does not have GPS (it’s just for testing/development). I managed to find an .exe of the application and sideloaded it on the tablet. It then installed just fine, even though it’s not fully compatible. That was a wasteful morning.

Glad it’s Friday.