Hello all,
I recently gotten a barely used Mavic Air 2 from a local seller to replace my Phantom 3 standard which I've been using for the past 4 years. So far, all the new features have been amazing and I love how quiet and portable it is comapred to my P3.

Every year at my dad's camp, I would take a video of the landscape and trees to see how the land develops over the years and be able to compare them at a later date. To do this, I would use the waypoints feature and run the same mission to get a relatively close looking video each year. After I record those videos, I would add them to a flash drive in a folder for each year along with footage outside of the waypoint mission that I took throughout the year.

When I was on the phone with my dad driving to go get the Mavic Air 2, I was talking about all the features the drone has compared to my much older Phantom 3 standard. One thing I was glad to share with my dad was the fact that the videos each year taken during waypoints would be much more clear and more stable now compared to my P3.

After test flying the MA2 and buying it, I brought it home and started going through the app to see the features that it has. I started looking through the settings to tweak the battery warning and similar settings that I like to customize. (battery discharge time is another) While looking, I couldn't find these settings anywhere in the DJI Fly app. I searched where to find them and found out that they aren't included in the app. Another thing I couldn't find was the intelligent flight modes menu like in the DJI GO app. The one flight mode that I wanted to find was waypoints so I could check out the waypoints 2.0 interface. I heard about it online and was eying it as it would make setting up the waypoints much easier compared to my P3. I couldn't easily find the waypoints option in the DJI Fly app so I searched it up. I found that the only way to use anything with waypoints was by taking a hyperlapse and having the sped up video instead of a normal video with the standard waypoint system that I used on my 4 year old Phantom 3 standard easily many times before.

After browsing through countless websites and forum posts all asking why DJI would limit a $800+ drone that can cost up to $1,400 to only be able to use the watered down DJI Fly app as compared to the DJI GO 4 and DJI Pilot app with many more features and settings that can be changed, I decided to start researching any possible way to share this concern and spread awareness about this ongoing issue. As someone who expected the newer Mavics to be able to have the same features as a 4, going on 5 year old Phantom 3 Standard, I'm disappointed to see that DJI would limit an already pricey drone to such a watered down app that they made to be used for beginners or smaller drones that cost less than half the price of the MA2. As far as I can find, the posts talking about this have slowed down and I can't find many recent threads still asking about this.

Basically what I'm trying to see is if people are still fighting for the Mavic Air 2 and 2S to be able to be used in the DJI GO 4 app or DJI Pilot app, or if this is sort of a lost cause by now. Thank you for reading.

TL;DR A new Mavic Air 2 pilot would like their $1,100 drone to have the same features/setting options that a drone (Phantom 3 Standard) from 5 years ago for $500 was able to use instead of being locked in the watered down DJI Fly app which has way less to offer compared to DJI GO 3/4/Pilot apps.

Lost cause I'm afraid. DJI is looking at the mass market now. But I think the issue with waypoints is not with the app but the lack of obstacle avoidance features in the newer drones that use Fly(Go5).

GaryDoug Posted at 7-21 18:52
Lost cause I'm afraid. DJI is looking at the mass market now. But I think the issue with waypoints is not with the app but the lack of obstacle avoidance features in the newer drones that use Fly(Go5).

It wouldn't bother me as much if that is the case, but the thing that gets me is that my Phantom 3 standard with no external vision sensors was able to do waypoints, so it is possible that a drone with less sensors can fly waypoint missions. Since there are theoretically regular waypoints being generated during hyperlapses, this also makes it seem that DJI is possibly just limiting the Air 2 to get the user to pay extra and get the pro models.

The majority of the drones supported in the DJI Fly app are from the mini series, which costs less and doesn't need the more advanced features. (Also the Fly app is easier to use for the general consumer) The drones that don't really belong in this app and are made for more advanced users who take advantage of the options and flight modes in the GO 4 app are the Air 2, 2S, and the DJI FPV. Just a bummer that small features and settings that could normally be tweaked in the more advanced app are removed from the DJI Fly app altogether instead of making a middle ground app with features and settings from GO 4 that are able to be used by the Air 2.

I dont think you'll find many people that disagree with you,  but the focus of DJI appears to have shifted to a bigger audience.

I agree with what you are saying.  Unfortunately, it appears to be a lost cause.  Many, many, many users have stated they would prefer Go App over Fly App but DJI never responded.  

I guess we will have to see what App will be used when DJI released the upcoming DJI Pro 3 of Mavic 3 Pro (whatever they will call it).  

DowntownRDB Posted at 7-22 04:20
I agree with what you are saying.  Unfortunately, it appears to be a lost cause.  Many, many, many users have stated they would prefer Go App over Fly App but DJI never responded.  

I guess we will have to see what App will be used when DJI released the upcoming DJI Pro 3 of Mavic 3 Pro (whatever they will call it).

What would be really cool is when they release the Mavic 3 pro which stumps the Air 2/2S in terms of specs, they push out one final update to the Air 2/2S which adds support for the DJI GO 4 app since they've already gotten most sales out of the Mavic 2 pro by then so there would be no reason to have the software barrier. (if one does exist to seperate the Air and pro) But until then we'll have to wait and see.

Agree with your comments but if your interested in a workaround I have found that using the Dronelink app works for me, yeah is not true waypoints (virtual sticks) but it might work for what your doing.

I tend to believe DJI's software division does not have any strategic or long-range plans for the development of their software.  The software support for their Smart Controller is lacking. They have not produced any major software upgrades for their Mavic lines, only "updates" to the current DJI Fly software.  They seem to be in a continual "fixing bugs" mode with the current DJI Fly app.  No new innovations are showing up in any of the releases. I haven't looked at their DJI GO 4 app since I last flew my Mavic Pro in over two years, but I suspect it is not much better than when I last used it.  Seriously, I believe their entire software development team must be "out of the loop" and not in-sync with their hardware development teams, at least on the consumer line of products.  DJI software support of their hardware is lacking across many of their product lines, IMHO.

All new hardware has been using Fly for a year or more...  Go 4 is probably dead..  

While there are a couple things in Go 4 that I think I would like to appear in Fly, such as the ability to record an audio track from the device while flying instead of having to futz with other apps to do it in the background.

Fly has been updated to support the FPV and a Mini SE, and then of course there are fixes.  I like fixes..  Course it would be nice if they added some useful features along the way across the line, sometimes they have,.  using  Fly with the Air 2S has features the Air 2 does not..  

I think those that really want waypoints are such a minority and its hard to say how easy it is to actually program into an App. There could be other considerations here too. which we may never hear about.

The Mavic 3, rumors are still flying and perhaps I've missed some, but it will probably use yet another upgraded version of Fly.   Time will tell... However, you're probably never going to see another version of Go 4.

Macinfo Posted at 7-22 12:51
All new hardware has been using Fly for a year or more...  Go 4 is probably dead..  

While there are a couple things in Go 4 that I think I would like to appear in Fly, such as the ability to record an audio track from the device while flying instead of having to futz with other apps to do it in the background.

Yes I am with you on the idea that we don't know how easy or hard it is to program in the app and that there are possibly other reasons that DJI is doing what they are doing.  Like K9JDN said, the software developers don't seem to have a clear plan for apps, which sucks because it would be way nicer to have a single app that DJI consistently updates and all new drones get added to it instead of separate apps. For all we know, DJI Fly might be their last app and they might start focusing fully on it alone. Only thing that stands out to me about the DJI Fly app is the fact that it still isn't available on the Google Play store, but that's another mystery that DJI doesn't openly talk about.

snielsen Posted at 7-22 11:13
Agree with your comments but if your interested in a workaround I have found that using the Dronelink app works for me, yeah is not true waypoints (virtual sticks) but it might work for what your doing.

I checked that out earlier and the only thing that is holding me back from using it is that it's a paid service and my need for waypoints at this time isn't worth the cost. I still have my Phantom 3 so I may keep using that, but it just sucks that I can't easily do it with my Air 2 and it's better camera.

Dhillskiier1653 Posted at 7-22 06:13
What would be really cool is when they release the Mavic 3 pro which stumps the Air 2/2S in terms of specs, they push out one final update to the Air 2/2S which adds support for the DJI GO 4 app since they've already gotten most sales out of the Mavic 2 pro by then so there would be no reason to have the software barrier. (if one does exist to seperate the Air and pro) But until then we'll have to wait and see.