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Groundspeak Legacy app soon to be no more

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zekester
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Joined: Thu Nov 09, 2006 1:00 am
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Groundspeak Legacy app soon to be no more

Post by zekester »

Groundspeak has sent out an email indicating that their legacy geocaching app will no longer be supported as of 23 March 2017. If you desire to keep using a Groundspeak app on your mobile device, you will be forced at that point to shift over to their newer app, which has added functionality. Unfortunately, I think that means you will also have to pay again.

For those who do use the Groundspeak app, they are soliciting feedback on what functionality is useful and what you'd like to see here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5DTV8ZV. It is always good to make your voice heard...

Here's another link with a few more clarifications on the impetus behind Groundspeak's decision:

https://www.geocaching.com/blog/2017/02 ... etirement/

For those who are interested in other smartphone options, the most popular apps out there seem to be these:

iPhone:

Geosphere - steeper learning curve, greater functionality

Cachly - greater ease of use, less functionality

Android:

C:geo - I'm not an Android user, but everyone I know that is uses this one.

Looking at this through a broader lens I'd offer these points for your consideration:

1 - Our culture is rapidly moving towards the smartphone as the go-to device to answer all mobile computing, messaging and navigational needs. That being the case, support for single use/single mode devices will dwindle over time. Put another way with regard to geocaching, smartphones are the way of the future, hand held GPS receivers are the way of the past. I am in no way saying the shift is complete, just pointing out the3 nature of the trend.

2 - Rather than work with a third party, Groundspeak has embarked on a project of their own to develop a Geocaching app for smartphones. This put the end user in a scenario where they can either place their trust in Groundspeak's ability to execute this well, or use a third party app instead. Thus far, third party apps have offered greater functionality. Caveat emptor though...third party apps have two weak spots. One is that they are not deeply embedded with Groundspeak's database coding. This means that when Groundspeak makes changes to how they code their database, the third party app may have reduced functionality, or cease to function at all. The second is that, as an end user, you now need two parties to keep their code up-to-date for you to be able to continue to use your device to cache with. When the device manufacturer updates their operating system, both Groundspeak and your third party developer may need to update their code in order for you too maintain functionality. When you use Groundspeak's app on your device, that is all wrapped up in house for them. Groundspeak has a vested interest in keeping their code up-to-date and operational; the third party developer is not likely depending on their app for their primwry income, and if it gets to hard, may not keep up with changes.

Just food for thought. We still cache with GPS receivers; most folks we know now cache with mobile devices, primarily smartphones. Few of those folks that we know use Groundspeak's app. But you at least ought to know the impact of your choices if you are interested in continuing in this hobby.
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lpaulriddle
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Re: Groundspeak Legacy app soon to be no more

Post by lpaulriddle »

You don't need to pay again for the new Geocaching app - it is free. It does require a premium membership to access certain features which are free on the web site; for example, I think it limits basic members to caches rated 2.5 stars or less in difficulty, or something along those lines. In essence, they're focusing more on pushing the premium membership, rather than charging for the app itself. Not a bad model, IMO.

The new app lacks a lot of features that the "Classic" app had. They're slowly adding them in, but it's still not as functional, and probably won't be by the time the classic app stops functioning. The big one for me is field notes, which I use extensively. The new app doesn't have them, which means I essentially can't use it. Another glaring missing feature is the ability to create and access the "personal cache note" that is available on the web site (and the classic app).

On the plus side, the new app has better integration with lists, among other things.

I use an iPhone, and while I mostly cache with a GPSr, I use Cachly whenever I happen to be caching by phone. I've never used Geosphere, so can't really comment on the feature set of one vs the other; however, Cachly does everything I was able to do with the old "Classic" app. I'm not crazy about how its map interface works (I'd like something similar to the "find nearby geocaches" button on the classic app), but I can live with that. I've heard good things about Geosphere, but my concern with it is that it hasn't had an update in over 3 years. The developer is supposedly working on a new version, but Cachly is maintained much more actively.

That's my 2 cents.
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