KML file association on Android

[arthur1]

Dear Avenzers

I have developed a map of my entire country, to aid in fire fighting co-ordination. Everything works perfectly, including the 5,400+ placemarks I imported to identify and locate every single farm. Everything is ready, but for one major setback:

In order to use the system, a farmer has to be able to share his location (a placemark) and track on WhatsApp. WhatsApp because it it simple to use and everybody has it, and it’s able to send and receive messages in areas that have poor or intermittent reception. The part where you export a layer, including tracks and placemarks, to WhatsApp works perfectly. However, if the recipient tries to open a KML attachment by simply clicking on it, the KML file opens in Google Earth, and not on Avenza. If I try to force file associations via file manager, Avenza is not listed as an option. All other map apps I have on my phone including Maps.Me, Oruxmaps and Guru Maps are, and are able to open the file. Avenza is too, if I save the file on web.whatsapp on my computer and transfer it to my phone, the import to a layer by selecting the file, but this is not practical, for obvious reasons. Does anybody know how to fix this? The issue for me is a dealbreaker, because I can see no other option of sharing locations but WhatsApp. This would be a shame, Avenza is perfect in all other aspects, most of all its simplicity.

Best regards
Arthur

Phone: Samsung S7 running Android 8.0.0 version G930FXXU8ETI2
Avenza Maps 3.14 Build 21 ARCH64

[rileys]

Hello Arthur, thanks for your post!

I have added you to a Feature Request for opening files directly from WhatsApp. You will be notified when this feature becomes available in a future release!

In the meantime, I suggest downloading the KML from the WhatsApp message into your internal storage/storage location first. After that, from within the Avenza Maps app, import the KML from internal storage.

If you have any further questions, please reach out to us via support.avenzamaps.com/hc

Riley
Avenza Support

[arthur1]

Hi Riley

Believe it or not (I do, but I still don’t understand), I cannot find the KML file in the local WhatsApp media storage, nor do I have the option to save the attachment to local storage directly from WhatsApp. WhatsApp only gives me the option of “sharing” it, meaning I can for instance e-mail it to myself, open that e-mail, save it to local storage from there and then open it in Avenza. This works, but very few farmers will be able or willing to go through those steps, especially if they have a fire warming up their backside. Oh my, seems I’m stuck!

Best regards
Arthur

[arthur1]

I figured out that Telegram will let you choose to download a file to your choice folder, instead of trying to open it. It’s also quite widely spread, even though it doesn’t come close to WhatsApp. So, for the moment I’m fine, just don’t cancel the change request please.

Thank you for the help.

[Author]

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