NO SMARTPHONE NEEDED!...you can use a regular home computer for everything you thought you needed a smartphone for. Just found out about this. An Android emulator that is free and lets you use a windows home PC for apps that you thought you needed a smart phone for. My Eco-flow River 2 power station for power back up I have my radio station connected to has functions that need an app but I now found out that with this download you can access android apps through your PC and wi fi.
https://www.bluestacks.com/download.html
While Bluestacks has a few bugs and crashes occasionally, it does work. I have it installed and use it.
For portable use, however, you can't put a laptop or a desktop in your back or coat pocket, so a cellphone is required there.
@artisan-radio I got this info from a forum member on the Facebook ecoflow products forum and was told by a post that if you get bluestacks or other similar I can run android apps on windows and with wi fi get to the settings on the power station which also has wi fi. But I can't see how to do it(all I see are games here) without scanning a QR code and a computer can't do that. It sounded good but I asked the poster to PM me to tell me how it's done. I'll see if I can get instructions how to do this or maybe you can tell me if it is possible? All I want to do is change the charge wattage and speed a bit and to charge to 98% and discharge only to 3% and not right down to 0% But need the app as this can't be done on the unit itself. It should be able to in a menu and not make so you need a smartphone.
@mark I'm not an expert by any means on bluestacks. You're running inside a virtual android machine, so they would have to provide some mechanism to communicate outside that virtual machine. I haven't seen anything like that, but then, I haven't looked for it.
I just did a google search (amazing thing, that google) and it appears that at least as of 2 years ago (via a Reddit post), you can't do it. It would require network bridging (from the one bluestacks uses to yours) which isn't (or at least, wasn't) there.
@artisan-radio I got close to doing it. Bluestacks works with Google play. The ecoflow app for this is in google play and I had it so close, but then the message said bluetooth not turned on but I turned it on in my computer and saw nothing about being able to select wi fi. Then I was told you have to turn on Bluetooth in Bluestacks but where is that? So, so much for being able to do this without a smartphone. Others can do it but when I try it doesn't work so I thought this was a good thing but no. I will just uninstall the whole business. I may get a cheap $70 smartphone from amazon and try again and call the company for advice and then give the thing back to amazon after it's done. But with my luck even with a smartphone I won't be able to do it. There will always be something! So much for being able to use your home computer for android apps.
It's meant for self-contained Android apps, such as games. Whenever you attempt to go outside any sort of virtual environment you're going to have issues.