Simple Mobile apps have been very popular among FOSS enthusiasts. I’ve personally been using the Gallery, Contacts and the Phone app since a few years now. It’s a shame that it has come to this, will be on the lookout for their forks.
For posterity, but also for forks if the repos go down, I have created https://github.com/SimplerMobileTools and downloaded all the original repos, branches, and tags which will soon be uploaded there.
I have already got SM Gallery compiling, so thats a start, and will upload all the repos tomorrow when its not so late.
Note: Any former maintainer of SMT will be added on to SrMT upon request.
EDIT: All forks updated with notice of rationale and link to this discussion.
EDIT2: https://github.com/FossifyOrg is a soft fork created by one of the current maintainers. I will keep the hard fork up just in case.
Not all heroes wear capes. Thank you for your service. A hero among thieves. The hero we didn’t know we needed and didn’t deserve. Insert other hero quips.
Na but thanks. What a legend.
Now you need to change the names and make these new names famous, since that’s the thing that the company has really bought. The brand.
Not my intent. I’ll do this, but don’t have the time to fully maintain or distribute. Maybe I’ll organize releases for Obtainium, where FOSS elites will grab them, but I’m not in it to “promote”, just to “save”.
Hopefully someone with more motivation comes along and does what you are saying, though.
Thank you!
fossify link is a 404
Thank you, they changed the org name. Updated.
Terrible news. These apps are really great. Reminds me of what happened to Quick Pick and ES file explorer and u could also add Nova Launcher. More apps assigned to the graveyard. Hopefully they get forked quickly and updated when needed.
Is there something in the making with Nova Launcher? I love it and didn’t hear any bad news
https://www.androidpolice.com/nova-launcher-acquired-by-branch/
Kind of old article, but yea, they were sold.
Darnit… Thanks
So the owner claimed in the article that any data tracking added would be opt in. I looked at the settings and found error and usage tracking hidden under an advanced button at the bottom of the settings. It was enabled and I don’t remember ever being asked about it (or else it would have already been disabled because I never opt in to that shit).
Try Neo Luncher (IzzyOnDroid repo). It supports a lot of the customization options as Nova, but is completely FOSS.
I just don’t recommend using Neo Launcher if you have Android 14. Been having very annoying issues with it on Android 14, but not on any other Android version. Hopefully they’ll release an update soon; the last update was 10/28/22.
There is active development though.
I have been using Total launcher since the Nova Sale. A bit of a learning curve but very pleased with it. Would recommend.
Nice ! I’ll look into it and try to migrate from my veeeeeeeeeeery customized Nova to it^^
ES File Explorer, those were the peak days of the XDA rom and root scene
My god you really nailed that on the head - I’d forgotten about quickpic (rip) but I’ll never forget about ES file explorer.
Aren’t the Simple Apps open source?
@MonkderZweite @AbeFroman
Probably not after the sale! It will certainly no longer be available in F-Droid!
Wtf. I paid for the apps to avoid exactly this…
Too many people think the “free” in free software means “without monetary cost”. Development costs money. If nobody pays, it gets sold
Same here. Donated not only to cover my installs, but also for everyone I recommended it to. I hope the f-droid version wont be affected, otherwise I have to uninstall the upcomming bloat- and spyware ridden versions manually from a bunch of devices smh.
I mean I am fine with apps not being maintained and eventually break, but selling out and breaching trust like this is exactly how regular companies would treat me and why I chose FOSS in the first place.
Looks like the community is already forking the project. It would be cool if fdroid has a clean transition to the fork.
That would be a terrible precedent…
Oh we’ll just “cleanly” (silently) update to a different fork by a different dev.
Thats exactly what we are trying to avoid google play “cleanly” updating our apps to the new, spyware apps
Agreed
F-Droid should halt updates if app stops being FOSS (which F-Droid is all about) and then introduce the most popular fork as a standalone app.
Well, you paid and still got sold.
Yeah… Fuck me, for trying to compensate someone for their work so that they dont have to sell it to a spyware company… I’m the moron here
/s
Yeah I also paid for it.
I would rather let the project die than my data being sold out to a gang of parasites like it has been
Wtf. I paid for the apps to avoid exactly this…
And this is why I never pay for apps. You never know what changes (external or internal) are going to enshittify it next.
If you dont pay for apps, they will 100% be enshittified
Hilarious that you read enough cory doctorow to know the term “enshittification” but don’t know what “free” software really means
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Incoming, “We don’t plan to change anything you love about these apps!”
Narrator: “They were planning to change EVERYTHING you love about these apps.”
They will do what every other buy-happy tech company does and strip all the charm from those apps and turn them into the same horrible, corporate, enshitified apps that they were originally supposed to be an alternative to.
The death of Quik Pic was when it was sold
I swapped the Simple after that, so this blows fucking ass.
Looks like one of the maintainers/contributors has already setup a fork!
Thank fuck.
All the code is GPLv3 so it will remain FOSS. There’s no need to immediately switch to other apps. You can optionally fork then build the apps for yourself.
Unless you use the Play Store version, in which case the tainted new versions will be coming any time soon.
I was talking about immediately switching. There is enough time to build the apps from source for yourself before they upload their shittified version.
I got it from fdroid. Am I safe?
If the next version is close-sourced, that means that it won’t be published in the repository that F-Droid follows to build their version. Yeah I think you’re safe.
AFAIK the code is all GPLv3 so they won’t be able to close-source it.
I mean, a fork is indeed possible and in progress. But the main version on the Google Play Store will almost certainly be no longer open-source.
Why do you say that? Unless they completely rewrite the app from scratch it is not even possible to have a closed-source version of the app. That’s what the GPLv3 does.
If all the developers of the GPLv3 version agree to relicense their contributions, it’s unfortunately possible to close-source further versions of the source code. Does somebody know if Simple Apps accepted external contributions?
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For Contacts and Clock, use YOU apps. I don’t think anything can replace the Gallery, I’ll continue using the current version for as long as there’s a new community-maintained fork. It’s quite stable really, doesn’t really need changing this very moment.
I’m not finding them. Link?
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Contact YOU app has SMS inbuilt. The SMS support is in very early stage so buggy but the dev is going on at an amazing pace. Just give it a few more months.
For dialer, I’d keep using the simple app for now. There’s Koler with material you theme but it hasn’t seen dev in 5 months and doesn’t have all the feature like regex-based call blocking.
Downside is that it does not support MMS and they don’t plan to add it. SMS will always cut off at 160 characters, making you send multiple SMS to send it all, instead of sending a big MMS. Also means you can’t send pictures.
Thanks will check Aves out: https://f-droid.org/packages/deckers.thibault.aves.libre/
I’ve been using Material Files and am happy with it.
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Amaze can’t handle WebDAV :(
For WebDAV, you can use DAVx⁵ or Round Sync
DAVx⁵ works great and super reliable
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I think that functionality should be separate from a gallery app. Check out Image Toolbox for mobile photo editing.
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https://f-droid.org/en/packages/protect.videoeditor/
Simple, but closest we have for now.
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Yeah, that’s true. But it’s not a problem for me because I rarely edit photos on mobile. When I have to, I just use the stock app.
Not sure how it is for editing but I like Aves as a gallery app.
The hardest one for me to replace with be the file manager. I had already tried Amaze and Material and didn’t like either before settling on Simple. sigh
To be fair something like the dialer or the gallery or the notes, you can just sticky the current version you have. It’s unlikely to ever see major / important changes, I mean all the dialer has to do is to dial numbers, right=
For editing pictures, try out Pocket Paint (F-Droid). Feature rich and surprisingly good UX for a mobile editor app.
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Ugh.
I migrated to Simple Gallery after QuickPic was similarly sold to a sketchy buyer. Been using it for so many years, supported the dev(s) by purchasing some of the apps and the “Thank You” app they have.
Time to look for yet another gallery app.
We can’t have this happening every time. There needs to be a better way to support and sustain such apps.
I mean, GPL guarantees code remains open and free. If they release an app based on the source code licensed under GPL, they have to give a source code along with essential build instructions to anyone who is using it, and then you can do anything with that code, including sharing, compiling, and distributing that app, provided it’s under GPL license.
Edit: I see it’s licensed under GPL 3.0, so no worries.
Yeah thankfully the code’s GPL 3.0, but I’d imagine there’s a good chunk of people using the app from the Play Store who may not be aware or may not want to compile the app themselves, who might be affected with whatever future updates come out.
Aves Libre is pretty nice.
Isn’t offline though and doesn’t have a feature-rich video editor like Simple Gallery had :(
Isn’t offline though […]
How do you mean? I was of the impression it was.
Wait the Libre version also has full network access.
Ah sorry, I didn’t know there was a Libre flavor of Aves, had just checked the regular Aves on FDroid. Thanks for this!
I’m in the exact same boat
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I’m not a lawyer either, but the GPL doesn’t say anything about commercial use. Zipo can sell the code in the apps without having to ask permission from contributors. The only restriction is that they have to keep their modifications open source (which that Github response says).
But the main point is that the Zipo people bought out the Google Play listing, giving them access to the millions of users who have those apps installed on their phones. They likely don’t give a shit about features/keeping the apps closed source. It’s just a purchase of the userbase, likely for shady reasons.
This also means that forking the Simple Mobile repos isn’t even likely to accomplish much. Sure, it’ll put control of the repo in the hands of a more trusted party (which is significant), but since it’s open source anyways, it’d be easy to catch any attempts to sneak malware into the apps. And if all development effort moves to the fork, Zipo can still take that fork and redistribute it under the “Simple Mobile Tools” name.
Ultimately, the fucked up thing here is that the original developer, Tibor Kaputa, sold out millions of users. Forking isn’t going fix that. Fuck him. The only thing that will fix this situation is if Google takes down their store listing, but that’s not going to happen. Hopefully F-droid does.
The only restriction is that they have to keep their modifications open source
And since it’s GPL that any additions are compatible with the GPL, which the ad / tracking stuff they’re likely to add likely isn’t.
And if all development effort moves to the fork, Zipo can still take that fork and redistribute it under the “Simple Mobile Tools” name.
Only if they don’t add their own proprietary shit, and if they don’t, how would their “bully users to pay for features” business model work?
According to https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/General-Discussion/issues/241#issuecomment-1837837729 “like 99% of the current code has been written by me and other paid devs, so no need to overreact the licensing thing” it seems like the remaining 1% is going to be ignored or possibly even removed if they think that leaving that in might open them up to DMCA claims by disgruntled contributors - which taking code from an open source fork would definitely do.
And since it’s GPL that any additions are compatible with the GPL, which the ad / tracking stuff they’re likely to add likely isn’t.
That’s a good point, although I wonder if there are any ad SDKs that are GPL compatible? There’s no reason that couldn’t exist AFAIK.
However, there’s also the much simpler scenario where they straight up replace the apps with something completely different. This company buys apps all the time, so I’m sure they have at least a few calendar, gallery, file browser, etc apps lying around that they can reuse.
"we specialize in acquiring under-optimized apps in an industry that is highly fragmented. We use our optimizing operations, deploy its technology, and generate cash flow from the apps. "
“we developed an AI technology that knows how” “to monetize the right user at the right stage of their app experience”
(https://everything-pr.com/zipoapps-tech-talk-with-the-entrepreneur-co-founder-and-ceo-gal-avidor/)
Sounds like they just keep the apps around and try to squeeze as much money out of the users they have bought.
Well, that sucks.
Guess I’ll just stop updating and keep an eye out for forks that are maintained.
Why? I hate this another loss for us. This year is pain in ass for me.
Self entitlement. They did a great job for us and probably werent paid enough.
I guess I don’t need a gallery app…
Thankfully I only have them via Obtainium. Flip the “track only” option to on and wait and see. Like someone else said, I’m hopeful there’ll be forks for these soon enough. I’m off to fork the repos for myself anyway, just in case.
Edit: for those that are self-hosting some form of git, is would be great if more people did this, for archival purposes. I’ve simply left the public fork of all 19 repos in my Github account, but have mirrored those to my private Forgejo instance.
At any point I can sync the GH forks then mirror those down to my local instance. Until the original repos get dismantled, of course.
Everyone has a price.
Living is expensive.
