Hey thanks for this! I used f droid for a while but was always meh on the UI and how clunky it is. I used this for a bit and I already like it waaaay more. Cheers!
I have used it for maybe a year and I never had any problems. Then again, I'm hardly a power user, so it makes sense that other people might have different experiences. :)
Tried it, it was at least back then not scaleable. Not every Dev publishes precompiled APKs, that is actually not something regular because F-Droid and IzzyOnDroid exist.
So in the end I had 8 or more of my favourite Apps still F-Droid only, and when adding all those sources some barely worked and in the end Obtainium didnt load anymore.
Does it autoremove APK files? Otherwise its just a fancy Feed Reader, I use Feeder for the few Apps that are Git* releases only
F-Droid basic uses modern Android Libraries and modern Apps can be updated without interaction.
Thats because Android has a Package manager that uses APKSigner signatures to verify the app. That is Private/Public Key authentication, so its pretty sure the App comes from the developers.
Only if the Signature matches the App gets an Update. So there is no danger in using automatic updates.
Making F-Droid Basic "battery unrestricted" will help.
No. No it doesn't. Israel might be a shitty country built on apartheid and illegal settlements, and netanyahoo might be genociding Gaza via IDF, but that doesn't mean every individual should be regarded with a blanket statement.
If we judged citizens based on what their government does, I don't think many of us would come out clean. As an American, I don't want the whole world thinking that I agree with what the Feds are up to all the time. I recommend extending that same courtesy to people in countries who's government you don't like as well.
In light of this, it could be an idea to check if you have any of those apps installed and consider replacing them with an alternative. I was using Simple Contacts until now (only listed as "Contacts" in my apps), so I guess it's time to make some changes.
If they're from F-Droid you're good; if you're on Google Play I doubt they'll update anything to get more permissions without your consent.
However, if the developer has taken a turn for the worse (which this post seems to indicate), you might not receive any more updates for your F-Droid software, and you might get to a point where you don't want to install updates from Google Play. Software that cannot be updated is generally not a good thing.
Furthermore, these apps deal with somewhat sensitive information by default, and I wouldn't want to use apps developed by a company I don't trust if I don't absolutely have to. :)
I haven't used this, but it seems to do way more than the average person know how to use for an SMS app
Even in the readme, it says:
The technical functionalities of the app are currently not user friendly, which would be updated with the help of PRs and issues. The reason for the lack of user friendliness is solely based on the app aiming to be as customizable as possible. Users should be able to configure the app to their custom cloud servers without being tied into using specific providers.
more or less yes, but im not too familiar with the project. I was just looking for a FOSS keyboard with completion support. I know it has good support for plugins to use latin characters to write characters in other writing systems, like pinyín
I mean it makes sense for error reporting. Lots of apps automatically report errors so that they can be detected easily, which would require internet access.
i mean google would have it anyway; and the app developer would be collecting the logs any way so the cost would be there already. this would just make it so they wouldn't need to request full network access; just enough to get the logs.
I'm really curious about the amount of money exchanged. It must have been an enormous amount in order to do a "I'd even sell my mom for that" and don't feel dirty
the developer, and this isnt exaggeration, does not understand gpl v3. he literally got confused when people told him he had no right to sell contributed code. you can see for yourself in the github discussions
You perfectly can sell GPL code. And you can double-license yourself (provided that you are the copyright holder) as GPL and a privative license. A lot of companies do that, legally and correctly.
I'm pretty sure what he sold was not the code but access to this play store account so that the new owner can push updated version to his current users.
There were multiple reports about sleazy companies reaching out to developers of popular apps and Chrome addons and offering them money for their accounts. The money is really good but there's still a lot of devs that can say 'no'. They will just use to track some people, it's not a completely new business that will grow and earn them money like Instagram or something.
That was amazing. Someone linked to alibaba where you could buy the same 4? Year old phone for something like $120USD. Someone else dredged up a weird eastern European connection for the 'FOSS' OS. And they promised support, which ended when you bought the pos.
It seems F-droid won't accept the new versions, as the Suite has been acquired over a month ago and they haven't accepted any new versions, all Simple apps I've checked haven't been updated for 3-4 months; in fact, I can't find Simple Gallery there anymore at all.
Huh, perhaps the problem is on my end then? But I can neither find it by searching the repository, nor is it on the list of my installed F-Droid apps, even though all the other Simple apps are there. And I'm 100% certain I'm not using the Play Store version.
I'm not sure, it seems others can't find it either. My own simple gallery works fine and without the new stuff everyone is complaining about here (I got it from f droid, so that's why). Maybe it's because it can't take down the page for a downloaded app?
Simple Gallery hasn't and couldn't have received the privacy-intruding update yet, as its last update was in October, according to the data on Play Store, i.e. before the acquisition. People are complaining about Simple Messenger, for now.
Maybe you can see it if you're using some repository other then the default one? Or your repository data hasn't been updated recently? Idk, just guessing.
I'm just using the default GrapheneOS SMS app, but it's concerning seeing the number of these FOSS apps lately adding major privacy invasive permission changes. Are there a few big companies buying them up for a quick buck, or what?
Yup, ZippoApps just bought this one. It’s a company that basically buys apps then pumps them full of invasive (bordering on spyware) bloat to capture the data from existing users. It’s a typical corporate strategy, where they buy a popular app, extract every single cent they can from it, then discard it once it’s a shell of its former self, for the next popular app.
I'm just speculating here, but I've seen where app developers pull in a framework for a feature and it comes with all sorts of hidden gems since the framework was developed by a large corporation. The small development team now needs to consider writing their own framework (an established anti-pattern), find another (that may have the same problems or be less mature, etc) or include the privacy invading code and plan to replace it in a future release (which never happens because users want new features and the privacy concerned users have left).
Not even close. This has nothing to do with SimpleApps.
A crappy company bought them from the original creator and maintainer. This company is well known for buying mildly popular apps and inserting ads in them for monetisation.
People who downloaded them from F-Droid should be fine tho.
yeah, the most shady part of this is that SimpleApps' code was available in Github. They could have just used that and upload it to the Play Store.
why did they buy it from the developer instead? because thousands of people already had these installed, so when buying it from the developer they get to push their new, ad infested versions to the unwary users had the apps installed.
I hope the money was worth tanking the good will of the brand. I wish I could code successful apps and the undermine my principles for meager amounts of money and fuck off into the woods
The Fossify forks of simple apps should be coming soon too, if you want to stick with something familiar. They've already released their calendar, gallery, and file manager, the rest should be ready pretty soon.
Does Connect You work for you? I can send messages, but if someone replies, the notification only shows their number instead of the name I saved them as, and the reply doesn't show up in the chat itself
I just went into Droidify to make sure all my simple apps stopped auto-updating and they all already had ignored new versions checked. Is this something I did or is this something Droidify did or is this something the f-droid repository did? If it's the one of the latter two that's pretty cool.
Not really the focus here, but Google could really improve those listings by providing some guidance as to what permissions are actually required for certain tasks.
I am not certain I would know if am SMS program needs full Internet access or not.
For everyone still using Simple Tools apps, switch to Fossify it's a fork that has all that crap removed
So far I only see Gallery, File Manager, and Calendar on IzzyOnDroid. Hopefully SMS and Contacts will be added soon.
dialer app is released too.
They are still being worked on
You can use Obtainium instead of F-droid. You can install Izzy, FD, or even better, direct from GitHub and other repos instead.
True
Wait what happened I am lost? Are they bad apps now?
Yea. They got bought by a bad company.
Rather it was sold to a bad company.
The dev will have hard time getting anyone trust him anymore.
Link for others:
https://github.com/FossifyOrg
Thanks! Didn't know about that yet.
Sort of wish I exported my settings from simple to import to the Fossify app before I uninstalled. Oops.
EDIT: reinstalled the old version, exported, erased the app, and finally imported to the new fork. Everything worked great.
The app icon changed from green to orange after import so I uninstalled the wrong app at first. Haha! Was an easy fix once I knew what happened.
Disable updates has never been a solution. It's a bandaid to a gaping wound.
True, but in this case it might be a good option until the corresponding Fossify app is available.
Guys.
Dont install FOSS apps from the Playstore. Use F-Droid (F-Droid Basic if you are on an updated OS)
Thanks.
A personal recommendation is to use Droidify, it's just a great F-droid front-end.
You can download the APK here: https://f-droid.org/packages/com.looker.droidify/
Droidify is the best! Best performance and UI of all compatible clients, and even handles 3rd repos that wont load on others.
Hey thanks for this! I used f droid for a while but was always meh on the UI and how clunky it is. I used this for a bit and I already like it waaaay more. Cheers!
When I last used it it was somehow unstable. Maybe that has changed.
I have used it for maybe a year and I never had any problems. Then again, I'm hardly a power user, so it makes sense that other people might have different experiences. :)
I really like that they add more repos you just need to enable. Number 1 reason to use it, as F-Droid will never add those for obvious reasons.
Some that I cant live without
Ijusto use Obtanium.
Tried it, it was at least back then not scaleable. Not every Dev publishes precompiled APKs, that is actually not something regular because F-Droid and IzzyOnDroid exist.
So in the end I had 8 or more of my favourite Apps still F-Droid only, and when adding all those sources some barely worked and in the end Obtainium didnt load anymore.
Does it autoremove APK files? Otherwise its just a fancy Feed Reader, I use Feeder for the few Apps that are Git* releases only
Yes it autoremoves the apks.
My experience too, but I switched back and it's far better now.
You're welcome.
deleted
F-Droid basic uses modern Android Libraries and modern Apps can be updated without interaction.
Thats because Android has a Package manager that uses APKSigner signatures to verify the app. That is Private/Public Key authentication, so its pretty sure the App comes from the developers.
Only if the Signature matches the App gets an Update. So there is no danger in using automatic updates.
Making F-Droid Basic "battery unrestricted" will help.
deleted
Yes I hate the name. It makes no sense. I will do another post on multiple Platforms to advertise it.
Yes the unattended upgrades only work on a modern store and modern apps. The original client is extremely outdated.
Droidify can do both: Session Installer and Shizuku: https://github.com/Droid-ify/client
Yeah. I usually go to the Playstore to buy out all the In-App purchases and support development, but this is really discouraging.
True. But F-Droid has Donation links everywhere. I prefer that over buying, idk why.
Oh, found out at least F-Droid Basic doesnt display the links! Thats not niceit hasLess fees taken if you donate instead of buying most likely.
Droidify shows the donation links fine, which is nice!
They were sold to ZippoApps, who specializes in adding crapware to apps.
What else would we expect anyway...
No. No it doesn't. Israel might be a shitty country built on apartheid and illegal settlements, and netanyahoo might be genociding Gaza via IDF, but that doesn't mean every individual should be regarded with a blanket statement.
But fuck ZippoApps anyway.
How did this get to Israel. How?
This BS about "genociding" Gaza again... do you like HAMAS terrorists?
If we judged citizens based on what their government does, I don't think many of us would come out clean. As an American, I don't want the whole world thinking that I agree with what the Feds are up to all the time. I recommend extending that same courtesy to people in countries who's government you don't like as well.
Shouldn't judge their citizens, but should sanction and boycott their companies.
I am German, well...
So true! Ew FDP!
Hmm, this app is also in the F-Droid repository with its old outfit.
Luckily it got forked : https://github.com/FossifyOrg/SMS-Messenger
There are a bunch of those "simple" apps on F-droid, such as Simple Contacts, Simple Calendar, and Simple Camera. I cannot find Simple Gallery in F-droid any more, it seems to have been replaced by its Fossify equivalent already.
In light of this, it could be an idea to check if you have any of those apps installed and consider replacing them with an alternative. I was using Simple Contacts until now (only listed as "Contacts" in my apps), so I guess it's time to make some changes.
try to install FossifyOrg gallery and dialer via obtainium who pulls releases directly off github.
If they're from F-Droid you're good; if you're on Google Play I doubt they'll update anything to get more permissions without your consent.
However, if the developer has taken a turn for the worse (which this post seems to indicate), you might not receive any more updates for your F-Droid software, and you might get to a point where you don't want to install updates from Google Play. Software that cannot be updated is generally not a good thing.
Furthermore, these apps deal with somewhat sensitive information by default, and I wouldn't want to use apps developed by a company I don't trust if I don't absolutely have to. :)
RIP Simple mobile apps. You were amazing while you lasted.
there are forks of code before the sellout and the releases are already out. use fdroid or obtainium. https://github.com/fossifyorg/
Yeee, I use the F-Droid version, so they're clean.
Still a shame though...
Damn, how did I even manage to miss that Simple apps have been bought off? I've used them for years and am still subscribed to the reddit community...
Some people suggest the action could possibly be deemed illegal, by breaking the licence the project was made under.
https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/General-Discussion/issues/241#issuecomment-1837452672 - the dev's explanation, and replies which discuss the legal issues
https://old.reddit.com/r/fossdroid/comments/1893j2p/simple_mobile_tools_is_about_to_be_acquired/
Fossify has many of them, Gallery, Files and Calendar (the main ones) are already on F-Droid!
Its sad that the community did not donate enough. People dont care...
I haven't used this, but it seems to do way more than the average person know how to use for an SMS app
Even in the readme, it says:
It just works as an SMS app with possible AES encryption.
To add to this, Fossify just released their phone app. It hasn't hit the repos yet, but it's on their github.
fcitx on Android is a pretty good keyboard experience now too.
Can you explain what that is and how it works? Is it a Keyboard with Plugins?
more or less yes, but im not too familiar with the project. I was just looking for a FOSS keyboard with completion support. I know it has good support for plugins to use latin characters to write characters in other writing systems, like pinyín
"have full network access" BIG YIKES
I mean it makes sense for error reporting. Lots of apps automatically report errors so that they can be detected easily, which would require internet access.
that kinda makes me think google should to a log retrieval and storage api which can retrieve and send logs to developers.
That just allows Google full access to all logs from any application you have installed.
That service is not free either per month and those costs will be passed to the consumer in either a subscription or worse software.
i mean google would have it anyway; and the app developer would be collecting the logs any way so the cost would be there already. this would just make it so they wouldn't need to request full network access; just enough to get the logs.
I'm really curious about the amount of money exchanged. It must have been an enormous amount in order to do a "I'd even sell my mom for that" and don't feel dirty
the developer, and this isnt exaggeration, does not understand gpl v3. he literally got confused when people told him he had no right to sell contributed code. you can see for yourself in the github discussions
You can sell GPL code. Even if you aren't the author. What you must do is share the code with those customers though.
you cant sell othwrs ans then close source which is what they did to my knowledge
You perfectly can sell GPL code. And you can double-license yourself (provided that you are the copyright holder) as GPL and a privative license. A lot of companies do that, legally and correctly.
Open source can be sold/commercialised. I think you're confusing between FOSS and open source.
FOSS and open source is the same thing
I'm pretty sure what he sold was not the code but access to this play store account so that the new owner can push updated version to his current users.
There were multiple reports about sleazy companies reaching out to developers of popular apps and Chrome addons and offering them money for their accounts. The money is really good but there's still a lot of devs that can say 'no'. They will just use to track some people, it's not a completely new business that will grow and earn them money like Instagram or something.
Throwback to when they announced releasing a simple phone. Fun times.
That was amazing. Someone linked to alibaba where you could buy the same 4? Year old phone for something like $120USD. Someone else dredged up a weird eastern European connection for the 'FOSS' OS. And they promised support, which ended when you bought the pos.
Wow, the new owners enshittified those apps really fast.
Play store version is already infected. There was a buyout of SMT apps.
Oh, I see. They even stopped sponsoring Linux Mint, which is how I found SMT.
Edit: They used to be a gold sponsor: https://web.archive.org/web/20220201203412/https://linuxmint.com/sponsors.php
Which means $1,000/month.
how could smt afford to donaye 1000 a month???
So it begins
i hope these zippo fucks get sued by everyone who contributed. bastards are doing dropshipping but with malware pretty much
sigh. Most people will just accept the new default permissions without blinking an eye. They're taking advantage of people's ignorance.
You overestimate most peoples tech skills. They will never know because they have auto-updates activated.
Yeah, not suspicious at all.
Hopefully fossify will release fossify messenger soon. Fossify's a project forking all the simple apps
And here we go... 🪦
Oof, those permissions alone scream proprietary spyware. There's no more speculation here, it has officially become enshittified.
sounds like an uninstall
why would you want or need a separate SMS/MMS application on your phone in the first place?
Well yeah, I didn't consider those points, especially the last with android distros not all come with gapps.
Default app sucks.
I use OpenContacts, it has its own database so nothing else can access it.
You might want more control of how the app looks. Or maybe an app has some UI features you like.
I used Textra for years, but did eventually switch back to the default android messenger when I started encountering issues.
What issues? I have used for.. I don't even know. Feels like since my first smart phone. Never had issues.
I don't really remember now, but I think it was something to do with having issues sending images.
For Google photos/Contacts in particular, the gallery app was good because it would constantly ask to sync photos to the cloud.
I was hoping more people would use RCS but I guess SMS will probably be the old fax machine in the future.
Did they forget to track the google maps history? someone should submit a PR
En-what-iffication everyone?
Will this be pushed to the F-droid version? Only downloaded from there.
It seems F-droid won't accept the new versions, as the Suite has been acquired over a month ago and they haven't accepted any new versions, all Simple apps I've checked haven't been updated for 3-4 months; in fact, I can't find Simple Gallery there anymore at all.
The ads are probably against F-droid's TOS.
They probably removed gallery since fossify galery is on fdroid now
I found simple gallery though. It even showed me that I had it installed as it should.
Huh, perhaps the problem is on my end then? But I can neither find it by searching the repository, nor is it on the list of my installed F-Droid apps, even though all the other Simple apps are there. And I'm 100% certain I'm not using the Play Store version.
I'm not sure, it seems others can't find it either. My own simple gallery works fine and without the new stuff everyone is complaining about here (I got it from f droid, so that's why). Maybe it's because it can't take down the page for a downloaded app?
Simple Gallery hasn't and couldn't have received the privacy-intruding update yet, as its last update was in October, according to the data on Play Store, i.e. before the acquisition. People are complaining about Simple Messenger, for now.
My own install of Gallery is from F-Droid, just as yours, yet I don't see it there anymore. It's not visible on the F-Droid website, unlike e.g. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.simplemobiletools.keyboard/
Maybe you can see it if you're using some repository other then the default one? Or your repository data hasn't been updated recently? Idk, just guessing.
I suppose we shall never know. F droid and all apps are up to date for me, so it's not that... I am not tech savvy enough to find out lol.
I don't think so but might be though.
Can't include any proprietary code, so using the google sdk would invalidate it I believe.
I'm just using the default GrapheneOS SMS app, but it's concerning seeing the number of these FOSS apps lately adding major privacy invasive permission changes. Are there a few big companies buying them up for a quick buck, or what?
Yup, ZippoApps just bought this one. It’s a company that basically buys apps then pumps them full of invasive (bordering on spyware) bloat to capture the data from existing users. It’s a typical corporate strategy, where they buy a popular app, extract every single cent they can from it, then discard it once it’s a shell of its former self, for the next popular app.
That's exactly what happened.
I'm just speculating here, but I've seen where app developers pull in a framework for a feature and it comes with all sorts of hidden gems since the framework was developed by a large corporation. The small development team now needs to consider writing their own framework (an established anti-pattern), find another (that may have the same problems or be less mature, etc) or include the privacy invading code and plan to replace it in a future release (which never happens because users want new features and the privacy concerned users have left).
Not even close. This has nothing to do with SimpleApps.
A crappy company bought them from the original creator and maintainer. This company is well known for buying mildly popular apps and inserting ads in them for monetisation.
People who downloaded them from F-Droid should be fine tho.
Well, that's unfortunate. I've seen this happen way too many times.
yeah, the most shady part of this is that SimpleApps' code was available in Github. They could have just used that and upload it to the Play Store.
why did they buy it from the developer instead? because thousands of people already had these installed, so when buying it from the developer they get to push their new, ad infested versions to the unwary users had the apps installed.
This is a very dark pattern IMO.
I hope the money was worth tanking the good will of the brand. I wish I could code successful apps and the undermine my principles for meager amounts of money and fuck off into the woods
[email protected]
Simple Contacts and SMS were the only simple apps I've been using. Fortunately I've found Connect You, which does both. So goodbye simple
Thanks! Needed a replacement for Simple Contacts after this, Connect You seems like a much better app anyway. :)
Seconded, graphene's contacts app isn't the best, I'm gonna try this out.
The Fossify forks of simple apps should be coming soon too, if you want to stick with something familiar. They've already released their calendar, gallery, and file manager, the rest should be ready pretty soon.
Also the Phone app from Fossify has been released. Fossify Phone. Use Obtainium to download the Phone app.
Does Connect You work for you? I can send messages, but if someone replies, the notification only shows their number instead of the name I saved them as, and the reply doesn't show up in the chat itself
Yeah, it does seem to work for me perfectly. Neither of the issues are present for me
Already migrated to Deku SMS
Absolutely Haram.
Shit, anyone have a good calendar on fdroid?
Fossify Calendar, which is a fork of Simple.
export settings and events from simple calendar, import settings and events to fossify and voilà.
I already had em in an ics from recently switching phones lol.
etar maybe?
Etar is great!
I'll check it out, thanks! I'm on fossify for now.
Etar on f-droid
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.afkanerd.deku/
Hey op, how did u get that screenshot? My gplay didn't have the new tags 'new' 😥 http://0x0.st/H0pq.png
Interesting, maybe it's because of the phone. I'm using pixel 6a with GrapheneOS
Lol me too, I swear. Thanks for reply . I'm in the land of oz. So I assume ur in america. Different laws Im gonna assume.
I just went into Droidify to make sure all my simple apps stopped auto-updating and they all already had ignored new versions checked. Is this something I did or is this something Droidify did or is this something the f-droid repository did? If it's the one of the latter two that's pretty cool.
Not really the focus here, but Google could really improve those listings by providing some guidance as to what permissions are actually required for certain tasks.
I am not certain I would know if am SMS program needs full Internet access or not.
(I get in this instance everything added is bad.)
strangely, you need "internet" for mms so, yes, sms app needs full internet access
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.moez.QKSMS
When I saw some serious issues with Clock app (from Simple Apps), I deleted and never used it again. So many apps and so many bugs, lol.
ugh.
I think a good way to avoid this for any other app in the future is to just use alternativea found on fdroid.
... And disregard the rest :D
A fork is currently being worked on, called fossify.
For now we have fossify gallery and calendar