Simple Mobile Tools is being sold to a for-profit firm ZipoApps
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.
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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
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
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!
https://github.com/FossifyX
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?
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?
https://you-apps.net/
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.
For the gallery I'm using Aves, and for the file manager Amaze.
For the dialer, contacts and clock I just use the stock apps from LinageOS.
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.
Amaze can't handle WebDAV :(
For WebDAV, you can use DAVx⁵ or Round Sync
DAVx⁵ works great and super reliable
I think that functionality should be separate from a gallery app. Check out Image Toolbox for mobile photo editing.
https://github.com/T8RIN/ImageToolbox
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/protect.videoeditor/
Simple, but closest we have for now.
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.
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=
Not sure how it is for editing but I like Aves as a gallery app.
For editing pictures, try out Pocket Paint (F-Droid). Feature rich and surprisingly good UX for a mobile editor 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
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 :(
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Well, that sucks.
Guess I'll just stop updating and keep an eye out for forks that are maintained.
Everyone has a price.
Living is expensive.
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.
Damn it. There was a big extension that did this too. The first thing the guys did? implement a credentials stealer.
Time to disable auto update for these apps in the stores
This is why you should always install the F-Droid version whenever possible. They won't update just because upstream did without vetting it first.
Oh wow, they check every app's upgrades manually? That's dedication.
Are you being sarcastic? Because your statement is accurate if true...which it's not.
I wasn't, so thanks for the clarification!
Pro-tip: download the apk from F-Droid. Link here: https://f-droid.org/packages/com.simplemobiletools.gallery.pro/
Damn I actually paid for a few of these apps. What does this mean for purchase on Android?
If you paid for it on Play Store and the app gets pulled from there, you won't be able to download it again.
Either the app gets pulled or the app gets updated to harvest your data.
This is terrible news! I am going to struggle to find a replacement for the gallery app.
Have you ever herd of Aves? Kinda the opposite of "simple" in terms of feature set, but can be downloaded from F-Droid and is highly customizable. I really like it's tagging system/feature.
Just installed it. Looks good. Only missing the edit feature that Simple Gallery has.
Yeah, the lack of an edit feature is the primary issue I have with it.
Better switch to the F-Droid version.
It's kind of a bad idea to not keep a file browser up to date. You don't really want security flaws in a program that has access to all the files on your device.
It's even worse idea to get an inevitable update that pushes ads through the file browser.
I paid for the apps to avois this...
Big F, they had some good apps.
Damn, I recently donated to them, and this is how it turned out.
Terrible to see.
Now that'd feel like paying for adware :(
For anyone looking for an alternative to Gallery, Gallery by Iacoblonut looks better, and you can use Amaze to edit images.
It's a little janky, but seems to be heading in the right direction. The UI feels right unlike Aves. Thanks for the recommendation.
Guess I'll use Image Toolbox for simple edits (pun intended). Hopefully the developer improves the user experience for that.
I tried, but I don't know how to get linka from the F-Droid app.
Noooooo! I love their gallery app. Guess it's time to turn off auto-update on it.
Thank you for sharing this!
Damn, i will really miss the Gallery app
Keep using the current version for now, it's perfectly stable.
Just turn off auto updates in the Play Store.
Recently on their blog --> Aug 29, 2023
you know, I'd really love to get a good app that i pay for and that in turn doesn't collect or sell my data and has no ads, but there's so many but's.
just to say: I'm not sure there is a good solution where everyone wins :/
What could be more sustainable for the development is to make updates with new features paid. People have a one time payment for the app and then pay for new features.
It's absolutely ot perfect. But, it's not a subscription and the dev still earn something.
This would cause a maintenance nightmare for the devs though. And from what I hear, the app stores discourage multiple versions of the same app these days.
In ye old days the reigning model was a pseudo subscription where you paid for a version of a program and that's all you got, if you wanted the next version of that program you had to buy it again. This made developing updates profitable and people who didn't care to pay for the update could still use the outdated program. It wasn't perfect by any means but I feel like it was one of the better compromises compared to everything else.
Sadly with the advent of mobile apps such a model is heavily discouraged.
Yeah it's not the perfect model for sure. Usually you did get updates to fix vulnerabilities and bugs, but any major version release would require a new purchase/license.
But any software that requires connecting to a server anywhere just doesn't work in this model.
In the end there's not much of a choice. Either you pay more for apps to compensate for the time spent on them, subscribe to reduce your costs and assure continuous revenue, or ads.
Anything that's perpetually free, unless it has massive communities willing to maintain it, typically ends up like the tools we see here: abandoned/sold.
Well to be fair, for most software it was the major releases that were paid, and the minor ones were given free, on the understanding that these ~never contained functionality changes, additions or reworks.
So 3.1 was purely a bugfix for 3.0, for example. Hence you got it free. Often when 4.0 came out (which you had to pay to get) there's also a be a 3.2 update that served as the "final" rleease of that branch. Any bugs in it now are there to stay.
And yeah. Although, I feel in a way that's what we got here, no? If I paid for these I can turn updates off and use the version I bought, so to speak.
I donated to them directly once and then again opted for the PlayStore versions to buy these apps. Sadly, I will have to move to the FDroid version now because the PlayStore one, the ones I paid for, can get infected with adware any day now.
Yea, fair point
Finally, Kissinger is dead — but for the karmic balance, even SMT gets enshittified.
Sigh.
Anyone used Etar calendar app? I use Simple Calendar for its ability to export everything to one ICS file. I see Etar can use ICS, but is it a full calendar import/export? Or one event at a time? Related question, is there anything better?
Etar lacks features compared to SMT Calendar - mostly for me, the ability to assign different notification / sounds, and of course the ability to export the entire calender as ICS.
Re your question: no. If you try to import an ICS calendar generated by SMT Calendar, Etar only imports the oldest event.
Etar isn't as good as SMT Calendar but it has suddenly become very attractive. I've uninstalled SMT Calendar, and CalyxOS comes with Etar preinstalled. So now I rock Etar. Not super happy, but it's better than nothing. The next step for me is to install a CalDAV server on my home server. That way I'll never get caught unable to import my calendar into a new app. And I'll live with a single notification sound for all my events / appointments.
Oh. I didn't realize that Etar was the default in CalyxOS. That's disappointing, as I don't like the default CalyxOS calendar. I may stick with SMT Cal and just not update, and wait for someone to fork. I thought about forking it myself, but I'm not a developer, so won't be able to maintain it :/
@01189998819991197253 @gogosempai
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Install Etar, import the ICS file
and see what happens!
But if it tastes like shite and rotten fish, and someone has already tried and can warn me, why not learn from them lol
@01189998819991197253 😂
😂 hahaha
Damn, SMT was great for filling in system tools on custom ROMs, anyone got any good alternative gallery apps with a similar feature set?
FFS just started using these apps
Wow I was never comfortable about the marketing vibe around those apps on f-droid, so I avoided them. I'm glad of that now. Still, someone can snag the source code for a fork if they want, and I'm sure there are alternatives.
Part of the reason why I prefer to use open source apps whenever possible is because of this, you never really know if an app will be bought out by someone shady and start adding gross stuff to it, but open source apps can and will be forked.
Not an ideological reason, but a practical one.
Same shit company bought the pixel minimal watch face, and they're now charging like 18$ PER WEEK for premium features.
I had already bought it thankfully and I kept my premium status but still. I was not happy
$18 per week?! Damn Netflix and Disney+ prices aren't even that high.
Yeah, I was REALLY pissed off that the guy sold his app to this shitty company. Now this. I didn't use the simple apps but I've heard of them since I was a pretty big f droid user.
They must give a lot of money to devs in exchange for ruining their work lol
Look, he got money, we got forks, the creator of the app might create a new project and run it on money they got from this sale
The company that purchased the app will soon find out that their whole userbase was foss people and they left for forks
When I migrated to GrapheneOS I chose to use all the system's native applications (AOSP) for obvious reasons but I admit that this news makes me very worried, one less dev we will have on our side.
Its opensource, assuming the new owners move it to a less favorable license just fork the last good version and continue from there.
One of the devs has already forked it and plans to maintain the project.
https://github.com/FossifyX
man, the gallery and calendar were great!
Hmm, I think I got Simple File Manager Pro from F-droid, would I need to do something else for it?
What is a good alternative?
Also I had the simple music player app, although I have no music downloaded ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
EDIT: hmm, strange acquisition actually, only the fee apps? Or the deal ain't over?
Material files and Auxio
Dude, I actually had it already installed when I was on my quest to have a sane file manager 😅
(Why is it so damn hard to have a file manager which shows your "root" folder when you open it 😑).
The only thing I went for Simple File Manager Pro and not for Material Files was because the former allows me to check the file size of multiple items, and I'm finding many file managers don't.
Does fx fulfil your needs?
I like FX a lot on ATV, on mobile I never got used to it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Auxio is really well made. Just wish it supported the artist tag rather than the artists tag.
Phonograph plus seems to work for me. A little buggy but nothing problematic.
Symphony or Auxio
F-droid version will remain open-source, but if the new owners decide to no longer support it, then it might not get any more updates.
I always try to avoid these because of how they had held users data hostage on their calendar's play store version, glad this happened so there can be a foss fork by more trustable parties. Yay!
Ah no, that sucks. I've been using a lot of those apps.
Nooooo
I think it is worth mentioning that there is an alternative for each one of Simple Mobile Tools apps. It will just mean we have to spend some time looking for such apps yet again. We as users of FOSS software must be always prepared to move from one application to another. This is why walled gardens, export to / import from open standard formats and in general easy replaceability of FOSS SW is important. This is just a sad fact about using FOSS where FOSS maintainers are just normal people, with all their needs, faults, and weaknesses.
Simple Gallery has a feature rich photo and video editor as well. I haven't found any FOSS app that can edit videos. Also, any Material You themed Dialer app? Don't want to use the old AOSP one :(
Other than these two, I think all other apps have good alternatives.
That is example that looking for new apps part I mentioned. I know there are FOSS Android video and proto editors. I just never needed any of them, so I don't know which one is better or worse, but I know there are a few I have heard about in recent years. I know I have seen several contacts and dialler apps on F-Droid. Time to check them out one by one and hopefully one will fit the needs with minimal concessions. Others in this post have already mentioned some apps. See if they might work for you, too. I wish you best of luck looking for the right apps for you.
NOOOOO
@gogosempai
So the most important question is - what happens to the F-Droid versions? Will the apps still be listed in F-Droid in the future, and if so, should they still be updated?
Time to download all those apks and keep them mirrored elsewhere, I fear for their future now
:(
Could someone explain what's the big problem? They're open source, you can still use the existing apps just fine. And with time, someone should fork them, shouldn't they?
Millions of auto-updating installs on unsuspecting users devices who thought they installed a privacy respecting app, but is now likely to harvest as much personal data as possible.
any suggestions for calendar apps that can use system calendars? i have my calendars synced via davx5
Etar maybe?
@0ddysseus Chomp SMS didn't suck back when I used it. But now I use Google Messages.
QKSMS.
THANK YOU for this post, just replaced my dialer, contacts, gallery, and clock.