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Title
For everyone still using Simple Tools apps, switch to Fossify it's a fork that has all that crap removed
this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
879 points (98.9% liked)
Privacy
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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.
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Wait what happened I am lost? Are they bad apps now?
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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.
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They were sold to ZippoApps, who specializes in adding crapware to apps.
What else would we expect anyway...
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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 I cannot find Simple Gallery in F-droid any more, it seems to have been replaced by its Fossify equivalent already.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.
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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!
- sms: deku sms, way better
- phone: GrapheneOSses AOSP dialer, dont know if you get that seperately, or Welefon
- music: so many alternatives, Vanilla Music is nice
- keyboard: florisboard, openboard
- phone: lol Pixel with GrapheneOS
Its sad that the community did not donate enough. People dont care...
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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/
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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
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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.
It has begun
(ps install the fork versions of the simple mobile tools suite, its called fossify)
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.
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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.
Hopefully fossify will release fossify messenger soon. Fossify's a project forking all the simple apps
Oof, those permissions alone scream proprietary spyware. There's no more speculation here, it has officially become enshittified.
that's because that's what happened. Simple mobile tools got bought out by a company known for exactly that: putting ads and spyware in apps
thankfully since its open source, there's already a fork in the works called Fossify
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Yeah, not suspicious at all.
sounds like an uninstall
And here we go... 🪦
why would you want or need a separate SMS/MMS application on your phone in the first place?
- You don't like the Google app
- You don't want to use Google apps out of principle
- You're using a version of Android where Google apps are not installed by default, so you need to install something
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Default app sucks.
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Did they forget to track the google maps history? someone should submit a PR
Tibor betrayed us and sold the Simple Apps suite to a sleazy adtech company a while ago, there were multiple posts on this suggesting replacements, then one of the most active devs forked it into Fossify, removing all the branding and references to the original, work is still ongoing on this, already some of the apps have been rereleased, here's a handy matrix of the progress on the rerelease from somebody on Github
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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.
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