this post was submitted on 15 Jan 2024
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Privacy

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[–] [email protected] 238 points 9 months ago (8 children)

For everyone still using Simple Tools apps, switch to Fossify it's a fork that has all that crap removed

[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago (3 children)

So far I only see Gallery, File Manager, and Calendar on IzzyOnDroid. Hopefully SMS and Contacts will be added soon.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

dialer app is released too.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Not removed, it was just never added.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Wait what happened I am lost? Are they bad apps now?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yea. They got bought by a bad company.

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[–] [email protected] 155 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (13 children)

Guys.

Dont install FOSS apps from the Playstore. Use F-Droid (F-Droid Basic if you are on an updated OS)

Thanks.

[–] [email protected] 74 points 9 months ago (10 children)

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/

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago

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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[–] [email protected] 142 points 9 months ago (8 children)

They were sold to ZippoApps, who specializes in adding crapware to apps.

What else would we expect anyway...

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[–] [email protected] 93 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Hmm, this app is also in the F-Droid repository with its old outfit.

Luckily it got forked : https://github.com/FossifyOrg/SMS-Messenger

[–] [email protected] 27 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

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 I cannot find Simple Gallery in F-droid any more, it seems to have been replaced by its Fossify equivalent already.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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[–] [email protected] 89 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

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/

[–] [email protected] 45 points 9 months ago (6 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Provided that the developer can either remove contributed code or seek copyright licences from every contributor it can be done. Whether this did happen or not is unclear, the developer appears a little arrogant about having written the majority of the code, showing little appreciation towards minor contributors. We cannot tell whether the contributors gave permission for their code to be re-licenced or if their code was removed.

Personally, when contributing to GPL projects I would expect that this kind of thing wouldn't be possible. Using the GPL is a very philosophical choice of licence and is a move to say that you really care about your users

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[–] [email protected] 86 points 9 months ago (1 children)

RIP Simple mobile apps. You were amazing while you lasted.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 70 points 9 months ago (4 children)

"have full network access" BIG YIKES

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 9 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (6 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 51 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Throwback to when they announced releasing a simple phone. Fun times.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

It has begun

(ps install the fork versions of the simple mobile tools suite, its called fossify)

[–] [email protected] 44 points 9 months ago

Wow, the new owners enshittified those apps really fast.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Play store version is already infected. There was a buyout of SMT apps.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 34 points 9 months ago

So it begins

[–] [email protected] 33 points 9 months ago

i hope these zippo fucks get sued by everyone who contributed. bastards are doing dropshipping but with malware pretty much

[–] [email protected] 29 points 9 months ago (1 children)

sigh. Most people will just accept the new default permissions without blinking an eye. They're taking advantage of people's ignorance.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

You overestimate most peoples tech skills. They will never know because they have auto-updates activated.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago

Hopefully fossify will release fossify messenger soon. Fossify's a project forking all the simple apps

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago

Yeah, not suspicious at all.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Oof, those permissions alone scream proprietary spyware. There's no more speculation here, it has officially become enshittified.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (1 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago

sounds like an uninstall

[–] [email protected] 19 points 9 months ago

And here we go... 🪦

[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago (8 children)

why would you want or need a separate SMS/MMS application on your phone in the first place?

[–] [email protected] 52 points 9 months ago (1 children)
  1. You don't like the Google app
  2. You don't want to use Google apps out of principle
  3. 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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[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

Default app sucks.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago

Did they forget to track the google maps history? someone should submit a PR

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (3 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 12 points 9 months ago

En-what-iffication everyone?

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