I’m pissed that I bought simple gallery pro because it respected my privacy, then because the dev sold his soul for a ton of money, it now rapes my privacy
See here for the new permissions the Simple mobile tools apps require after it was sold to an ad-company. I think that speaks for itself: https://programming.dev/post/8634202
OP searched for Fossify - the Simple fork. That’s the point here - the new owner of Simple has added the keyword ‘fossify’ so they turn up in the search results, which no doubt prioritises apps with higher install counts.
That’s why I hate third party AppStore’s… I’m afraid of someone getting scammed.
It has nothing to do with third party app stores.
Someone made an app that was genuinely very good. Then a company wanted to buy the app. The developer sold the app. The company loaded it with whatever spyware they wanted and pushed it in an update.
Now the app is garbage. Sadly it happens all the time. It happened to me right after I bought a year subscription to private internet access.
But to be clear this can happen on any platform or App Store official or not.
I don’t think this is as big of risk on F-droid because the apps are screened and compiled from source.
Just don’t go adding third party repos.
The company loaded it with whatever spyware they wanted and pushed it in an update. Now the app is garbage.
Wait what? I have it too and see no changes at all. How does it spy since the app has 0 bytes of traffic (now blocked it to be safe)?
Btw since its sold you probably won’t recieve foss updates(they will be proprietary). So there is this fork called Fossify. And you could export all data in your apps as backups and restore it to fossify
Same here, seems like the exact same thing I’ve used for a few years now.
Edit. Apparently the sale just happened last December. Some discussion here: https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/General-Discussion/issues/241
This is the exact sort of reason I have automatic updates off.
Fossify gallery is a fork of it BTW, works and looks exactly the same. I swapped mine to it.
Sorry, I was not very clear. I was speaking generally about how this process works to demonstrate that it has nothing to do with app stores.
This is Google Play Store you dingus
F-Droid can help
Simple Mobile Tools got sold and probably will go the web extension way of scammers loading it up with malware to extract private info and sell it. Delete it now.
Quick question, I’ve been using F-droid for like Spottube, I assume I should seek out Spottube for any future updates now correct?
I dont know unfortunately
Just use F-droid to update.
Fdroid does not guarantee the software is malware free. You still need to be able to trust the developer.
Just use the fork
OP is searching for Fossify - the forked set of Simple’s projects. That’s the point of the post, I think.
Yup you’re correct, didn’t notice the search bar.
Seriously? I have so many of their apps. I had no idea.
That’s so annoying - I have a ton of their apps too!
Looks like I’ll be staying on these ancient F-Droid versions for a while until a replacement shows up… but ugh I am so annoyed. Files, Draw, and the gallery in particular that allowed you to resize (strips EXIF data), crop and do all sorts was so handy
Fossify Gallery and Files are already up on F-Droid!
Might you be able to post a Link to the F-droid version? I can’t seem to find it there by simple search…
This is perfect, also seems like some bugs present in one of the original apps has been fixed in the Fossify version - thank you for sharing!
It was bought by zipoapps or so and they might release ad infested versions. Fossify is the fork of all simple mobile tools
Oh thank you! Looks like they’re easy to find on F-Droid, so this should be a fairly painless transition
Yes but the reason I purchased from play store (which has the side effect of donating an undeserved 30% to google) was that I could easily share the access with the family without too much effort, just send a link to them 😢
I believe, Fossify Gallery has practically the same features as Simple Gallery Pro. So, your family does still get full access with just the F-Droid link…
Do note that Simple Gallery Pro on Play Store uses a non-FOSS editor.
Simple Gallery Pro and Fossify Gallery on F-Droid uses a basic FOSS editor.
fyi, don’t use simple mobile tools anymore, it’s basically adware now, the project has been forked and renamed to fossify
This is my general method to find and install apps:
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First hit F-Droid
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If F-Droid doesn’t have it, hit the Play Store through Aurora. Carefully assess each and every candidate returned by the Play Store search by searching for feedback on DDG, as I treat anything served up by Google as adware / spyware even if the Play Store says it’s free of ads, doesn’t need permissions or it’s open source.
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If the Play Store doesn’t have it (an older version of an APK I specifically need for instance) hit APKPure or Aptoide. Download each promising APK manually, unzip it, look for sketchy things in the archive manually, then run the APK through Hypatia before sideloading it, because I treat anything served up by APKPure or Aptoide as malware.
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I switched to using using Obtainium to install directty from dev repos as much as possible, and am adding Fossify’s projects as they release. IMO, It’s the best way to ensure you get the app you want, without letting middle-men push their agenda or mine your data.
In my experience, play store has been declining year over year and I’m now finding useful apps in fdroid more and more while finding trash in play store
I’m not saying play store is all trash, but if I scroll for 10m in both, I have a much higher chance of finding a useful app in fdroid than in play store
Even for games, but fdroid kinda has no games so can’t compare … I can just say play store is declining there too or I’m too old to find a game to enjoy
I only use the play store to keep critical apps (banking and security) updated. Everything else comes from Aurora.
