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As many of you may have already read, the suite called Simple Mobile Tools has been sold or at least is currently in the process of being sold 1. We talk about it mainly for two reasons: the first is that we have often suggested applications coming from that suite such as Simple File Manager Pro and in general also in other articles such as alternatives to Google Contacts or Alternative Android dialers. The second reason is that it is about to be sold to ZipoApps, a company that has a terrible reputation for privacy and banner ads within applications 2.
However, as you know, we don't care too much about psychological terrorism and therefore we are waiting to understand clearly what will happen to these applications also due to the fact that they were released under a free license and therefore their fate is not so certain 3. Furthermore, for those who want it, gods have already been made Fork of the current versions of these applications for those who are afraid of receiving unwanted updates.
Simple Mobile Tools has been sold: F-Droid what's he going to do?
What we are certain of, however, is that this is one of those cases in which having installed the application via F-Droid instead of the Play Store or even the GitHub APK could be an advantage. Because from the Play Store the update can be done practically without even saying anything and the same can be said of the direct APK (provided it is maintained). On F-Droid instead, despite the fact that every now and then he is (even rightly) criticized 4, there is a community interested in the fate of Simple Mobile Tools. For example, automatic updates for these applications have been temporarily disabled until there is new information 5 and it is very likely that any new versions will not be supported by F-Droid 6.
Fork of applications
Taking advantage of the free licenses, two of the people who contributed to Simple Mobile Tools they decided to create a Fork of all applications called Fossify. Inside this Repositories you will be able to find all the latest applications released by Simple Mobile Tool which will sooner or later also be renamed with a new brand yet to be decided 7.
We don't even know if all the projects will be carried forward or if some will be left behind, but as mentioned the best thing at the moment is to wait and understand what will happen with both the old applications and these new ones.
Even the developers of Astian they started doing different Fork of applications 8. We don't know exactly what they will do with it but they are the same developers as the Browsers Midori which recently also arrived on Android (F-Droid And Play Store) with a Fork of Firefox.
So, what to do? Are there alternatives?
The choice is up to you although we suggest, very calmly and without panicking, to evaluate the replacement of current named applications Simple Mobile perhaps with those already present on Fossify. Or we leave you a list of possible alternatives for all the various applications, otherwise what The Alternatives would we be? 😁
- Simple Calendar, you could try taking a look at Etar or Fossify Calendar
- Simple Gallery, we recently talked about Aves or Fossify Gallery
- Simple Music Player, we have an article with all music players Open source
- Simple Dialer, take a look at our article on Alternative Android dialers or Fossify Phone
- Simple File Manager, we have an article dedicated to file managers: Manage files on Android or Fossify File Manager
- Simple SMS Messenger, we have an article on alternatives to Google Messages
- Simple Keyboard, there is an article dedicated to alternatives to Gboard
- Simple Contacts, we have an article dedicated to alternatives to Google Contacts or Fossify Contacts
- SimpleClock, we've never done an article about watches (and we might even start to think so!) but about F-Droid you can find several including Simple Alarm Clock or Fossify Clock
- Simple Launcher, there is an article dedicated to Alternative launchers for Android
- Simple Notes, we have a huge article on alternatives to Google Keep
- Simple Camera, take a look at our article on alternatives to Google Camera
- Simple Flashlight, we recently talked about a very interesting application called FlashDim
- Simple Voice Recorder, you can take a look at Record You or Fossify Voice Recorder
- Simple Calculator, we have an article on alternatives to Google Calculator
Simple Mobile Tools has been sold: conclusions
So the sale of Simple Mobile Tools is certainly a hard blow even if we are talking about simple applications that are really easily replaceable. The problem those who installed them via the Play Store will probably have a bigger one because, if they aren't careful and if they don't pay attention, they could probably soon find the applications full of tracers and advertising.
However, if you have already had the opportunity to read this article, in our opinion there is little to panic about: there is still a lot of time before things change and we are sure you will not have any difficulty in changing any installed applications!
We don't know where we are in the sales process and whether it can still be canceled or not. We decided to write this article because, whatever happens, Simple Mobile Tools has certainly lost the trust of the community, above all for having sold (or attempted to sell) everything to a company so little attentive to privacy. Trust that would be difficult to regain.
- I can confirm it's true, but I don't have details on who, when, or where.[↩]
- [↩]
- That's not as easy. There are a few things:[↩]
- F-Droid Security Issues[↩]
- Set AutoUpdateMode to none for all Simple Mobile Tools apps[↩]
- I guess we can't build the new non free versions anyway.[↩]
- App name poll[↩]
- Astian, Inc – Repositories[↩]
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