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A group of open source Android apps without ads and unnecessary permissions
- Animats 3y agoI use some of those via F-Droid, but I've stopped installing updates because the nagging to "upgrade" to a "monetized" version is getting worse.[1] I'm worried that they will start breaking the free versions, and thus can no longer trust their updates. [1] https://www.simplemobiletools.com/blog/our-best-apps-are-now-paid https://www.simplemobiletools.com/blog/our-best-apps-are-now...
- Rygian 3y agoSo it's not "apps without ads," but rather "apps without third-party ads."
- thaumasiotes 3y ago> I use some of those via F-Droid, but I've stopped installing updates because the nagging to "upgrade" to a "monetized" version is getting worse.[1] Huh? The versions in F-Droid are the monetized versions. They don't include any nagging. I've been using them for years.
- ghastmaster 3y agoI have installed them from F-droid with nagging and the thank you installed.
- thaumasiotes 3y agoAre you using a different F-droid source than everybody else? Say I'd like to see some nagging from Simple Notes Pro. What do I need to do? (And why, conceptually, does Simple Notes Pro, already the paid version, include nagging in the first place?)
- ghastmaster 3y agoI have installed the apk directly right now from an old old source. I am going to try the f-droid version again soon and see how it goes.
- figmert 3y agoIf you're so inclined, the unlock is also pushed to F-Droid under Simple Thank You app. It's by the same Dev.
- BLKNSLVR 3y agoIt sounds as if you're actually using the apps installed from the playstore. If they're from F-Droid you shouldn't get any nagging or ads. I use gallery, contacts, and file manager from F-Droid, up to date, and no ads or nags at all, ever.
- georgebcrawford 3y agoI use the same group of apps plus the calendar. What do you use for that? I'm finding it great with a couple of niggles. Not opposed to jumping, even there's some friction.
- NoboruWataya 3y agoI use Simple Calendar (I've never had any issues with it) but the other one I've heard a lot of people using is Etar.
- BLKNSLVR 3y agoI also use the Simple Calendar, but shamefully also use Google Calendar due to my grandfathered custom-domain email hosted by Gmail. Simple Calendar works with it for individual calendars, but the Google one does shared calendars with less friction.
- cvwright 3y ago[flagged]
- sneak 3y agoThe marginal cost of producing additional copies of free software is zero.
- namlem 3y agoKeeping them updated isn't free
- omniglottal 3y agoYour false dichotomy is disingenuous, a distraction/derailment to the discourse, and does not engage in addressing the issue of a person wanting to pay the developer yet having no privacy-respecting way to do so. Please revisit site guidelines on "snark".
- n3dm 3y agoI have updated mine from F-Droid and they have removed features that I use. I do not trust the updates and won't update to the newer versions.
- UberFly 3y agoDo really like using many of their offerings. On f-Droid as well.
- yCloser 3y agoI used to love https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplemobiletools.draw&hl=en&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplemobi... but now it is a "14days free trial, then pay"
- deng 3y agoInstall the version from F-Droid instead.
- Woshiwuja 3y agoimagine having to pay 1 euro for no ads in your file browser lmao
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- komali2 3y agoWhat free file browser do you use that you're sure isn't snooping on your files?
- Rygian 3y agotermux ?
- komali2 3y agoIs that a terminal emulator on android? That sounds... really obnoxious to use with my 2 thumbs lol.
- folmar 3y agoThis is a terminal emulator and debian distribution in an android app. Works wonders, basically a PC in your phone.
- matheusmoreira 3y agoYes! It's a terminal emulator and Linux environment for Android. You can do pretty much anything with it. Typing on a phone is hard but you get used to it. Programming while lying in bed is just too comfortable. I've written way too much code with vim inside Termux. I created an entire programming language inside Termux. The first programming language to be born inside a smartphone, perhaps? Only thing I haven't managed is Android app development. Yet.
- idle_zealot 3y agoDolphin. Sometimes dired.
- zootboy 3y agoI would be wary of using their calendar app. It has had a long-standing bug in basic timezone / DST handling: https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-Calendar/issues/1220 https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-Calendar/issues/... https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-Calendar/issues/1973 https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-Calendar/issues/...
- prmoustache 3y agoYour issues links point to bugs that have been closed.
- komali2 3y agoWait, people are upset that the compiled versions have free trials and then paid versions? I'm looking at the code for all these apps right now, you can compile your own apks and never pay a dime if you want, are people really upset about this monetization strategy?
- mohmans 3y agoand I believe that the versions on F-Droid are the paid versions, so you can just install it from there for free instead of Google Play
- collaborative 3y agoUnfortunately, the vast majority of users don't want to spend a dime on any digital good ever. In fact, they are very offended when asked to pay and will gladly leave 1 star reviews thinking that they are defending their interests. They won't admit to it but they are instead paying with their privacy and attention. This is the reason we have tech monopolies financed by marketing and user data for sale on the dark net. And the worst bit of it all is that the current state of affairs is hopelessly irreversible
- crop_rotation 3y agoYou are absolutely right. Every HN thread about a consumer product that is paid is full of why it is bad, or why people would gladly pay if it had 10 more orthogonal features, or they have a better way to support the creator, or the product doesn't deserve payment for some random reason but it is OK to use it without compensating the creator. The irony is a good % of HN is well paid due to information related jobs. And their work is valued only due to artificial scarcity of information.
- majewsky 3y ago> Unfortunately, the vast majority of users don't want to spend a dime on any digital good ever. The subscriber count for Netflix, Disney+, Spotify, etc. easily disproves this. Please, while making a good argument, try not to include grandiose overstatements that discredit your entire position for no good reason.
- aaws11 3y agoprevious discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31490250 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31490250
- weinzierl 3y agoIt's sad that "without ads and unnecessary permissions" is so rare that it makes it to the HN front page. It really should be the other way around: "A blacklist of apps with ads and unnecessary permissions" should be newsworthy.
- 15457345234 3y ago[dead]
- visarga 3y agoApp stores are a wasteland. The vast majority of apps have "in-app-purchases" and try to nag users into paying a never ending stream of extras, or are filled with ads. Where are those simple apps that cost $1-$10, pay once, can use forever and have no ads? For example I am trying to put a game on my child's iPad. The game is free but you only got one level open. If you want to play the other levels you got to pay. But it won't simply unlock the game, no, only a small part. If you want more, pay more, there is no end to the "buying" phase. This is a no-go situation with children. They can be tricked into clicking these in-app sales and getting stuck there. And that's what the developers want. I want once I pay for a game, to know that 1. it will never advertise upsells or anything else 2. it will never block access for any feature 3. there are no trick links, buttons or UI flows to get children into the buying side of the app. On AppStore I can only find the Apple Arcade games to be clean, and those are subscription based. The moral - I want to buy and have no choice of decent apps. How did we get into this mess after 15 years of App store evolution?
- mcv 3y agoI would really love to see a curated version of the Play Store that only lists the good apps and not the legion of shitty ones.
- akyuu 3y agoNintendo consoles seem to provide the experience you're looking for. Clean and curated games with no ads or subscriptions. And the games tend to be of higher quality, focused on actual gameplay as opposed to the dark patterns common on phone apps (e.g. time-limited "stamina" and other psychological manipulation tricks to encourage addictive behavior).
- la_fayette 3y agoI cannot think of any open source endeavour, without finding monetization, to be sustainable...
- nologic01 3y agoWe live in monetary societies, you cannot live without money. What matters is the type of monetization.
- matheusmoreira 3y agoSponsorships via Patreon and GitHub seem to be working well for a lot of people. Ethical too.
- patwoz 3y agoI installed these apps on my mother's smartphone (Motorola) after the existing apps became unusable because they slowed down or displayed large banner ads. Thank you for these great apps. I just donated to you :)
- throwaway-jim 3y agoI have had bad experience with their apps, I don't particularly remember what it was as it was a few years ago but it was their notes app. They limit some basic features and push you to buy their premium versions.
- ktzar 3y agoPushing to buy premium version, so without ads is misleading.
- account-5 3y agoI use these apps from fdroid. Google, whilst not removed, is pretty much disabled on my device. Never had an issue. I think they are also moving into the device business too: https://simplephone.tech/eu/product/simple-phone/ https://simplephone.tech/eu/product/simple-phone/
- NGRhodes 3y agoSimplephone got abandoned.
- q87b 3y agoWarning, the reaction to massive security issues in a bundled PDF reader of the file manager made me uninstall all of these apps. Safety of my device and data is paramount. https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-File-Manager/issues/708 https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-File-Manager/iss... https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-File-Manager/issues/619#issuecomment-1202114509 https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-File-Manager/iss... where the developer shows no grasp of security "what can happen to an app without internet access?" A "simple" file manager should not come with a PDF reader.
- WithinReason 3y agoHe did remove the PDF functionality as a result
- prhrb 3y agoIt was fixed and a false positive from fdroid after some time
- q87b 3y agoFixed four months later
- mcsniff 3y agoThis type of response from a developer makes it easy to simply stay away from projects they are involved in.
- pmontra 3y agoI used the file manager and the gallery apps but I stopped using them since they started to reduce functionality to nudge people to the paid versions. Of course there is nothing wrong in working for money, I do, but I replaced them with other open source and free as beer apps from F-Droid. Selling open source is hard. To put it mildly, there is lot of competition on price. Selling closed source is hard too, because of competition from open source. I'm using Material Files and Aves Libre now. Aves doesn't have an editor and I'm using either the one from Samsung's Gallery, which I can't remove anyway, or Google's Snapseed. Google can snoop on me with the OS and the other apps of them I'm using (almost only Maps) so I'm not worsening my privacy level too much.
- deng 3y ago> they started to reduce functionality to nudge people to the paid versions You get the "Pro" apps from F-Droid as well.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- anon73044 3y agoOpenIntents File Manager has worked for me so far.
- snapplebobapple 3y agoHasnt that not been updated since 2018? That would scare me
- btzs 3y agoThis is a similar project from Karlsruhe University: Summary: All Privacy Friendly Apps: - are Open Source (GPLv3) and their source code can be viewed an Github by anybody - used minimal permissions - do not neither tracking mechanisms nor advertisement https://secuso.aifb.kit.edu/english/105.php https://secuso.aifb.kit.edu/english/105.php
- m0shen 3y agoThe fitness apps looked exactly like what I need, but when going to the play store says they were made for an older version of Android. Visiting Github seems like they aren't actively maintained either.
- mcv 3y agoFork them, I guess. That remains the main big advantage of open source. I've had closed source apps, even paid ones, disappear without a trace from my phone and tablets, presumably after an OS update. I find that an incredibly shitty thing to be subjected to. If an OS update is going break any apps, I'd like to be warned about that.
- harry8 3y agoThese are great. Get them from fdroid.
- dskrepps 3y agoI'm very discouraged when I click their Blog page and see headlines like "Our best apps are now paid" and "Trial period." These apps have popups asking for support, which 100% are advertisements contrary to the thread title. Their apps which previously were free and received updates no longer get those updates and have been replaced with paid ones. This is a warning sign of enshittification and degradation of reliability. There are a multitude of ways they could someday stop updates to these apps too to replace them with another monetization scheme.
- deng 3y agoYou get the "Pro" apps from F-Droid, including the "ThankYou" App. I never got any nagging from them (and yes, I donated, but that did not have any technical consequences and is not necessary).
- dskrepps 3y agoI want to recommend things everyone benefits from, not myself. Consequently, I don't want to support anything that doesn't trend the community toward my ideals. For instance, the Mastodon project and mastodon.social are run by a non-profit. They have their own mastodon account which discusses updates, advertises merchandise to support them, and could ask for sponsors or donations if needed. Users can subscribe to their feed if they want, and support them should they need help, while users who don't want advertisements won't be affected. I'm confident in the stability of this model for them so I chose to make my Mastodon account on their instance so I can trust I won't have to transfer to another someday should one shut down. I'm hoping the digital space evolves in this direction and that we approach a post-advertisement economy. Otherwise, enshittification keeps ruining things and we can't rely on the long-term stability of anything. Just look at Google.
- j1elo 3y agoHaving to put food on the table, plus the shitty business model (or lack thereof) of open source, means that it is probably either charging or not having the apps at all. The author has written code and released it under liberal licenses for years, and now they want (or worse, need because their life conditions changed) some income from the effort. > they could someday stop updates to these apps too to replace them with another monetization scheme The code is still being written and kindly released under the terms of an open source license, so if that happens, I'd expect that sufficiently motivated people moved by strong needs or ideals would be able to fork it and keep using (and possibly even improving) them without issue, as the license explicitly allows for it.
- randunel 3y agoI recommend all of my friends and family to use this when searching for Android apps https://playsearch.kaki87.net/ https://playsearch.kaki87.net/ and simply tick the 3 checkboxes at the bottom.
- zecg 3y agoYou can get their apps off f-droid, and their Gallery is the best one I've tried on Android.
- genpfault 3y agoReally wish their Gallery had a "ignore MediaStore, the filesystem is the Single Source Of Truth" mode :(
- stoicfungi 3y agoa while ago, I created this https://appswithcode.org/?q=android https://appswithcode.org/?q=android to search apps with code.
- deng 3y agoOK, instead of answering in every Thread here: These apps have existed for many years now and the "business model" behind them has changed over the times. These apps are available on Google Play and F-Droid. Originally, the apps were completely free, and there was a "Thank You" app which you could purchase on Google Play. This "Thank You" app does almost nothing, it only allows you to change the color theme of the apps and is more meant as a "donation app" for the project. Then, in 2018, the author decided to develop "Pro" versions of the most popular apps: Gallery, Calendar, Contacts, File Manager, etc. They can be bought on Google Play. These apps are still fully open source, you can build them yourself if you want, but much easier: they are still published on F-Droid, including the "Thank You" app. Understandably, the author does not really advertise that everything he does is available completely for free on F-Droid. If you install it from there, please consider to donate. I find these apps to be usually excellent and have used them for years.
- thijser 3y agoIt seems the apps starting to enforce upgrades to pro in ~February of this year. On the AppBrain page you can see the rating nosedive from 4.6 stars (out of 5) to less than 2: https://www.appbrain.com/app/simple-gallery/com.simplemobiletools.gallery https://www.appbrain.com/app/simple-gallery/com.simplemobile...
- prmoustache 3y ago> It seems the apps starting to enforce upgrades to pro in ~February of this year. Only when installed from Google playstore.
- p0w3n3d 3y agoYeah but the price is symbolic... and maintaining app on Android, even without adding any features, requires some work to catch up on the changes made to the system
- readthenotes1 3y ago
- 2Gkashmiri 3y agoThe only simplemobiltools app I use on a Daly basis is gallery. No other app works reliably while this app is rock solid for what it does. I have attempted to give others a try but they had reduced functionality or bugs like dialer. Calendar works kinda but gallery is rock solid.
- friend_and_foe 3y agoI use a his calendar and notes app. They're great. Others I haven't tried but I assume they're pretty good too.
- lotophage 3y agoI'm surprised at the amount of negativity in the comments. I use several of the tools and they are great. They do one thing well and don't have the feature bloat that a lot of apps suffer from.
- crop_rotation 3y agoHN is full of negativity against anything that is paid and is a consumer product.
- user_7832 3y agoI don't think that's necessarily fair in this context, the app's USP initially was being free and solid/good quality. Without the free part it's not the same.
- user_7832 3y agoAs someone who's a bit disappointed by the app, here's my perspective - 1. In the beginning, these were completely free apps with no limitations (that I remember). 2. Then some features required a payment (if you were getting it from the play store apparently. I don't know about fdroid but I don't think that was advertised - and yes, apps like TaskbarX do advertise that they're free elsewhere.) 3. People called it (rightfully, in my opinion) akin to a bait-and-switch. "But wait, you never paid anything! What's the problem?" Well, if they were never offered under the guise of "Hey here's a foss app that's free!" - like ZorinOS - it might have been an easier pill to swallow. Some people including me paid for the "Thank You" version because we wanted to support a dev who was doing commendable work. But if you make it paid... that's kinda crappy. Also (maybe?) see - OpenAI happily running away with money now that they can. Do you support that decision too?
- rock_artist 3y agoI'm using this to comment with a shameless (but positive) promotion. If anyone looking for open-source metronome, https://tick.talaviram.com https://tick.talaviram.com (It's actually cross-platform and available also outside stores)
- marcodiego 3y ago"Standard" android users scare me more than windows users in terms of what they are willing to bear to use their devices. Windows end users usually end up with lots of crappy unneeded proprietary software for tasks that people shouldn't even need to do with their pc's and (at least with versions prior to 11, I really don't know if things improved) end up with so many ads and background processes that they have to reinstall the OS periodically. It is like Christmas for them: it happens every year. Android end users seem to have accepted a mentality: the app will steal your personal data or throw ads at you. Even paid ones. They simply act like that is a normal thing, a law of the nature. When I show windows users the clean world of linux distros and when I show android users the clean world of F-droid they get deeply impressed until one ask "What about MSOffice?" or the other ask "What about whatsapp?". That is the problem with current end users: they are dependent on proprietary software. To fix the world of devices we need to break this dependency. Don't fool yourself: even if you don't depend on any proprietary software, it still affects you: when you need to buy new hardware, use a service or wants to use a software, it may sometimes not be available for you because you decided not to agree with the abuse. You won't be even able to communicate if you don't agree to use a proprietary app. Fixing the world for ourselves will require fixing the world for "end users" too. And with an added difficulty: the other side is currently very effective in convincing their users that the abuse is normal, a good price to pay or that it improves their experience or security. It is for your own good, they say.
- nologic01 3y agoMonetisation and sustainability is a perennial with any and all open source projects. What the thread downplays by focusing on the same old discussions is an interesting and important technical aspect of this project: namely having a "group" of apps sharing a codebase. This is not at all usual in the android space. F-Droid feels like a random collection of apps with largely independent codebases, lots of duplicate efforts for the same tasks etc. The only other such coherent "group of apps" project that I am aware of is the collection of KDE Plasma apps (Qt/QML/Kirigami based). Have not looked into the simplebmobiletools code and how re-usable / modular the various components are, but it seems their thinking is in the right direction.
- pushedx 3y agoWhat is the most privacy respecting Android phone, with good hardware, which I can use with these apps?
- matheusmoreira 3y agoThe latest Google Pixel with GrapheneOS installed. https://grapheneos.org/ https://grapheneos.org/
- rsync 3y agoI’ll say it before and I’ll say it again: The apple App Store needs to display what permissions an app can even ask for. I understand that iOS allows me to deny requested permissions. I want to see, in advance, the entire scope of permissions that the app can potentially ask for. This will allow users to make more sophisticated assessments of incentives and business models prior to install. Apple knows this information - they should make it available.
- pestatije 3y agothese are android apps
- quadrature 3y agoAnyone know if there is something similar for games ?. my parents like playing classic games on their phones but they're usually filled with scammy ads.
- hnben 3y agothe link in the sibling comment also has some games https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37464465 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37464465
- butz 3y agoWhy there are no simple, offline, tasks/TODO applications for Android, without ads, and with support for reminders? Went through dozen of them and either they are very old, from Android 2 era), or packed to the brim with useless (for my particular use case) features.
- aqibgatoo 3y agoI have all of these apps and they are fantastic
- izzydata 3y agoBut the free versions all have ads so this is blatantly wrong. Even if there are paid "pro" versions that remove the ads. The only real reason someone is going to buy this is because it removes the ads. So the existence of the ads is the primary revenue source in both the free and paid version. In both cases the developer is being rewarded for implementing ads in software. This is not commendable in any way.
- kzhe 3y agoI try to avoid them as much as possible. On play store people using the free version were essentially blackmailed to switching to pro calendar (or lose their data), and even if I use F Droid version that's unethical. Pity there's no other FOSS Material you Calendar. I don't use any of their other apps.