Simple Mobile is being bought by ZipoApps, confirmation here.
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I decided to look at ZipoApps. Found a link to their Google Play page. Aurora opened when I clicked and Aurora shows trackers if an app has them.
Cut and Paste Photos - 6 trackers.
Edge Lighting - 6 trackers
Footej Camera - 13 trackers
Gaming Mode - 17 trackers
Guitar Tuner - 3 trackers
Sticker Maker - 13 trackers
Time Warp scan face - 13 trackers
Volume Booster - 13 trackers
These are mostly Facebook, Google.
Looks like the three SMT apps I use will need to be replaced. I could wait and see but the formerly SMT apps will need to be monitored to see if trackers get added.
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No need to monitor anything if you use a based app store that builds everything from source and doesn’t accept anything proprietary, and also has anti-features labels.
That app store is F-Droid.
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SMT has already violated the license of the contributors by publishing their Play Store variant of Gallery with a proprietary photo editing library.
I won’t be surprised if they go full tilt violation now that this has happened.
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Oh shit, I’m using 5 SMT applications, it’s weird because the applications offered were “references” in the genre and served as really good alternatives.
What do you think, can we continue to use their applications or is it better to change?
I’m quite enjoying Gallery by lacoblonut on F-droid. Though it may not have features others are looking for.
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I’m using the Github version, is it different from the Play Store version or is it really better to use F-Droid?
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Alternatives to SMT?
Looks like its back to default apps over on Graphene…
Also PG does not formally endorse them, right?
IIRC, SMT was a Michael Bazell recommendation.
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No we never did, partly because I figured this sort of thing would probably happen to them (especially after they released that phone hardware last year) lol
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I only use ST calendar and notes. Any alternatives I can use on GrapheneOS? I don´t think there are default apps for that.
Thank you!
If you like SMT apps currently, it’s probably worth noting that the other developer who worked on them is forking the project, so maybe you could keep an eye on that.
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There is a huge difference.
Developers can publish anything they want on Play Store or GitHub.
Meanwhile, with F-Droid they MUST meet the Inclusion Policy, then F-Droid builds the apps from source to make sure they do meet the inclusion policy and assigns Anti-Features to them if there is any.
So yes, you should use F-Droid.
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According to PG, it’s always best to use Github, then the Play Store and lastly F-Droid, only if the app you’re looking for isn’t available on either of the two above.
Is this to be done only with SMT tools or in general?
In general.
Here is a Topic I made about this: F-Droid (FOSS Android App Store)
But I need to change and correct some things there.
Nevermind. I can’t edit my posts anymore.
Is there any reason PG does not recommend general-use android apps. Like a gallery app,
camera app, calculator app or a clock app? I know there are many open source ones available.
Edit: I see that Secure Camera is actually recommended but my question still stands.
The more things PG recommends the harder it is for the team and community to make the information and recomendations up-to-date and correct.
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Its so sad to hear this. The gallery and calendar were amazing, especially the auto .ics export from the calendar.
Probably will be switching to Proton Calendar since I dont like the look of Etar. Only thing is that they still havent open source their android app yet…
Aves is a good alternative to Simple Gallery. Probably the best gallery app on android in general.
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[…] ask zipoapps to comply under the terms of the license: either by removing every of your contributions (depending on how big of a contributor you are this might be a big blow to them) […]
Based on what I’ve seen so far, I think this will likely be the approach taken and won’t be too difficult based on the fact that nearly all contributions seem to come from the guy who sold the app. There are a lot of contributions more recently from the other SMT dev, but I’m guessing there’s some employee agreement he specifically has in place which would negate him taking a legal stance against ZipoApps. Everyone else’s contributions would probably be easier to remove than we think, so I definitely wouldn’t count out the possibility of the Play Store apps going closed source. Also I agree with this:
Though, there’s also the question of is it worth it to go after them? Maybe energy is better spent working on the fork, given who this project panders to
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Zipo is just a front, the real company is Rounds[.]com
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