I’ve been browsing f-droid when I noticed a bunch of apps like “Fossify calendar” that looked similar to apps starting with “Simple” - simple gallery, simple file manager, etc. I wanted to understand more on what are the ties and apparently, simple mobile tools are no good
So does someone know if Fossify are legit? Page looks iffy but code seems to be just forks.
Anyone has some info on them?
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Have been mostly great for me, I use the calendar, files, and gallery apps on multiple devices pretty much daily. The difference between fossify and the ugly bloated bullshit google is pushing nowadays is stark. The only problem I have had was with calendar not sending notifications properly but I suspect that was android derping and not a problem with the app itself.
Oh yeah, those were very good apps. Exactly how phone apps should be, clear UI, flexible settings with file import/export, etc. It seems it’s time to switch, though.
FWIW, I have been using Simple calendar and did not have issues with notifications. I just migrated to Fossify calendar and so far it seems to be sending notifications fine too.
In general notifications can be a pain on OS apps. I managed to pull a few of my friends to use Delta Chat with me. Half of them are not getting notified and it seems we have everything set up the same in the battery settings etc ¯\(ツ)/¯
Fossify is a fork of Simple Mobile Tools, after SMT got sold to a shady ad company.
I feel that answering to every comment would muddy the post
Thank you all for your input, I have a clearer picture now
The apps have been great for me.
Coincidentally, just yesterday I found a main developer on liberapay. https://liberapay.com/naveensingh/
The commit history is mostly Naveen.
Bit of context, the simple apps were sold to a large Corp who put a bunch of adds and tracking in (later cut down by my understanding) so people forked the projects and continued maintenance under fossify
Exactly, that’s the community fork of SimpleMobileTools. However there is also Goodwy that have forked them in the name of Right Apps. Right Calendar, Right Gallery, Right Messages, Right Files and Right Contacts.
Yes, Fossify came precisely as a continuation for the Simple apps. The https://github.com/FossifyOrg org and the website https://www.fossify.org/ are linked from the F-Droid metadata so they should be legit as well.
See also: https://f-droid.org/2024/01/04/twif.html
The fossify apps are legit, I use them daily.
This is the same or similar situation as OpenOffice → LibreOffice or OwnCloud → NextCloud (and to a lesser extent but more similar scenario, Audacity → Tenacity or various other forks).
This is what true open source looks like in action.
I recommend something like the app DavX if you want to sync your calendar to Nextcloud or something.
I have been daily driving fossify after testing it on my project phone and its pretty solid. The launcher still has some bugs that are deal breakers for me but i like the others quite a bit. Even the ones still in beta do exactly as advertised (though not much else)
to add to what others have said; there’s a write up from last year here: https://liliputing.com/fossify-apps-pick-up-where-simple-mobile-tools-left-off-free-and-open-source-suite-of-android-apps/
I had the exact same question! Thanks for posting!
I use fossify for most of my core apps, they are what their predecessor was; simple.
And like other said, “Simple” was bought out, but the fork lives on.
They look a lot like the simple collection, I would look into their heritage first. https://simplemobiletools.com/
Simple Mobile Tools was sold a while back, IIRC to an ad company. As a consequence, the Fossify forks were created.
Yep this right here
