Fossify – A suite of open-source, ad-free apps
69 comments
·June 17, 2025kej
agile-gift0262
I used to use many apps from Simple Mobile Tools and migrated to Fossify's forks when the whole acquisition thing happened. I just went back to check the Simple Mobile Tools to see the effect form ZipooApps' acquisition [1]. What a calamity. Most of them require way more permissions than they used to before the purchase, have trackers, ads and scam-feeling weekly subscriptions. Also probably in breach of the GPL licence they used to have, unless they have removed all the code contributed by third parties, as their GitHub [2] hasn't been updated, but the apps in the Play Store clearly have. And I seriously doubt they distribute the source code in any other way.
1: https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=821434617619498026...
squigz
WEEKLY subscriptions?!
raaron773
I switched to Goodwy. Granted they arent the best since they lock a lot of basic features behind paywall it does the job and their themes are actually decent and feel modern considering they use Material.
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shellwizard
Thanks mate
solstice
I use them and like them. One thing to be aware of with the dialer (that might not be unique to Fossify): when dialing the number of an emergency service (like 112 in Germany), there is no indication in the app's UI that something is happening and it looks as if the call failed and you will be back looking at the dial pad, even though the call will eventually be connected. The reason is that these types of calls get handled by something deeper in the Android system and will show up neither in the "calling" UI of the dialer nor in the list of calls.
komali2
My phone crashing when I dialed 911 after a car accident was the reason I stopped messing around with android roots and custom roms and whatnot. When it comes to my phone being a phone, I need it to Just Work(tm)!
account-5
Annoyingly brilliant apps, used the old ones before they were sold off, now use these. If only there was other androi apps like this set for other things. Instead the vast majority of the shit (in the truest sense of the word) you get from play store is pretty much akin to malware but definitely spyware.
mcv
It's nearly impossible to find good, honest apps on the play store anymore. Everything is loaded with ads, in-app purchases, spyware, and wants way more permissions than it needs. Google is making it more and more attractive to completely sever the ties to the play store. Although there are a few things I still want from there.
genpfault
> Although there are a few things I still want from there.
n_plus_1_acc
I use aurora store to filter for ads and trackers
kissgyorgy
The apps are so simple, so clear, no fuss, no ads, no nothing. Just the functionality you need from every app. Excellent work!
This is the only project I immediately "donated" with the Thank You app.
tigrezno
Me too, but I hate having the useless Thank You app installed
WillAdams
My phone came w/ a folder for apps from my service provider and I've been adding to it any apps which I don't interact with regularly (since I've been able to keep my apps down to a single screen so I don't have to scroll).
entropie
You can uninstall them via adb. For Example there are different "unbloat your samsung device" github pages which give you a list of apps you can safely remove.
porridgeraisin
Yep, I had a crap folder for apps too. Until I switched to using T-UI as my launcher. Now I can only ever launch the apps I remember in my head since I need to type it out.
prmoustache
You can donate, remove the thank you app and use the f-droid versions.
meonkeys
/e/ OS installed DIY or pre-installed by Murena (especially on a Fairphone) solves many of the issues mentioned in other threads. It's an AOSP fork with a simple decent launcher and near-zero bloatware (I only chose to disable weather and magic earth maps). Built-in access to many simpler and more user-respecting apps in F-Droid. Tracker protection and other privacy features. Works well with Nextcloud if you use that.
Doesn't fit everyone's use case. No iMessage, no RCS, no visual voicemail, no spatial audio. Personally I don't need or want any of that, I just want a smartphone I can mostly control.
__rito__
After my smartphone vendor's SMS app, and Google Messages both started serving me non-stop loans ads and gambling ads (never gambled ever in my life), I switched to Fossify Messages, and it has been going great for me. Never looked back.
sp0rk
Where are ads displayed in your Google Messages? I have never seen any ads and I struggle to even imagine where they would place an ad within its interface.
__rito__
Messages. The ads come as messages. Like in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YGZwlZqrpU
They sometimes look like this, too [JPG]: https://static1.anpoimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/...
jgarzik
Love this! I had the same idea, and was pondering funding apps like this. Was going to call it "SimpleFree" and focus on privacy, offline, mobile, games.
floppyd
What's strangely missing from the list of FOSS android apps is a simple "pixel-like" launcher. I have some old devices that I use for small tasks, and I'd love to install the very basic launcher on them, basically the only thing I need is a paginated grid on the desktop, a scrollable list of apps in the main app menu, and a swipe up gesture to bring this menu. I checked a lot of launchers some time ago, and all of them either go hard into "minimalism/functionalism" and don't even show icons, or go deep into customization and fail to be lightweight.
glenstein
There is a Fossify Launcher beta on F-Droid.
mcv
I didn't know it was in beta, but I'm using their launcher. It's mostly great, except for widgets, which it frequently loses. But I can have way more icons on my homescreen than I used to have.
polyaniline
Check out Lawnchair.
heybrendan
How some of the developer community responded (in late 2023) when SMT was bought by ZipoApps--Fossify was a fork that emerged:
- https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/General-Discussion/issu...
degif
Genuine question – do Android people get ads in their OS default camera, calculator, calendar, phone, file-manager or SMS messaging applications? Or do have these Fossify application some extra privacy features that do not come with the default ones?
kotaKat
The default phone and SMS messaging application on all Tier 1 Android OEMs is required to be Google Phone and Google Messages. Also as such, Google stopped maintaining AOSP Dialer and AOSP Messages.
polyaniline
As far as I'm concerned, I run LineageOS, which doesn't come with everything I need OTOB, so I use app suites like Fossify, Simple Mobile Tools and other great work. Others may just want alternatives to pre-installed or standard apps that are more private and tuneable (eg. I maintained a fork of KDE Connect until they switched to Material 3 colors, and still do for VLC) because they're open source.
ksynwa
The default sms app showed me advertisements that seemed way too sophisticated for a medium like SMS or MMS. I had to disable a setting called "RCS Chat" to rid myself of that nonsense. I am pretty sure it isn't something that Google invented or something like that though so I'm not comfortable putting the blame squarely on them for it.
glenstein
>Or do have these Fossify application some extra privacy features that do not come with the default ones?
It's this one. Google's built-in apps are closed source with undisclosed telemetry. Fossify are open source, and they don't send your contacts or calendar entries to Google. Google's apps also serve Google ecosystem lock-in, and Google's ecosystem serves ads.
The non-google options on the Play store give you the option of not sending telemetry to Google, but at the cost of typically violating privacy in other ways or including ads.
Fossify avoids either of those costs.
Saris
No ads on the original apps, but these do have privacy benefits, they also just don't have useless features like the AI stuff that keeps getting crammed into default apps.
mcv
Everything Android seems to be increasingly enshittified these days.
I switched to Fossify gallery because I don't want my photos synced with google Photos anymore. When my default Messenger suddenly demanded access to my Google account, I looked for a replacement and all alternatives I could find on Google Play had ads, so again Fossify saved me. Love it so far.
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anty
I don't see any ads on the mentioned apps on my Pixel phone.
I do have ads in the Play Store app and in the Gmail app, though.
interloxia
Google photos these days on my pixel constantly has various prompts to turn on their backup service.
It is so intrusive it might as well count as an ad.
Fortunately Aves is pretty good.
anty
Google Photos also sometimes promotes a printing service. I forgot about that.
crtasm
I was still using an old version of Simple Tools Gallery - thanks for the reminder to try these. I will donate too.
b0a04gl
that bit on > “could end up like simple tools” hits.
seen this before: forks start strong, get love on HN and reddit, but slowly stall. either one dev's doing too much or nobody else steps in. fdroid’s full of ghosts like that. would be smart if fossify locks focus on 3to4 core apps first, builds a contributor base now not later. maintenance isn't exciting, but that's what kills most clean forks
To save the next person a few clicks, these are Android apps forked from the Simple Mobile Tools collection when that was sold to ZipoApps.