Fossify – A suite of open-source, ad-free apps

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?

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.

Us Android people like to use open-source software. A stark contrast to Apple people.

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.

More power to it! I do agree on the other selling points (privacy focused and open-source) for the Fossify, just was wondering about the ads.

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.

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.

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.

>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.

I think many Apple users, especially people in the software industry, would prefer Apple software to be open source. It's not that they don't care, it's just that Apple quality is superior in multiple ways (hardware and software).

And it's not a coincidence that their software is closed. They can command ridiculously high margins and continue to invest in high quality products.

Google Photos also sometimes promotes a printing service. I forgot about that.

Not having ads doesn't mean they aren't full of trackers.

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.

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.

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree that Apple's software is superior. Their hardware would be a lot better if the software was.

RCS is absolutely awful as it displays banner ads in your notifications. The notifications are far worse than what you get with SMS. It's the reason I turned off RCS as well.

I use a Samsung phone and it has Samsung’s phone and SMS apps.

A lot of their software is better in many ways than e.g. Samsung’s software. However, you do run into artificial limitations (e.g. no sideloading).

I stopped using the default apps when Google was forced by EU regulations to put a privacy policy popup in the stopwatch/alarm app because of course you need spyware in that.

Pixel 8a. No ads, but I do wonder why the stock Google calculator needs a privacy policy.

I use stock Android, and all of the apps I am using are from F-Droid, I do not use Google's apps. I have them uninstalled.

Many of the apps I am using (Gallery, Dialer, Contacts, Camera) are from https://simplemobiletools.com. Source code: https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools. Its Gallery looks similar to Fossify's. Its "About" seems almost identical, so I dunno.

I just use apps (Dialer, Contacts, Gallery, Camera, etc.) from https://simplemobiletools.com. Source code: https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools.

Its Gallery looks similar to Fossify's. Its "About" seems almost identical, so I dunno.

You might want to check the permissions and such on the latest versions of those apps. Fossify is a fork of SimpleMobileTools but without the ads and trackers added by the new owners.

Tibor Kaputa seems to be the owner of the "Simple ..." ones. Still maintained.

So I should switch to Fossify?

Yes, switch

Thanks, done.