Fossify: 10 Open-Source Replacements for Simple Mobile Tools (2026)

Simple Mobile Tools was a family of small, ad-free, open-source Android apps: a gallery, a file manager, a calendar, a dialer and more. In December 2023 its creator confirmed that the project was being sold, and the open-source project was discontinued. Naveen Singh, a long-time contributor, forked the apps within days as Fossify, and has led the project since. We host ten of the Fossify apps, each checked against IzzyOnDroid’s signed index.

Quick picks

• Coming from a Simple Mobile Tools app: install the Fossify app with the same name. It installs next to the old one, so export your data in the old app’s settings and import it in the Fossify app.
• Want only what Fossify calls stable: Gallery, File Manager, Calendar, Contacts, Phone and Music Player.
• Want a keyboard that can’t go online: Fossify Keyboard, if you can live without autocorrect and swipe typing.
• Need your calendar and contacts synced: Fossify has no sync of its own, so pair Calendar and Contacts with your Google account or a sync app such as DAVx⁵.

The ten apps

App	Carries on from	Label	Size	Permissions
Fossify Gallery	Simple Gallery	Stable	38.6 MB	13
Fossify File Manager	Simple File Manager Pro	Stable	10.0 MB	6
Fossify Calendar	Simple Calendar Pro	Stable	7.8 MB	12
Fossify Contacts	Simple Contacts Pro	Stable	8.6 MB	9
Fossify Phone	Simple Dialer	Stable	9.2 MB	20
Fossify Music Player	Simple Music Player	Stable	11.0 MB	8
Fossify Notes	Simple Notes Pro	Beta	9.5 MB	6
Fossify Clock	Simple Clock	Beta	9.1 MB	12
Fossify Keyboard	Simple Keyboard	Beta	17.1 MB	2
Fossify Launcher	Simple Launcher	Beta	5.2 MB	5

The label is Fossify’s own. All ten run on Android 8.0 and later.

What we measured across all ten

• No internet permission. None of the ten APKs declares it, so the apps themselves can’t go online. Fossify says the same on every app’s privacy page.
• No known tracker code. None of them matches an Exodus Privacy tracker signature.
• One signing key. All ten are signed with the same Fossify certificate, whose SHA-256 begins affdb124. F-Droid’s metadata pins the same fingerprint for these apps. Fossify said in December 2025 that it would add the fingerprint to its READMEs, which hasn’t happened yet.

Fossify signs its Google Play and F-Droid releases with that same key and keeps the same package names, so you can switch between the Play version and one of our files without uninstalling, as long as the version you install is the same or newer.

What happened to the old apps

The Simple Mobile Tools apps are still on Google Play under their old names, but they have changed. Their listings now say “Contains ads”. Exodus Privacy found no tracker code in the Play versions of Simple Keyboard, Clock, Launcher and Notes from before the sale, and nine to twelve known trackers, among them Google AdMob, AppLovin and Firebase Analytics, in the versions released from early 2024 on. As Exodus itself points out, tracker code in an app is not proof that it is active. The paid Pro versions we looked at, Simple Notes Pro and Simple Gallery Pro, haven’t been updated since autumn 2023. F-Droid archived the old apps in November 2024, noting the Fossify alternatives.

The Fossify apps have new package names and a new key, so they install next to the old apps, not over them. To bring your data along, export it in the old app’s settings where it offers that, and import it in the Fossify app’s settings.

Beta, and a quiet 2026

Fossify labels an app beta while “active testing and development are still under way”, and stable once it is published for general use. The label is only a name, not a separate beta channel.

Development slowed in 2026. In July the maintainer wrote that work had paused “due to some unexpected personal events”, and that the project is maintained voluntarily, funded by sponsorships and paid app sales on Google Play. Of the ten here, only Fossify Calendar has had a release since; the other nine are still on versions from January or February 2026.

Thank You, and the Play versions

Every Fossify app is free. The project raises money with Fossify Thank You, a paid app on Google Play that unlocks extra customisation in the other apps, and which Fossify also publishes free on GitHub. The builds we host are the same as F-Droid’s: in the source code they behave as if Thank You were installed and leave out Google-related links. The Google Play builds of Gallery, File Manager, Calendar and Notes now and then ask you to buy Thank You instead.

Not here yet

• Fossify Messages. In its current release, 1.9.1 from July 2026, other apps on the phone can trigger some of its notification actions, such as deleting a message. The fix was merged in August 2026 but hasn’t been released. We’ll add Messages once a release includes it.
• Fossify also makes a camera, a voice recorder, a calculator, a paint app and a document reader, which we haven’t added.

Need a place to keep your calendar, contacts and photos in sync without Google? See Nextcloud, which syncs calendars and contacts to the phone through DAVx⁵, and Immich for photo backup.