A group of open source Android apps without ads and unnecessary permissions | Hacker News Reader

A group of open source Android apps without ads and unnecessary permissions

simplemobiletools.com

394 pointslaktak142 comments

OK, instead of answering in every Thread here:

These apps have existed for many years now and the "business model" behind them has changed over the times. These apps are available on Google Play and F-Droid. Originally, the apps were completely free, and there was a "Thank You" app which you could purchase on Google Play. This "Thank You" app does almost nothing, it only allows you to change the color theme of the apps and is more meant as a "donation app" for the project.

Then, in 2018, the author decided to develop "Pro" versions of the most popular apps: Gallery, Calendar, Contacts, File Manager, etc. They can be bought on Google Play. These apps are still fully open source, you can build them yourself if you want, but much easier: they are still published on F-Droid, including the "Thank You" app.

Understandably, the author does not really advertise that everything he does is available completely for free on F-Droid. If you install it from there, please consider to donate. I find these apps to be usually excellent and have used them for years.

It seems the apps starting to enforce upgrades to pro in ~February of this year.

On the AppBrain page you can see the rating nosedive from 4.6 stars (out of 5) to less than 2: https://www.appbrain.com/app/simple-gallery/com.simplemobile...

> It seems the apps starting to enforce upgrades to pro in ~February of this year.

Only when installed from Google playstore.

Yeah but the price is symbolic... and maintaining app on Android, even without adding any features, requires some work to catch up on the changes made to the system

Unfortunately, the charge to my credit card would not be merely symbolic.

Developer's response to several of the negative reviews complaining about their data being held hostage:

> Hey, it is just a tiny one time payment, you will never have to pay again :) lf you uninstall the paid app within 2 hours, you are automatically refunded. If you want a refund anytime later just contact us

While I understand and respect the developer's desire to monetize, creating a set of expectations and then pushing an update to require payment for accessing local data feels like ransom. Have to be careful with the trust users place in you.

Data hostage? All of these apps feature easy and painless import/export of data to an open format.

I do not have personal experience and it appears that the f-droid versions have no anti-features, but those comments at Play store were specifically talking about their data being held hostage.

Nothing wrong with that.

Mindustry (a tower defense factorio supcom-ish game) follows a similar model. Its paid on Steam, its free and GPLv3 on GitHub (and Android), and there don't seem to be many complaints about it.

IMO more closed source devs need to follow this model, or the "open source but proprietary" model that's working for Barotrauma.

> "open source but proprietary" model that's working for Barotrauma.

It's source available, not open source.

I think aseprite does the same, which is cool, but I find its build scheme a bit complex, depending on not so simple to build libraries. I'm not proficient enough with the tech stack used but it seems unnecessary complex. Eh, I prefer the guy/gal to be paid. (Edit: typo)

> Understandably, the author does not really advertise that everything he does is available completely for free on F-Droid. If you install it from there, please consider to donate. I find these apps to be usually excellent and have used them for years.

It's the same with OsmAnd

OsmAnd~ in F-Droid is the free build of OsmAnd+ from Google Play, IIRC.

I bought the Google Play version and can confirm it's not the same as the F-Droid one.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.osmand.plus/

it literally is (see `.plus`); in fact, if you install from F-droid, and then open Google Play to look at OsmAnd+, `Install` button is gone, just `Open`

that doesn't necessarily mean they are the same app, just that they are using the same name

What are the main differences?

It's a decent model.

I actually wanted to support osmand financially, only at the time the only way I could find to do so was through the play store, which I didn't want to use.

I've tried the simple apps and they are ok, but there are so many good alternatives on fdroid they don't stand out in any way.

Osmand is (or was last I checked) also available paid on the Amazon Fire store.

If you get Amazon digital credit, e.g. from a "prime day delivery", you can use the fire store to donate that money to Osmand or whatever other app of preference.

Simple Calendar is great. It does everything I need and is simple to use.

Usually the default GrapheneOS/AOSP apps are good enough, but not the calendar. Also I never found a calendar I like better on F-Droid.

> Then, in 2018, the author decided to develop "Pro" versions of the most popular apps...

That's when I started getting notifications to get the pro version every once and a while, even though I had bought the thank you for $15. It would have been nice to get grandfathered. I was and still am thankful. They are great apps for me.

Yeah, similar thing for me. I spent a good bit (probably ~Rs 30 of my Rs 50) Google Play Balance on the thank you app as I loved the idea. When I saw the "paid" versions, even though I got all of them when they were free in the introductory period it left a bad taste in my mouth.

(If you're wondering how someone had so little money to spend/disposable income try being a kid in a third-world country.)

I use some of those via F-Droid, but I've stopped installing updates because the nagging to "upgrade" to a "monetized" version is getting worse.[1] I'm worried that they will start breaking the free versions, and thus can no longer trust their updates.

[1] https://www.simplemobiletools.com/blog/our-best-apps-are-now...

So it's not "apps without ads," but rather "apps without third-party ads."

If you're so inclined, the unlock is also pushed to F-Droid under Simple Thank You app. It's by the same Dev.

> I use some of those via F-Droid, but I've stopped installing updates because the nagging to "upgrade" to a "monetized" version is getting worse.[1]

Huh? The versions in F-Droid are the monetized versions. They don't include any nagging. I've been using them for years.

I have installed them from F-droid with nagging and the thank you installed.

Are you using a different F-droid source than everybody else?

Say I'd like to see some nagging from Simple Notes Pro. What do I need to do? (And why, conceptually, does Simple Notes Pro, already the paid version, include nagging in the first place?)

I have installed the apk directly right now from an old old source. I am going to try the f-droid version again soon and see how it goes.

It sounds as if you're actually using the apps installed from the playstore. If they're from F-Droid you shouldn't get any nagging or ads.

I use gallery, contacts, and file manager from F-Droid, up to date, and no ads or nags at all, ever.

I use the same group of apps plus the calendar. What do you use for that? I'm finding it great with a couple of niggles. Not opposed to jumping, even there's some friction.

I use Simple Calendar (I've never had any issues with it) but the other one I've heard a lot of people using is Etar.

I also use the Simple Calendar, but shamefully also use Google Calendar due to my grandfathered custom-domain email hosted by Gmail.

Simple Calendar works with it for individual calendars, but the Google one does shared calendars with less friction.

I have updated mine from F-Droid and they have removed features that I use. I do not trust the updates and won't update to the newer versions.

I used the file manager and the gallery apps but I stopped using them since they started to reduce functionality to nudge people to the paid versions. Of course there is nothing wrong in working for money, I do, but I replaced them with other open source and free as beer apps from F-Droid. Selling open source is hard. To put it mildly, there is lot of competition on price. Selling closed source is hard too, because of competition from open source.

I'm using Material Files and Aves Libre now. Aves doesn't have an editor and I'm using either the one from Samsung's Gallery, which I can't remove anyway, or Google's Snapseed. Google can snoop on me with the OS and the other apps of them I'm using (almost only Maps) so I'm not worsening my privacy level too much.

> they started to reduce functionality to nudge people to the paid versions

You get the "Pro" apps from F-Droid as well.

OpenIntents File Manager has worked for me so far.

Hasnt that not been updated since 2018? That would scare me

I'm very discouraged when I click their Blog page and see headlines like "Our best apps are now paid" and "Trial period." These apps have popups asking for support, which 100% are advertisements contrary to the thread title. Their apps which previously were free and received updates no longer get those updates and have been replaced with paid ones. This is a warning sign of enshittification and degradation of reliability. There are a multitude of ways they could someday stop updates to these apps too to replace them with another monetization scheme.

You get the "Pro" apps from F-Droid, including the "ThankYou" App. I never got any nagging from them (and yes, I donated, but that did not have any technical consequences and is not necessary).

I want to recommend things everyone benefits from, not myself. Consequently, I don't want to support anything that doesn't trend the community toward my ideals.

For instance, the Mastodon project and mastodon.social are run by a non-profit. They have their own mastodon account which discusses updates, advertises merchandise to support them, and could ask for sponsors or donations if needed. Users can subscribe to their feed if they want, and support them should they need help, while users who don't want advertisements won't be affected. I'm confident in the stability of this model for them so I chose to make my Mastodon account on their instance so I can trust I won't have to transfer to another someday should one shut down.

I'm hoping the digital space evolves in this direction and that we approach a post-advertisement economy.

Otherwise, enshittification keeps ruining things and we can't rely on the long-term stability of anything. Just look at Google.

Having to put food on the table, plus the shitty business model (or lack thereof) of open source, means that it is probably either charging or not having the apps at all. The author has written code and released it under liberal licenses for years, and now they want (or worse, need because their life conditions changed) some income from the effort.

> they could someday stop updates to these apps too to replace them with another monetization scheme

The code is still being written and kindly released under the terms of an open source license, so if that happens, I'd expect that sufficiently motivated people moved by strong needs or ideals would be able to fork it and keep using (and possibly even improving) them without issue, as the license explicitly allows for it.

Asking for support is definitely NOT advertisement.

This is a similar project from Karlsruhe University:

Summary: All Privacy Friendly Apps:

- are Open Source (GPLv3) and their source code can be viewed an Github by anybody

- used minimal permissions

- do not neither tracking mechanisms nor advertisement

https://secuso.aifb.kit.edu/english/105.php

The fitness apps looked exactly like what I need, but when going to the play store says they were made for an older version of Android. Visiting Github seems like they aren't actively maintained either.

Fork them, I guess. That remains the main big advantage of open source.

I've had closed source apps, even paid ones, disappear without a trace from my phone and tablets, presumably after an OS update. I find that an incredibly shitty thing to be subjected to. If an OS update is going break any apps, I'd like to be warned about that.

These are great. Get them from fdroid.

It's sad that "without ads and unnecessary permissions" is so rare that it makes it to the HN front page. It really should be the other way around: "A blacklist of apps with ads and unnecessary permissions" should be newsworthy.

App stores are a wasteland. The vast majority of apps have "in-app-purchases" and try to nag users into paying a never ending stream of extras, or are filled with ads. Where are those simple apps that cost $1-$10, pay once, can use forever and have no ads?

For example I am trying to put a game on my child's iPad. The game is free but you only got one level open. If you want to play the other levels you got to pay. But it won't simply unlock the game, no, only a small part. If you want more, pay more, there is no end to the "buying" phase. This is a no-go situation with children. They can be tricked into clicking these in-app sales and getting stuck there. And that's what the developers want.

I want once I pay for a game, to know that 1. it will never advertise upsells or anything else 2. it will never block access for any feature 3. there are no trick links, buttons or UI flows to get children into the buying side of the app. On AppStore I can only find the Apple Arcade games to be clean, and those are subscription based.

The moral - I want to buy and have no choice of decent apps. How did we get into this mess after 15 years of App store evolution?

I would really love to see a curated version of the Play Store that only lists the good apps and not the legion of shitty ones.

Nintendo consoles seem to provide the experience you're looking for. Clean and curated games with no ads or subscriptions. And the games tend to be of higher quality, focused on actual gameplay as opposed to the dark patterns common on phone apps (e.g. time-limited "stamina" and other psychological manipulation tricks to encourage addictive behavior).

> Nintendo consoles seem to provide the experience you're looking for. Clean and curated games with no ads or subscriptions.

This mostly matches my experience, for example Nintendo Switch occasionally gets some critique for being a bit dated (apparently a new version is in the works), but it feels like a step up from mobile gaming and has all sorts of great games, from Legend of Zelda to Animal Crossing and even well made ports from other platforms.

That said, there are also free games that do have aspects of monetization, but I think it's easy enough not to save card details or anything like that.

Honestly, I kind of wish the first Switch generation would hang around for longer and developers would keep making well optimized games for it.

How does this work financially? From what I understand, access to the console market involves considerable upfront cost, so these games will hardly be from independent developers. If the games come from studios they wouldn't offer them for free, so who pays for these apps?

The business model is simply selling the game (typically in a $10-60 range), and sometimes additional DLC (downloadable content).

There are many games by independent developers on consoles, too. For example, Nintendo regularly releases "Indie World Showcase" promotional videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brNLmMMB-J4

Ok, I understand, the games are not free, just one-time payment and done. That's something.

You probably haven’t seen the Nintendo Online Shop on Switch. It’s filled with so much crappy games it’s hard to find anything of value at all, apart from going on the front page recommendations of first part Nintendo games and other big publishers.

If you browse through the new section it’s full of mostly cheap indie games.

I have found high-quality pay-once apps with no advertising, and I've done it with minimal effort.

Unfortunately, it won't do any good to recommend them to you, or their developers, because none of them are games, and the apps are so niche that nearly nobody on HN will want to purchase them anyway.

But they do exist; they're on the Play Store, hidden in plain sight.

I wish there was an f-droid for iOS; not for installing from, just as a way of searching for apps (including paid apps) that don't have ads or in-app purchases.

There is https://nobsgames.stavros.io/ but it's just for games ;-)

(I tried finding an iPad version of workrave/safeeyes, but all the apps are full of nags to pay for extra features or show ads in their break-time etc.)

My daughter and I made a little game (mostly to teach her programming) and it turned out not too bad. I thought it could be a good motivation for her to get it into the Apple App Store too, where her friends can see and download it.

We don't want any money, so no monetizing. The app will not be popular as we don't intend to do any marketing.

I realize that this is quite the opposite of what Apple wants.

Suppose the quality of the app is not worse than that of its paid and ad infested competitors, my question is: Does it have a chance to get past the review? Does it have a chance to stay in the App Store in the long run, assuming we do all the necessary updates for new iOS versions and critical bug fixes but nothing more?

Basically my question is: Will this be an uphill battle, because Apple doesn't earn anything from us?

If anyone has experience with a completely free iOS app, I would love to hear from you.

Yes, it will be up-hill. Apple development costs $99/year to Apple. You'll have to update and test on new releases - the platform vendors churn turns into your heavy lifting. Apple review process for your app could be tedious every time you release.

I've worked on a few FOSS apps in the Apple App Store and currently consider it "not worth it".

I've written to government officials about their anti-consumer practices.

An aside…

I encourage you to get a Nintendo switch and not connect it to a network.

Very high quality game (cartridges) that you pay for once.

I have long wanted an app store that only carried ad- and unnecessary-permission-free apps, both free and paid. no one seems inclined to set one up though.

Warning, the reaction to massive security issues in a bundled PDF reader of the file manager made me uninstall all of these apps. Safety of my device and data is paramount.

https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-File-Manager/iss...

https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-File-Manager/iss... where the developer shows no grasp of security "what can happen to an app without internet access?"

A "simple" file manager should not come with a PDF reader.

He did remove the PDF functionality as a result

It was fixed and a false positive from fdroid after some time

Fixed four months later

This type of response from a developer makes it easy to simply stay away from projects they are involved in.

I'm surprised at the amount of negativity in the comments. I use several of the tools and they are great. They do one thing well and don't have the feature bloat that a lot of apps suffer from.

HN is full of negativity against anything that is paid and is a consumer product.

I don't think that's necessarily fair in this context, the app's USP initially was being free and solid/good quality. Without the free part it's not the same.

As someone who's a bit disappointed by the app, here's my perspective -

1. In the beginning, these were completely free apps with no limitations (that I remember). 2. Then some features required a payment (if you were getting it from the play store apparently. I don't know about fdroid but I don't think that was advertised - and yes, apps like TaskbarX do advertise that they're free elsewhere.) 3. People called it (rightfully, in my opinion) akin to a bait-and-switch.

"But wait, you never paid anything! What's the problem?"

Well, if they were never offered under the guise of "Hey here's a foss app that's free!" - like ZorinOS - it might have been an easier pill to swallow. Some people including me paid for the "Thank You" version because we wanted to support a dev who was doing commendable work. But if you make it paid... that's kinda crappy.

Also (maybe?) see - OpenAI happily running away with money now that they can. Do you support that decision too?

I’ll say it before and I’ll say it again:

The apple App Store needs to display what permissions an app can even ask for.

I understand that iOS allows me to deny requested permissions.

I want to see, in advance, the entire scope of permissions that the app can potentially ask for.

This will allow users to make more sophisticated assessments of incentives and business models prior to install.

Apple knows this information - they should make it available.

these are android apps

Sure - it's just an aside - and something we should ask of all app stores.

They have this information, in advance, and can show it to us. I shouldn't be the only one demanding it.

In the past, it was specifically the iOS app store I have spoken of.

F droid does this already

I recommend all of my friends and family to use this when searching for Android apps https://playsearch.kaki87.net/ and simply tick the 3 checkboxes at the bottom.

thanks, that looks like an awesome resource!

nice too bad there is no open source filter as-well

But the free versions all have ads so this is blatantly wrong. Even if there are paid "pro" versions that remove the ads. The only real reason someone is going to buy this is because it removes the ads. So the existence of the ads is the primary revenue source in both the free and paid version. In both cases the developer is being rewarded for implementing ads in software. This is not commendable in any way.

Monetisation and sustainability is a perennial with any and all open source projects. What the thread downplays by focusing on the same old discussions is an interesting and important technical aspect of this project: namely having a "group" of apps sharing a codebase.

This is not at all usual in the android space. F-Droid feels like a random collection of apps with largely independent codebases, lots of duplicate efforts for the same tasks etc.

The only other such coherent "group of apps" project that I am aware of is the collection of KDE Plasma apps (Qt/QML/Kirigami based).

Have not looked into the simplebmobiletools code and how re-usable / modular the various components are, but it seems their thinking is in the right direction.

I installed these apps on my mother's smartphone (Motorola) after the existing apps became unusable because they slowed down or displayed large banner ads.

Thank you for these great apps. I just donated to you :)

Wait, people are upset that the compiled versions have free trials and then paid versions? I'm looking at the code for all these apps right now, you can compile your own apks and never pay a dime if you want, are people really upset about this monetization strategy?

and I believe that the versions on F-Droid are the paid versions, so you can just install it from there for free instead of Google Play

Unfortunately, the vast majority of users don't want to spend a dime on any digital good ever. In fact, they are very offended when asked to pay and will gladly leave 1 star reviews thinking that they are defending their interests. They won't admit to it but they are instead paying with their privacy and attention. This is the reason we have tech monopolies financed by marketing and user data for sale on the dark net. And the worst bit of it all is that the current state of affairs is hopelessly irreversible

You are absolutely right. Every HN thread about a consumer product that is paid is full of why it is bad, or why people would gladly pay if it had 10 more orthogonal features, or they have a better way to support the creator, or the product doesn't deserve payment for some random reason but it is OK to use it without compensating the creator.

The irony is a good % of HN is well paid due to information related jobs. And their work is valued only due to artificial scarcity of information.

> Unfortunately, the vast majority of users don't want to spend a dime on any digital good ever.

The subscriber count for Netflix, Disney+, Spotify, etc. easily disproves this. Please, while making a good argument, try not to include grandiose overstatements that discredit your entire position for no good reason.

Subscriber count is not telling of what the "vast majority" is doing. Subscriptions to quasi-gate-keepers also can't be compared to "street market" one-time purchases

I personally don't consider what my direct experience will be, but instead the total sum of the collective experience all users will have. I want to support something everyone benefits from, not myself. Consequently, I don't want to support anything that doesn't trend the community toward my ideals.

As an example, the Mastodon project and mastodon.social are run by a non-profit. They have their own mastodon account which discusses updates, advertises merchandise to support them, and could ask for sponsors or donations if needed. Users can subscribe to their feed if they want, and support them should they need help, while users who don't want advertisements won't be affected. I'm confident in the stability of this model for them so I chose to make my Mastodon account on their instance so I can trust I won't have to transfer to another someday should one shut down.

I'm hoping the digital space evolves in this direction and we approach a post-advertisement economy.

Otherwise, enshittification keeps ruining things and we can't rely on the long-term stability of anything. Just look at Google.

I would be wary of using their calendar app. It has had a long-standing bug in basic timezone / DST handling:

https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-Calendar/issues/... https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/Simple-Calendar/issues/...

Your issues links point to bugs that have been closed.

Only the first one has been closed, apparently because it is a duplicate of the second one which is still open.

Indeed. The point of linking the first one was to indicate that the issue has been reported for 3 years without being fixed.

You can get their apps off f-droid, and their Gallery is the best one I've tried on Android.

Really wish their Gallery had a "ignore MediaStore, the filesystem is the Single Source Of Truth" mode :(

I use these apps from fdroid. Google, whilst not removed, is pretty much disabled on my device. Never had an issue.

I think they are also moving into the device business too: https://simplephone.tech/eu/product/simple-phone/

Simplephone got abandoned.

The only simplemobiltools app I use on a Daly basis is gallery.

No other app works reliably while this app is rock solid for what it does.

I have attempted to give others a try but they had reduced functionality or bugs like dialer.

Calendar works kinda but gallery is rock solid.

Do really like using many of their offerings. On f-Droid as well.

Pushing to buy premium version, so without ads is misleading.

Anyone know if there is something similar for games ?. my parents like playing classic games on their phones but they're usually filled with scammy ads.

the link in the sibling comment also has some games https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37464465

I try to avoid them as much as possible. On play store people using the free version were essentially blackmailed to switching to pro calendar (or lose their data), and even if I use F Droid version that's unethical. Pity there's no other FOSS Material you Calendar. I don't use any of their other apps.

I use a his calendar and notes app. They're great. Others I haven't tried but I assume they're pretty good too.

"Standard" android users scare me more than windows users in terms of what they are willing to bear to use their devices.

Windows end users usually end up with lots of crappy unneeded proprietary software for tasks that people shouldn't even need to do with their pc's and (at least with versions prior to 11, I really don't know if things improved) end up with so many ads and background processes that they have to reinstall the OS periodically. It is like Christmas for them: it happens every year.

Android end users seem to have accepted a mentality: the app will steal your personal data or throw ads at you. Even paid ones. They simply act like that is a normal thing, a law of the nature.

When I show windows users the clean world of linux distros and when I show android users the clean world of F-droid they get deeply impressed until one ask "What about MSOffice?" or the other ask "What about whatsapp?". That is the problem with current end users: they are dependent on proprietary software. To fix the world of devices we need to break this dependency.

Don't fool yourself: even if you don't depend on any proprietary software, it still affects you: when you need to buy new hardware, use a service or wants to use a software, it may sometimes not be available for you because you decided not to agree with the abuse. You won't be even able to communicate if you don't agree to use a proprietary app. Fixing the world for ourselves will require fixing the world for "end users" too. And with an added difficulty: the other side is currently very effective in convincing their users that the abuse is normal, a good price to pay or that it improves their experience or security. It is for your own good, they say.

I cannot think of any open source endeavour, without finding monetization, to be sustainable...

We live in monetary societies, you cannot live without money. What matters is the type of monetization.

Sponsorships via Patreon and GitHub seem to be working well for a lot of people. Ethical too.

I used to love

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplemobi...

but now it is a "14days free trial, then pay"

Install the version from F-Droid instead.

I have had bad experience with their apps, I don't particularly remember what it was as it was a few years ago but it was their notes app. They limit some basic features and push you to buy their premium versions.

imagine having to pay 1 euro for no ads in your file browser lmao

What free file browser do you use that you're sure isn't snooping on your files?

termux ?

Is that a terminal emulator on android? That sounds... really obnoxious to use with my 2 thumbs lol.

This is a terminal emulator and debian distribution in an android app. Works wonders, basically a PC in your phone.

Yes! It's a terminal emulator and Linux environment for Android. You can do pretty much anything with it. Typing on a phone is hard but you get used to it. Programming while lying in bed is just too comfortable.

I've written way too much code with vim inside Termux. I created an entire programming language inside Termux. The first programming language to be born inside a smartphone, perhaps? Only thing I haven't managed is Android app development. Yet.

Dolphin. Sometimes dired.

Material files, MiXplorer

MiXplorer, Material Files

imagine having to pay 0 euros for an ecosystem that monetizes your privacy and attention

Total commander is pretty good with no funny business.

It's "ugly" though.

https://www.ghisler.com/

It even has plugins for ftp and I believe sftp.

I didn't realize there was an android version, I'll have to take a look. I am incapable of using a windows computer without Total Commander, I've used it more than any other program, full stop. Probably since I was 4 or 5 years old. Life without it is unimaginable.

I didn't know there was a Windows version.

The Android version works great. I don't know of a better alternative.

fun fact: Total Commander is inspired by Midnight Commander, which in its turn is a clone of Norton Commander, which was first released in 1986.

And don't forget the sibling lineage of NC, the Volkov Commander, 100% assembly for unparalleled performance.

The one that only worked on DOS, right?

> It's "ugly" though.

Just like the whole Android ecosystem. The only thing "pretty" in Android were some buttons in some games.

There is also this UI religion that everything must be black with gray or white with gray.

There is also a similar Ghost Commander, full of magic Android hidden/pseudo filesystems browsing capability.

https://sites.google.com/site/ghostcommander1 https://f-droid.org/packages/com.ghostsq.commander/

I used to use that.

I sincerely prefer total commander.

Total commander also has all those goodies, including browsing and backing up apps and using FS providers.

Plus ghost commander had this stupid approach about copying into SD card, where if the source was external it had to copy to internal storage first.

If it failed the files would just linger there permanently.

What is the most privacy respecting Android phone, with good hardware, which I can use with these apps?

The latest Google Pixel with GrapheneOS installed.

https://grapheneos.org/

I'm using this to comment with a shameless (but positive) promotion. If anyone looking for open-source metronome, https://tick.talaviram.com

(It's actually cross-platform and available also outside stores)

a while ago, I created this https://appswithcode.org/?q=android to search apps with code.

previous discussion:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31490250

I have all of these apps and they are fantastic

Why there are no simple, offline, tasks/TODO applications for Android, without ads, and with support for reminders? Went through dozen of them and either they are very old, from Android 2 era), or packed to the brim with useless (for my particular use case) features.

Have you looked at tasks.org? Not sure if they're offline but iirc they're foss.

Yes, but this app had too many permissions. I might give it a try again, as I'm getting really desperate.

Tasky

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