Does anyone know of an open-source alternative to Google’s “Messages” app, which takes care of SMS/text messages on my phone?
I was looking for open-source alternatives on PlayStore and F-Droid but can’t really find anything – most apps seem to target some extra purpose than simply handling SMSs.
(Edit: I’d like to stay away from the “Simple Mobile Tools” line because I don’t know if it’s open source, and I don’t like the way they promoted some apps – forcing users to update to pro and similar.)
Cheers!
I don’t know who’s the creator. Here’s the app – you can also see the complaints from some users:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simplemobiletools.gallery
I have installed this app and never had any paywall in simple apps suite
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.simplemobiletools.thankyou/
Yeah there’s a mystery about completely different availability policies by the developer in GPlay and in FDroid…
what’s the mystery? use fdroid.
I had to follow links all the way to github to discover this, but yes, it’s the same person. Oddly, F-Droid doesn’t seem linked to from anywhere, and the description on the web site seems to indicate the free versions of their apps have been abandoned, yet the version I have is fully functional and still receives regular updates.
This is the one I use: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.simplemobiletools.gallery.pro/
It’s fully functional. If it’s missing any features, then I sure don’t notice.
Ha that’s a fun mystery!!
I can see why the users with the Google Play version are unhappy. What the developer is asking for payment is very reasonable (especially since it’s a one-time payment), but it looks like he wasn’t upfront about this and opted for the good old-fashioned bait-and-switch.