Did you know that you can easily replace numerous standard apps on Android with better ones? We’ve tracked down five such apps – they cost money on Google Play, but there’s a way to get them for free.
Under the name Simple Mobile Tools, Tibor Kaputa has been developing apps for several years that can be used to replace numerous apps preinstalled on Android. The idea was to offer open source apps without ads and only with the most necessary permissions and equipped with customizable widgets.
A few years later, it has grown into 21 apps that have been downloaded almost 50 million times and have an average rating of 4.6 on the Play Store. In addition to donations, the developer decided after a few years to build pro versions for the most popular apps and to charge a small one-time payment for them. For F-Droid users, however, he provides the apps completely free of charge.
Plain Gallery Pro
Image Management is the most popular Simple Mobile Tools app:
- includes basic photo editing
- Gesture support for rotating photos
- Filter and sorting functions
- Rename files in batch mode
- Individual folders can be hidden
- Equip folders with access protection
- Support for many file formats
playstore: Buy Simple Gallery Pro for 89 cents
F-Droid: Simple Gallery Pro for free
Getting the most out of F-Droid: The AppStore that Google doesn’t like
Plain Calendar Pro
A good replacement for the built-in calendar app:
- offline calendar
- Time zone support
- CalDAV sync
- Import-Export in ICS format
- memories
- widgets
- task management
- different views
playstore: Buy Simple Calendar Pro for 99 cents
F-Droid: Simple Calendar Pro for free
Plain Contacts Pro
Contact management allows either only local storage or synchronization of contacts via the Google account.
- duplicate detection
- Import and export contacts
- Speed dial for calls
- Search and sorting functions
playstore: Buy Simple Contacts Pro for 69 cents
F-Droid: Simple Contacts Pro for free
Plain Notes Pro
Quick ideas, spontaneous ideas or just important things that can not be missing at the next purchase, this simple note app takes care of it.
- With checklists
- Automatic saving
- Fonts customizable
- widgets
- password protection
- Import-Export function
playstore: Buy Simple Notes Pro for 89 cents
F-Droid: Simple Notes Pro for free
Plain File Manager Pro
The minimalist file manager makes simple file-related tasks easily accessible, such as renaming, copying, moving, deleting or sharing.
- Recently viewed files tab
- Analyze memory usage
- rename multiple files in one go
- hide files
- compress content
- different sorting functions
playstore: Buy Simple File Manager Pro for 89 cents
F-Droid: Simple File Manager Pro free