A few folks around here have recommended the Simple Mobile Tools apps, open
source apps for basic functionality without unnecessary permissions like
network, ads, etc. Apps like Simple Calendar, Simple Camera, etc.

Not any more. The suite has recently been bought by ZipoApps, an outfit
that buys up neglected apps for the purpose of monetising them. They're
already switched the apps to a new Google Play organisation and marked them
as containing ads. (not affecting the F-droid versions so far)

https://old.reddit.com/r/SimpleMobileTools/comments/187w64x/simple_mobile_tools_bought_by_zipoapps/
https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/General-Discussion/issues/241

The developer seems to think they can take the GPLv3 apps closed source:
https://github.com/SimpleMobileTools/General-Discussion/issues/241#issuecomment-1837443507

There are now two forks:
https://github.com/FossifyX
https://github.com/goastian
which don't have releases as yet.

We'll see how this plays out, but at this point I wouldn't recommend
installing Simple xxxx apps from Google Play - F-droid should be ok for the
time being.

Theo

Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote

> We'll see how this plays out, but at this point I wouldn't recommend
> installing Simple xxxx apps from Google Play - F-droid should be ok for the
> time being.

Thanks for this update as I'm one of those who has often recommended (and
used) the Simple Mobile Tools software in the past, where even then, the
Google Play Store repository "Pro" versions were not free or ad free while
the F-Droid "Pro" versions were both free & ad free (like OSMAnd~ is).

This means two things, I think, for now anyway:
A. People should get the "last known good version" of the tools, and,
B. People should have always saved the APK at the time of installation

Since the SimpleMobileTools are "mostly" on F-Droid (I don't think all
are), it's easy to save every version of every APK you install.
<https://i.postimg.cc/c4PrjSwx/aurora19.jpg> Save all APKs upon install

But if you install anything from the Google Play Store repository, you want
to check the box to "NOT DELETE" the APK after the app is installed.
<https://i.postimg.cc/V6tyDpNd/aurora17.jpg> Don't delete APKs postinstall

There's no reason that the APK should be deleted after you install any app
from the Google Play Store repository - which is why that switch exists.

Even if you forgot to check the switch to "NOT DELETE" the APK after
installing, there is always the "base.apk" for every app you "currently"
have installed...so you can always "extract" that last installed version.

But each time you update that app, the "base.apk" gets overwritten.

That's why it's best to just NOT DELETE the APK after you install it
from the Google Play Store repository (by checking that switch).