Simple Notes: The "No Ads, Open Source" Note App That Stopped Being Either

Updated November 2026 · Written by the NovaRunway editorial team

What Simple Notes Actually Was

Simple Notes was one of roughly two dozen apps in the Simple Mobile Tools suite, a collection of small, single-purpose Android utilities built by developer Tibor Kaputa. The suite covered a file manager, calendar, gallery, contacts, music player, keyboard, SMS messenger, launcher and notes — all of it open source, all of it ad-free, all of it built around a deliberately plain interface .

At its peak, the collection had over 70 million combined downloads and an average rating around 4.6 stars . It was a favourite in open-source and privacy-focused Android communities, precisely because it did the opposite of what mainstream apps do: no accounts, no cloud requirement, no telemetry, no permission requests that were not strictly necessary.

Simple Notes itself was a plain-text notepad. No rich formatting, no folders beyond categories and favourites, no collaboration, no sync. It created notes, stored them locally, and offered a resizable home-screen widget for quick access. That was the entire product, and for a lot of people that was exactly enough. The current Play Store listing shows around 2.9 million installs, a rating just over 4.1 stars from roughly 14,000 ratings, a 20.4 MB download, and a requirement of Android 6.0 or later .

What Happened: The Acquisition, and Why It Matters

This is the part the store description does not mention, and it is the reason this article exists.

In late 2023, Simple Mobile Tools was sold to ZipoApps, an Israeli company that acquires apps and monetises them. The sale was confirmed publicly by lead developer Tibor Kaputa in a GitHub discussion, and reported across Android Authority, gHacks, MakeUseOf and the open-source community .

ZipoApps describes its own model plainly: it finds well-performing apps and uses its "expertise to take them to the next level," with profitability driven by ads or paid subscriptions. The company's Play Store developer page lists over 50 apps .

The consequences arrived quickly and were visible:

• The apps were removed from F-Droid, the open-source Android repository that rejects apps containing tracking or advertising .
• The Play Store listings were marked "Contains ads." Android Authority confirmed this directly across the suite .
• The support email address was changed from the developer's own domain to @zipoapps.com .
• Permission requests expanded in some apps, and reporting described tracking libraries being introduced .

MakeUseOf's assessment was blunt: "Most apps published by ZipoApps collect varying degrees of user data and offer no way of deleting it," and there are community allegations that some apps behave as spyware or adware — allegations the outlet noted it could not independently verify, but which it considered consistent with ZipoApps' privacy policy .

That is the situation. The app still works. The description still claims what it used to be. Those two things are no longer aligned.

What the Current Simple Notes Actually Is

To be fair to the app: the current Play Store build is not a disaster. It still opens fast, it still stores plain text notes, and the widget still exists. The rating sits just above 4.1 stars, which is not the profile of an app people are fleeing in horror .

What has changed is the wrapper:

• It contains advertising. The Play Store listing carries the "Contains ads" label, which it did not before the acquisition .
• The description is inaccurate. It still claims "no ads or unnecessary permissions" and "fully opensource," which was true of the version it was written for and is not true of the current build.
• The maintenance is uncertain. The last listed update was July 2026 (version 6.1.2), which is recent enough to suggest it is still being touched — but a ZipoApps-maintained app is not the same proposition as a community-maintained one .
• Your data posture has changed. Even if the core note-taking is still local, an ad-supported app typically collects device identifiers and behavioural data to serve relevant advertising. That is how advertising works, and it is the opposite of the original pitch .

There is also a "Simple Notes Pro" listing in circulation, priced around $0.49, that appears to be a paid variant of the same lineage . It is not a clean upgrade path to the old open-source app — the old open-source build lives on under a different name.

The Honest Recommendation: Fossify Notes

When Simple Mobile Tools was sold, the open-source community did what open source does: it forked the code. The result is Fossify, a full suite of replacements for the entire Simple Mobile Tools lineup, launched in early 2024 and now covering seven fully released apps and nine more in open beta .

Fossify Notes is the direct replacement for Simple Notes, and it is what the original app used to be:

• No advertising. None, not a free tier with ads .
• No tracking. Fossify states plainly that its apps "contain no advertising, do not track users, and do not send app data or usage records to Fossify" .
• No internet permission. The notes app operates fully offline, and the absence of an internet permission is the structural guarantee behind the privacy claim — an app that cannot reach the network cannot exfiltrate your notes .
• Open source. The code is public on GitHub, and the Play Store and F-Droid builds use the same package name and signing key, so you can verify what you are installing .
• Same feature set. Plain-text notes, categories, favourites, widgets, colour customisation — the things Simple Notes did well, without the layer that was added on top.

It is available on both Google Play and F-Droid, which matters: F-Droid is the repository that removed the ZipoApps versions precisely because of the ads and tracking . Installing from F-Droid is the cleanest route if you want to be certain of what you are getting.

One caveat worth stating: Fossify's UI is described as improved over the original Simple Apps but still functional rather than polished, and the suite is not feature-complete against every Google equivalent . That is the trade. You give up ad-supported convenience and you get a note app that cannot phone home.

Simple Notes vs. Fossify Notes

	Simple Notes (current)	Fossify Notes
Publisher	ZipoApps (acquired 2023)	Fossify community fork
Ads	Yes — Play Store lists "Contains ads"	No
Tracking	Ad-supported; data collection typical of ad SDKs	None; no data sent to Fossify
Internet permission	Required for ad delivery	Not requested; fully offline
Open source	No longer the clean fork	Yes, public on GitHub
F-Droid	Removed	Available
Play Store	Available, ~2.9M installs, ~4.1★	Available, same signing key as F-Droid
Price	Free with ads; Pro variant ~$0.49	Free
Widget	Yes	Yes
Android version	6.0+	Modest; check current listing

Where It Falls Short

• The store description is actively misleading. It promises no ads and full open source. Neither is true of the build it now describes. That alone should make a careful reader pause.
• The app is now ad-supported. Even if the ads are not aggressive by mobile standards, they change the data posture and the experience.
• Maintenance is opaque. A ZipoApps update schedule is not the same as a community one, and there is no public roadmap you can inspect.
• It is no longer on F-Droid. That removal was not arbitrary — it reflects the repository's standards on ads and tracking.
• Neither app is a full note-taking system. Both are plain-text notepads. If you want markdown, attachments, sync, or cross-device collaboration, you are looking at the wrong category entirely.
• Fossify's UI is functional, not beautiful. The fork is a privacy win, not a design upgrade.

What to Do If You Already Have Simple Notes Installed

1. Check your version. If you have an old APK from before late 2023, you may still have the ad-free open-source build. Do not update it unless you are willing to accept the new terms.
2. Export your notes first. Simple Notes has always supported plain-text export and sharing. Do that before you change anything.
3. Install Fossify Notes from Google Play or F-Droid .
4. Import your notes. Because both apps work in plain text, moving across is straightforward — no proprietary format locks you in.
5. Disable auto-update for Simple Notes if you intend to keep it, or uninstall it once you have migrated.

This is the one genuine advantage of a plain-text notes app: your data was never trapped. Migration takes ten minutes.

Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Simple, fast, plain-text note-taking with no learning curve	Now ad-supported, contrary to its own description
Resizable home-screen widget for quick access	Removed from F-Droid after the acquisition
Notes stored in plain text, so export is trivial	"Fully opensource" and "no ads" claims are outdated
Small download (~20 MB) and works on Android 6.0+	Ad SDKs typically collect device and behavioural data
Around 2.9M installs and ~4.1★ — still functional	Maintenance by an ad-monetisation company, not the original dev
Fossify Notes is a free, ad-free, drop-in replacement	Fossify's interface is functional rather than polished

Who Should Use Which

Install Fossify Notes if you want what Simple Notes used to be: a fast, offline, ad-free notepad with a widget and no data collection. This is the recommendation for almost everyone, and it is free. If you care about verifying what you install, get it from F-Droid .

Keep Simple Notes only if you already have a pre-acquisition build and see no reason to change, or if you specifically need a feature the current build has that Fossify lacks. Even then, disable auto-updates and export your notes regularly.

Look elsewhere entirely if you need more than a plain-text notepad. Neither app offers markdown rendering, attachments, cloud sync, or cross-device collaboration. For those, you are choosing between mainstream options like Google Keep and Obsidian, or open-source alternatives like Joplin and Standard Notes — all of which are different products with different trade-offs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Simple Notes still ad-free?

No. The Play Store listing currently carries the "Contains ads" label, which was applied after the Simple Mobile Tools suite was acquired by ZipoApps . The description still claiming "no ads" is out of date.

Who owns Simple Notes now?

ZipoApps, an Israeli company that acquires apps and monetises them through advertising and subscriptions. The sale was confirmed by original developer Tibor Kaputa and reported in December 2023 .

Is it still open source?

The original code was open source and remains publicly available, which is how the Fossify fork exists. But the version now published on Google Play is maintained by ZipoApps and is not the clean community build the description implies.

Why was it removed from F-Droid?

F-Droid strongly prefers apps without advertising and tracking. After the acquisition introduced ads, the Simple Mobile Tools apps no longer met its criteria and were removed .

What is the best replacement?

Fossify Notes. It is the community fork of the original code, free, ad-free, requires no internet permission, and is available on both Google Play and F-Droid .

Will I lose my notes if I switch?

No. Simple Notes stores plain text, and both apps support export and import. Export from Simple Notes, install Fossify Notes, and import. The migration is quick because there is no proprietary format involved.

Does Fossify Notes have a widget?

Yes. The widget — one of Simple Notes' most-used features — carries over to the fork.

What Android version do I need?

Simple Notes currently requires Android 6.0 or later . Check the current Fossify listing for its requirement, as it may differ.

Is Simple Notes Pro different?

A paid "Pro" variant exists at around $0.49, but it is part of the same post-acquisition lineage rather than a continuation of the original open-source app. If your goal is the old ad-free experience, Fossify is the correct destination, not Pro.

Is it safe to keep using?

"Safe" depends on your threat model. There is no evidence the current build is malicious, and MakeUseOf explicitly noted it could not verify community allegations of spyware . But it is an ad-supported app from a company whose business is monetising acquired apps, which is a meaningful change from the privacy-first app it used to be.

Availability and Pricing

Simple Notes is published on Google Play by Simple Mobile Tool / ZipoApps. It is free to download, contains ads, and has a paid "Pro" variant at around $0.49. It requires Android 6.0+, installs at roughly 20 MB, and the current version is 6.1.2, last updated in July 2026 .

Fossify Notes is the recommended replacement. It is free, open source, ad-free and available on Google Play and F-Droid. Check both listings before installing so you get the build you expect.

Original developer: Tibor Kaputa / Simple Mobile Tools (pre-acquisition)
Current publisher: ZipoApps
Recommended replacement: Fossify Notes — fossify.org
Source code (fork): github.com/FossifyOrg/Notes

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Disclosure: NovaRunway is an independent app and game discovery site. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by ZipoApps, Simple Mobile Tools, Fossify, or any of their publishers. All trademarks and intellectual property belong to their respective owners. This article reflects our editorial assessment based on publicly available reporting and current store listings, and is provided for informational purposes. Ownership, pricing, features and privacy practices may change — verify with the official store listing and the developer's own documentation before installing.