Simple Gallery

No ads or unnecessary permissions. It is fully open source and provides customizable colors. No internet access required; photos stay on the device.

History

Simple-Gallery (GPL-3.0) was my favorite FOSS gallery app until the project was sold to a shady Israeli company named ZipoApps in 2023. I forked it to keep it alive, FOSS and updated. I will release new versions as long as I have time and energy. Code contributions on GitHub are very welcome :)

This fork is not affiliated with Simple Mobile Tools, Fossify, or ZipoApps.

APKs are published on GitHub Releases

• Simple-Gallery_<version>-FOSS-arm64-v8a.apk (most phones)
• Simple-Gallery_<version>-FOSS-armeabi-v7a.apk
• Simple-Gallery_<version>-FOSS-x86_64.apk (emulators)
• Simple-Gallery_<version>-FOSS-universal.apk (all included)

New features in this fork

The Simple Gallery Pro workflow, plus a FOSS editor, AVIF/JXL, motion photos, and 360° panoramas. Still offline, still GPL-3.0.

Edit

• FOSS photo editor — Crop, rotate, resize, draw, filters, tone sliders, and text/emoji stickers. Tools stack in one session. Undo last tool (up to 3). No proprietary SDK.
• Editor stickers — 6-column emoji grid (arrows, markers, faces) plus More for the system emoji picker.
• Lossless JPEG rotate — Viewer rotate/save and editor rotate-only keep original quality and size. Save as no longer crashes on EXIF write.
• JPEG optimize — Native jpegoptim: lossless Huffman or lossy (default 85). EXIF kept; file replaced only if smaller. Batch from the grid.
• Video trim — Cut a clip to a start/end range and save it next to the original. Toolbar sits below the status bar.
• Save frame — Grab the current video frame as a JPEG from the viewer or in-app player.
• Collages — CAB on 2–4 photos: side by side, stacked, or 2×2.

Formats

• AVIF, JPEG XL, Ultra HDR — Grid, viewer, and “open with”. Animated JXL plays in the viewer. Wide-color display with a settings toggle.
• Motion photos — Play Google Motion Photos, Samsung Live Photos, and Micro Videos; save the clip as an MP4.
• 360° and video — OpenGL photosphere viewer (touch, pinch, gyroscope). Toolbar sits below the status bar. In-app player with speed, mute, long-press 2×, and exact seek.
• EXIF orientation — Viewer and region zoom honour the embedded orientation tag.
• WebP pinch-zoom — Animated and still WebP zoom in the viewer.

Organize

• Stacks — Optional RAW+JPEG, bursts, and edited copies in the grid, with a strip in the viewer.
• Folder tree — Grid, List, or Tree. Show hidden and Show excluded stay on until you turn them off.
• Scroll-back — Closing the viewer returns the grid to the photo you were on.
• Instant favorite star — Tap the star on a thumbnail or in the viewer; the overlay updates without a reload.
• Show filenames — Off by default. Settings → Thumbnails, or the label icon in a folder.
• Clean thumbnails — The favorite star overlay is off by default. Turn it back on in Settings → Thumbnails → File thumbnail style → Mark favorite items.
• Darker dark theme — Dark and Dark red backgrounds are #111111 instead of #2D2D2D. Existing installs are moved over automatically.
• Favorites only — Overflow toggle to hide everything that is not a favorite. It is session-only, so other folders keep their photos.
• Properties — Works on the Favorites and Recycle Bin folders.
• Tags — Add or remove tags from the grid or viewer (tap × on a chip). Commas make separate tags. Search matches tag names.
• Duplicate finder — Scan a folder (or all) and delete extra copies. Overflow item sits above Settings.
• Android Trash — Optional MediaStore trash on Android 11+ instead of the app Recycle Bin. Favorites also write IS_FAVORITE when the system allows it.

Private

• Locked folders stay hidden in Favorites, Recycle Bin, and widgets until you unlock.
• Strip metadata — Remove GPS or all EXIF from photos, or when sharing.

No nags

• No donation prompts. Own app ID (tomato.simple.gallery) so it can sit next to Simple Gallery Pro.

Build

Release APKs come from assembleFossRelease (local and GitHub Actions). Names:

• Simple-Gallery_<version>-FOSS-arm64-v8a.apk
• Simple-Gallery_<version>-FOSS-armeabi-v7a.apk
• Simple-Gallery_<version>-FOSS-x86_64.apk
• Simple-Gallery_<version>-FOSS-universal.apk

Item	Value
App version	6.31.1 (versionCode 401)
minSdk	26
targetSdk / compileSdk	36 (Android 16)
JVM bytecode	17
Gradle	9.1.0
Android Gradle Plugin	8.13.2
Kotlin / KSP	2.2.10
Room	2.8.4
Local JDK	25 (do not point Gradle at JDK 17)
CI JDK	Temurin 17
Commons	SimpleMobileTools/Simple-Commons @ 9e60e2479, patched by python scripts/patch_commons.py

Checkout Simple-Commons next to the app (gitignored Simple-Commons/), run python scripts/patch_commons.py, then ./gradlew assembleFossRelease. When that directory exists, Gradle includeBuilds it instead of the JitPack AAR. Sign with gitignored keystore.properties and app/keystore.jks (GitHub secrets KEYSTORE_BASE64, KEYSTORE_PASSWORD, KEY_ALIAS, KEY_PASSWORD).