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Simple Mobile Tools is being sold to a for-profit firm ZipoApps
(programming.dev)
Simple Mobile apps have been very popular among FOSS enthusiasts. I've personally been using the Gallery, Contacts and the Phone app since a few years now. It's a shame that it has come to this, will be on the lookout for their forks.
When ZipoApps adds advertisements and telemetry to a future version of the Simple Mobile Tools apps, will my Google-Play-installed apps be automatically updated to the newer version with ads and telemetry? I don't want ZipoApps to get any of my data.
i would encourage you to switch to fdroid or obtainium as soon as possible, if you are able to
Yes. If you have automatic updates enabled, it will install the newest version with trackers and ads. You could disable the automatic update for these apps and hope they stay relevant to your os for a little while.
I would also recommend switching ASAP. You can make a backup of their internal data with App Manager (available from f-droid) which you can then restore to the f-droid version