Fossify Gallery is an open-source gallery for the photos on your phone, with no ads and no advertising or tracking libraries, forked from Simple Gallery after Simple Mobile Tools was sold at the end of 2023. Piktures is closed-source and free with a few ads, and it does what those two don't try to do: show OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Nextcloud, WebDAV and NAS photos as albums next to the phone's, with no account. Facts checked on 15 October 2026; tell us if an app changed.
What is the difference between Piktures and Fossify Gallery?
Scope. Fossify Gallery's listing describes a gallery for the phone: a photo editor to "crop, resize, rotate, flip, draw, and apply stunning filters", a recycle bin, "pin, pattern, or fingerprint protection" for "specific photos, videos, or the entire app", EXIF stripping, themes, and formats from JPEG and JPEG XL to RAW, MKV and SVG. Neither its README nor its listing mentions a cloud account or a server.
Piktures starts from the same place, the phone and the SD card, and adds the places your photos already are: it connects to Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Koofr, Yandex Disk, Nextcloud, any WebDAV server over HTTPS and SMB network drives such as a NAS, and shows their folders as albums. It has a photo editor, a video editor, search by place, camera, date and tag, and the Secret Space behind a PIN. The first cloud or drive is free; more need Premium or Prime.
The other difference is the model. Fossify is "open-source, and ad-free", under the GPL-3.0; Piktures is closed-source, free with a few Google ads that a one-time purchase removes, and it sends usage statistics and crash reports through Firebase. See An Android gallery with no account and no server for the full list of what Piktures sends.
What happened to Simple Gallery?
Simple Gallery Pro, by Simple Mobile Tools, was the app Fossify Gallery comes from. On 1 December 2023, a thread on the project's GitHub asked whether Simple Mobile Tools had been bought by ZipoApps, and the maintainer answered that "the sale is in process". Fossify's GitHub organisation describes itself as "a fork of the discontinued SimpleMobileTools". On 15 October 2026, Simple Gallery Pro's Play listing was last updated on 9 October 2023, and its F-Droid page no longer exists, while Fossify Gallery's listing was updated on 10 October 2026 and its F-Droid version 1.14.0 was added on 14 October 2026.
If you are looking for a Simple Gallery alternative, Fossify Gallery is the continuation of that code by other maintainers; Piktures is a different app with a different scope.
Which clouds and servers does each app open?
| Piktures | Fossify Gallery | Simple Gallery | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Phone and SD card | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| USB drive | With Premium or Prime, FAT32 | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox | Yes, as albums | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Koofr, Yandex Disk, Nextcloud, WebDAV | Yes, as albums | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| NAS or computer (SMB) | Yes, on the same Wi-Fi network | Not mentioned | Not mentioned |
| Internet access | For the clouds and drives you connect, ads, statistics and the map | "No unnecessary permissions" | "The lack of internet access gives you more privacy" |
"Not mentioned" means neither the app's listing nor its README names the feature; see Sources. Piktures' facts: How to add a cloud and the guides.
How does each app protect private photos?
Fossify Gallery and Simple Gallery lock "specific photos, videos, or the entire app" with a PIN, a pattern or the fingerprint, and Simple Gallery's listing speaks of "hidden galleries". Fossify Gallery also strips EXIF data such as GPS coordinates from photos.
Piktures has the Secret Space: a space behind a 4-digit PIN of its own, or the phone's biometric unlock, where files are renamed and scrambled so other apps can't open them. It is deliberately light protection, not encryption, stored only on the phone and erased on uninstall; you export it to keep a backup. Piktures also hides albums from its own view, and its Before sharing screen removes the location from the photos you send. See Hide photos behind a PIN.
What does each app cost, and what does it send?
Fossify Gallery is free; its Play listing carried no "Contains ads" and no "In-app purchases" label when we checked, and fossify.org states "No advertising libraries or tracking in any app". Simple Gallery Pro's listing, unchanged since 2023, is also free to install with no such labels and says "Contains no ads".
Piktures is free with a few Google ads in its Basic plan. No ads, a one-time purchase, removes them; Premium, a one-time purchase, and Prime, a monthly subscription, also unlock more than one cloud or drive, automatic backup, USB drives and the Secret Space's extra options. The app sends usage statistics and crash reports through Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics. See In-app purchases.
Piktures vs Fossify Gallery: the facts
| Piktures | Fossify Gallery | Simple Gallery Pro | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Publisher | Diune | Fossify | Simple Mobile Tools | Play listings |
| Source code | Closed | Open, GPL-3.0 | Open, GPL-3.0 | GitHub |
| Price | Free with a few ads; No ads, Premium, Prime | Free, no ads | Free, no ads | Play listings |
| Last update on Google Play | 10 October 2026 | 9 October 2023 | Play listings | |
| Android | 11 or later | 8.0 or later | Not checked | F-Droid |
| Clouds and servers | Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Koofr, Yandex Disk, Nextcloud, WebDAV, SMB | Not mentioned | Not mentioned | Listings and READMEs |
| Private photos | Secret Space: own PIN, scrambled files | PIN, pattern or fingerprint on photos or the app | PIN, pattern or fingerprint; hidden galleries | Play listings |
| Photo editor | Crop, straighten, filters, adjustments, drawing, text | Crop, resize, rotate, flip, draw, filters | Crop, flip, rotate, resize, filters | Play listings |
| Video editor | Trim, mute, insert, speed, frame export | Not mentioned | Not mentioned | |
| Recycle bin | Deleted items, with a trash setting | Yes | Yes | Play listings |
| EXIF removal | Location, date and camera details removed when sharing | GPS and camera details stripped | Not mentioned | Play listings |
| Search | Text, album, type, year, month, place, camera, tag | Not mentioned | Not mentioned | |
| On F-Droid | No | Yes, 1.14.0 on 14 October 2026 | Page not found | F-Droid |
| Play rating when checked | 3.9, 500K+ downloads | 4.4, 1M+ downloads | Play listings |
Piktures' facts come from its help center: Welcome to Piktures, Our product principles, The Secret Space, Photo editor, Video editor, Special albums, Sharing options, Search and filters, Why is Piktures not open-source?.
Which should you choose?
Choose Fossify Gallery if you want an open-source gallery for the phone with no ads and no network access, actively maintained, on F-Droid. Choose Piktures if your photos also live on OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Nextcloud or a NAS and you want them in one gallery with the phone's, or if you want the Secret Space; the price is a closed app, a few ads in the free plan, and Firebase statistics. If you still use Simple Gallery Pro, both are maintained alternatives, and Fossify Gallery is the direct continuation.
Questions
Is Fossify Gallery the same as Simple Gallery?
Fossify Gallery is a fork of Simple Gallery, continued by other maintainers after Simple Mobile Tools was sold at the end of 2023. Fossify's organisation calls Simple Mobile Tools "discontinued". The two listings describe the same features.
Does Fossify Gallery show OneDrive, Nextcloud or NAS photos?
Its README and its listings describe the phone's photos, and mention no cloud account or server. Piktures is built for that: see the guides on OneDrive, Nextcloud and WebDAV and a NAS.
Is Piktures open source?
No. See Why is Piktures not open-source?.
Does Piktures have ads?
In the free Basic plan, a few, after the first 3 days. The one-time No ads purchase removes them for good.
Sources
All read on 15 October 2026.
- Play listings: Fossify Gallery on Google Play, by Fossify, updated 10 October 2026, rated 3.9 with 500K+ downloads, no "Contains ads" or "In-app purchases" label; Simple Gallery Pro on Google Play, by Simple Mobile Tools, updated 9 October 2023, rated 4.4 with 1M+ downloads, no such labels, "Contains no ads", "The lack of internet access gives you more privacy".
- GitHub: FossifyOrg/Gallery, GPL-3.0, "No ads, no unnecessary permissions"; the Fossify organisation, "a fork of the discontinued SimpleMobileTools"; SimpleMobileTools/Simple-Gallery, GPL-3.0, "without ads".
- The sale: Simple Mobile Tools bought by ZipoApps?, opened 1 December 2023; the maintainer's reply, "ye, the sale is in process".
- fossify.org: Fossify, "No advertising libraries or tracking in any app".
- F-Droid: Fossify Gallery, version 1.14.0 added 14 October 2026, GPL-3.0, Android 8.0 or newer; the Simple Gallery Pro page, https://f-droid.org/packages/com.simplemobiletools.gallery.pro/, returned "not found".