Updated August 2026 · every figure re-read against the apps' own listings on 8 August 2026 · two claims on this page turned out to be wrong and are corrected below.
A folder gallery that keeps your photos on the phone, with no account and no cloud. The idea is still right; the app this page was built around has not been updated in nearly three years, and the one that continues it is free. Both are below with their figures.
Where it stands today
4.5 stars from 159,461 reviews · 1M+ installs · $2.99 to buy · no in-app purchases · no ads · by Simple Mobile Tools · Android 6.0 or newer · listing last updated 9 October 2023 · Google Play listing · checked 8 August 2026
The app itself is intact: no ads, no subscription, and a data safety section that declares no data collected and nothing shared. Its own description makes the argument this page was built on, that the lack of internet access gives you more privacy, security and stability than other apps.
Three corrections to what this page used to say. It costs $2.99, a figure that appeared nowhere on a page with a section titled what it costs. It is not on F-Droid: F-Droid's package interface answers not found for it, while two control queries in the same run return real packages, so this page was sending readers to a store that does not carry it. And the reason it gave for paying, that the Play route buys you updates, is the one thing that route has not delivered: the listing has stood at version 6.28.1 since 9 October 2023, 34 months before this check.
Do not install this by mistake
4.2 stars from 359,011 reviews · 10M+ installs · free to install · in-app purchases $0.99 to $99.99 · carries ads · by Simple Mobile Tools · listing updated 20 July 2026 · Google Play listing · checked 8 August 2026
There is a second app with almost the same name and no Pro on the end. It has ten times the installs, it is free, and it is not what this page recommends.
Why it is here. Search the store for the name in this page's title and this is what sits next to the paid app. Its listing carries the Contains ads label, sells in-app purchases from $0.99 to $99.99 per item, and its data safety section says data may be shared with third parties, may be collected, and cannot be deleted. A reader who takes this page's old advice to just get it from the Play Store, with no link to follow, can easily end up here (checked 8 August 2026).
Worth noting for its own sake: this app's description still carries the same line about the lack of internet access giving you more privacy, while its own data safety section allows sharing with third parties.
The maintained continuation
3.9 stars from 6,207 reviews · 500K+ installs · free · no in-app purchases · no ads · by Fossify · Android 8.0 or newer · listing updated 17 February 2026 · Google Play listing · also on F-Droid · checked 8 August 2026
Fossify Gallery is the app to install today. It does the same job, it is free, and it is still being worked on.
On where it came from, this page previously described the original project as having changed hands commercially. No developer states anything of the kind, and the Play listing still names Simple Mobile Tools as publisher. What is stated, by Fossify itself, is this: the project “emerged as a fork of the discontinued SimpleMobileTools to continue its legacy” (FossifyOrg, read 8 August 2026). Fork of something discontinued, in the developer's own words, rather than a sale.
The hidden vault
It is a folder based gallery. It does not build a separate library or index your photos into a database of its own; it shows the directories on your device as they are. Rename a folder in a file manager and the gallery reflects it. That sounds unremarkable until you have used a gallery that insists on its own organisation.
What is deliberately absent is the point: no advertising, no sign in, no cloud sync, and in the original build no internet permission at all. An Android app without the internet permission cannot transmit anything, because the system gives it no network access to use. That is a structural guarantee rather than a promise in a privacy policy, and it is the strongest single argument for the app.
The vault is the feature most people arrive for. It hides selected photos from the normal albums and puts them behind a lock.
Be clear on what this is and is not. Hiding marks files so galleries skip them and adds an app level lock. It is not encryption. Anyone with a file manager and physical access to an unlocked phone can still reach the underlying files. It is excellent protection against someone scrolling your gallery on the sofa, and it is not protection against a determined search of the device.
An app with no internet permission cannot back anything up. If your phone is lost or broken, photos that existed only on it are gone. Pair this gallery with a backup you control, whether that is a periodic copy to a computer or a sync tool you have chosen deliberately.
You also give up the cloud era conveniences: no search by face or object, no automatic albums, no shared libraries. That is the trade being made, not an oversight.
If neither of the two above fits, two more are worth knowing, and one former entry on this page has been removed.
Backup and search
4.4 stars from 53,906,795 reviews · 10B+ installs · free · no in-app purchases · no ads · by Google LLC · listing updated 4 August 2026 · Google Play listing · checked 8 August 2026
Google Photos is the opposite trade: it uploads, and in exchange you get backup, search that actually finds things, and access from any device. Its data safety section declares no data shared with third parties and that deletion can be requested, and it carries an Independent security review badge that none of the others here have. The cost is not in the app, which has no in-app purchases; it is that storage beyond the free Google account allowance is a separate Google One subscription.
Maps and tags
4.2 stars from 4,085 reviews · 100K+ installs · free · no in-app purchases · no ads · by Thibault Deckers · Android 7.0 or newer · listing updated 27 July 2026 · Google Play listing · checked 8 August 2026
Aves is the offline gallery for people who want their photos on a map and organised by tag. One naming trap: on Google Play it is Aves Gallery, package deckers.thibault.aves, while the F-Droid build is a different package called Aves Libre. A different package means Android treats them as different apps, so pick one before you invest time in it. Its data safety section is the weakest of the offline picks here: it declares that it may collect app activity and that data cannot be deleted.
Removed from this list. The entry for the galleries preinstalled by Samsung and Google used to sit here and accused the Samsung one of showing ads. Samsung's gallery has no Google Play listing and no Galaxy Store listing we could reach, so there is no store surface on which to check that, and folding the Pixel gallery in duplicated the Google Photos entry above. An accusation nobody can verify does not belong on the page (checked 8 August 2026).
Fossify Gallery, unless your phone is too old for it. It is free, carries no ads, declares no data collected, and was updated on 17 February 2026. Simple Gallery Pro costs $2.99 and its listing has not been updated since 9 October 2023. The one case for the older app is a phone running Android 6 or 7, because Fossify requires Android 8.0. Checked 8 August 2026.
It depends which app you install, and this is the most important answer on the page. Simple Gallery Pro, the $2.99 app, carries no ads. Fossify Gallery carries no ads. But there is a third app called simply Simple Gallery, free and far more installed, whose listing carries the Contains ads label, sells in-app purchases from $0.99 to $99.99 and says data cannot be deleted. If you searched the name and installed the free result, that is probably what you have. Checked 8 August 2026.
No, and this page used to say otherwise. F-Droid's package interface returns not found for it, while the same query returns real packages for Fossify Gallery and for Aves Libre, so the answer is not a broken lookup. What is on F-Droid is Fossify Gallery, which is free anyway. Checked 8 August 2026.
Yes, and that is the entire design. The build requests no internet permission at all, which means Android gives it no network access even if it wanted one. The developer makes the same point on the listing, saying the lack of internet access gives you more privacy, security and stability than other apps. That is a structural guarantee rather than a promise in a policy document.
It hides, it does not encrypt. Hiding marks files so galleries skip them, and the app lock adds a PIN, pattern or fingerprint in front of the app. The files themselves stay readable to anything with file access, including a computer. Use it to keep photos out of casual view, not to protect them from someone determined.
No. An app with no internet permission cannot upload anything, which is the point of it and also its limit. If the phone is lost or broken, the photos are gone unless something else copied them. Pair it with a manual copy to a computer, or accept the trade and use Google Photos for the things you cannot lose.
Checked 8 August 2026: this page carried two wrong claims and has been rebuilt around the corrections. Simple Gallery Pro is not on F-Droid: F-Droid's package interface answers not found for it while two control queries in the same run succeed, and this page offered F-Droid as the free route to it. It costs $2.99, a figure absent from a section titled what it costs, and its listing has had no update since 9 October 2023, which this page never said while telling readers the Play route buys them updates. The claim that the project was sold to a commercial developer has been removed because no developer states it; what Fossify does state, and what is now quoted and linked, is that it emerged as a fork of the discontinued SimpleMobileTools. Store links were added for every app, because the page previously had none and a reader searching the name lands on the free sibling app, which carries ads and declares that data cannot be deleted; that app now has its own entry and warning, and the FAQ answer claiming the app is ad-free has been rewritten to say which app that is true of. The entry for preinstalled Samsung and Pixel galleries was cut as unverifiable. Every figure on the page now carries the date it was read.