Simple Gallery Pro

First Impression

I stumbled on this app mentioned in a privacy forum last Tuesday evening. My friend kept saying it was the only gallery that didn’t nag for location or contacts. That got my attention because I’m paranoid about what apps dig up. So I paid the three bucks and installed it on my Pixel 7 right away. First load was fine, nothing flashy. Just a grid of my photos staring back at me. I liked that it didn’t bombard me with a tutorial or ask to “personalize my experience” (translation: track everything). But I also noticed it felt a bit… plain. Like a blank notebook. No fancy animations or glossy buttons. That’s not a bad thing for me, but it did make me wonder what I actually paid for beyond removing ads.

What It Does Well

The folder view is actually helpful. I have tons of screenshots and downloaded memes cluttering my camera roll, and Simple Gallery Pro just shows them sorted by folder without mixing everything into one chaotic timeline. It supports RAW files too, which surprised me. I’m not a photographer but I’ve got some DNG files from a friend’s camera, and they opened without complaint. The built-in editor is basic but works for cropping and adjusting brightness on the fly. I used it last night to fix a washed-out photo of my cat. No need to open another app. Password protection for hidden albums is solid too. I set a PIN for some private documents and it actually blocked access when I tested it. No workarounds that I could find. That peace of mind is worth something.

Where It Falls Short

It’s not as fast as I hoped. Scrolling through a folder with 500 photos stutters noticeably on my Pixel 7. Swiping through images sometimes lags for a second before the next one loads. That’s frustrating when you’re trying to show someone a picture quickly. Also, the search function is clunky. I typed “beach” into the search bar and it showed nothing, even though I have photos tagged with location data from Google Photos. Turns out Simple Gallery doesn’t really index metadata well. It relies on file names and folder structure only. So if you’re like me and rename everything to “IMG_20211004,” you’re out of luck finding anything without scrolling forever. Another thing: the app sometimes loses my album organization after I clear the cache. I spent an hour sorting vacation photos into folders, and after a system cleanup, they were all jumbled back into one big folder. That hurt.

Is It Worth the Price?

Three dollars feels fair for what you get, but only if you value privacy over polish. Free gallery apps from big companies usually work smoother and search better, but they also slurp up your data and serve ads. Simple Gallery Pro doesn’t do either of those things. No trackers, no network requests unless you specifically ask for something. That’s rare. But I’d say it’s more of a trade-off than a slam dunk. You pay a few bucks for a tool that respects your boundaries, but you also accept that it’s not going to be as slick as the competition. If you just need a basic viewer that keeps its mouth shut, this is your app. If you want lightning-fast performance and AI-powered sorting, look elsewhere.

Developer & Support

I had a small issue with the app not picking up a new folder I created on my SD card. I emailed their support address on Wednesday morning. Friday evening came and I got a reply that basically said “try clearing the cache.” I’d already tried that twice. I replied asking for a more specific fix, and it’s been silent since. Look, I get that it’s a small team and probably not sitting by the inbox all day. But for a paid app, I expected at least a follow-up within a reasonable time. The initial response felt like a script. Didn’t inspire confidence that they actually read my message. The developer’s website is clean and open-source oriented, which I respect. But support is clearly not their strong suit, and that’s a letdown.

Privacy & Safety

This is the main reason I stuck with it despite the flaws. I checked the permissions before installing. It asks for storage access (obviously) and nothing else. No camera, no location, no contacts, no phone state. I even ran it through a network monitor app I use to track weird connections. Simple Gallery Pro makes zero internet requests unless you manually click a link to the developer’s site inside the app. No analytics SDKs, no ad libraries, no sneaky pings to some server in the middle of the night. I scanned the privacy policy too. It’s short and mostly says “we don’t collect anything.” For someone like me who reads every permission box with suspicion, that’s refreshing. I can recommend it to my privacy-conscious friends without cringing.