SimpleLogin for Android is the phone half of an alias server

What the app is, and what it is not

SimpleLogin is described in the README as an open source solution to protect your email inbox, and this repository holds the source of the Android client for it. The service itself lives elsewhere. The website is simplelogin.io, the back-end is a separate repository at simple-login/app, and the client here talks to it. The point of the whole arrangement is aliasing: you give a service an address that is not your inbox, and if the service leaks it or is breached, the address it holds is disposable. The Android app is the phone-side of that arrangement, where you create aliases, see which ones are attached to which account, and revoke the ones you no longer want. It is not a mail client, it does not hold your messages, and it is not useful on its own.

Where you can get it, and why the channels differ

The client is distributed in several places, and the packaging is worth understanding rather than assuming. The Play Store listing is under the package id io.simplelogin.android. F-Droid carries a separate build, io.simplelogin.android.fdroid, which is a distinct package rather than the same artefact under a second name. The same service also has an iOS app, listed on the App Store under the name SimpleLogin Anti-Spam, which comes from the same organisation and links back to the same project. The F-Droid build matters to a particular kind of user, because installing from it means the build was not produced through the Google distribution path, and for a privacy tool that distinction is usually the point of installing it. The repository also carries a fastlane/ directory, which is the usual way to push a build to several stores from one pipeline.

The module layout and what it implies

The top level of the repository shows a multi-module Android project rather than a single app module. There is an app/ directory, which in this layout is the shell that assembles the application, a core/ directory that holds the shared layer, and a feature/ directory, which in a feature-module arrangement means each screen or capability lives in its own module with its own build file. That structure is the reason the project can keep a 2.0 line moving, because a change to one feature does not have to touch the rest of the application. Alongside the Kotlin sources there is a config/ directory, and the build machinery is visible too, with build.gradle.kts, settings.gradle.kts, gradle.properties, the gradle/ directory, the gradlew and gradlew.bat wrappers, and a lint.xml carrying the project's own lint configuration rather than relying on defaults.

The 2.0 line is alpha, and the dates are recent

The release history is three alpha tags in quick succession: 2.0.0-alpha.1 on 2026-05-13, 2.0.0-alpha.2 on 2026-05-29, and 2.0.0-alpha.3 on 2026-05-30, with the last push to the repository on 2026-05-30 as well. The repository publishes no GitHub releases beyond those tags, so there is no stable 2.0 build to point at. What this means in practice is that the alpha line is where the new work is landing, and the build you install from a store may be a stable release of the 1.x line or an alpha of the 2.0 line depending on the channel. For a privacy tool where the whole premise is that you trust what is handling your address book, that distinction is worth checking on the listing you install from rather than assuming the newest tag is what you have.

A repository whose README is mostly a pointer

The README is short, and most of it is the Apache 2.0 licence text, with copyright stated as 2020-2026 SimpleLogin. The project links out to the website, the back-end repository, the App Store listing, the Play Store listing and the F-Droid package, and that is essentially all of the prose. The interesting content is therefore in the tree and in the tag history rather than in the documentation. The project also has a .github/ directory, so the contribution and release machinery is in the repository, and there is a generate_words.sh script at the top level, which is a hint about how the application produces some of its word-based content rather than shipping a fixed list. None of that is documented in prose, so anyone wanting to work on the client should read the code and the workflow files directly rather than expect a contributing guide here.

Where the SimpleLogin Android client is the wrong choice

Three cases. The first is a user who wants an email client, because this app does not read, store or display your mail; it manages the alias list that feeds a separate service. The second is a team that wants a supported stable release of the 2.0 line, because what exists in the tag history is alpha builds and the stores are the distribution path, so a change to the client reaches you through a store update rather than a release you can read the notes for. The third is anyone who needs the server side, because the back-end is a different repository entirely and the two move on separate schedules, so an alias service and its client can be at different API versions. Against a mail client that filters senders, the difference in approach is that SimpleLogin never holds your messages at all, it hands out addresses that point at them, so there is nothing to filter because the address itself is the control.

Editorial conclusion

SimpleLogin for Android is a good fit for someone who already runs or subscribes to the SimpleLogin service and wants the alias management on their phone, and for a user who distrusts the Play Store build and prefers the F-Droid one. It is a poor fit if you are looking for an email client, because this is a companion to an alias service rather than a mail application, and it is a poor fit for a team that needs a stable release, because the newest tags are 2.0.0-alpha.1 through alpha.3 from May 2026 and the last push was on 2026-05-30. Check three things before you install it: that you have, or plan to have, a SimpleLogin account and its back-end, since the client is meaningless without the service issuing the aliases, that you pick the distribution channel deliberately, with the Play Store package identified as io.simplelogin.android and the F-Droid build as a separate package, and that you read the licence file yourself, because the README carries the Apache 2.0 text while the licence field recorded for the project is a custom one that GitHub cannot classify.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. Project website
3. README
4. Releases
5. simple-login/Simple-Login-Android on GitHub