I built MBCompass, a lightweight, privacy-friendly compass app for Android. It works fully offline, doesn’t ask for unnecessary permissions (no GPS, no internet), and is open source.
Most compass apps out there are bloated or ad-heavy. I wanted something clean, fast, and featurish. So I made this!
It’s only ~1.7 in size and uses a low-pass filter to smooth sensor readings.
I’d love feedback or thoughts – especially from others building simple, privacy-first apps!
https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/compass-declination....
I had a similar idea. About two years ago my kid was playing a simple mobile game with her friends a lot. There are many variations of the game theme but they are all ad infested privacy nightmares listlessly fiddled together.
I thought we could do better and make a good and ethical version - also as an educational project. The game turned out well, but we haven't published it yet. It is still planned, but I had to learn free apps apparently are an uphill battle in walled garden ecosystems.
If you think about it, it makes sense: Apple and Google don't like to get their 30% cut from nothing. I believe that is the deeper reason apps like ours are so rare.
How so? I manage well over 10 App Store Connect and around 7 Android Play Store accounts all with 1-3 apps in them, all free, no IAP, no cut for Apple. I've never felt like it was an uphill battle.
While the app review process is incredibly flawed, I haven't experienced anything that paid apps or apps using IAP run into as well. As in, free apps aren't "targeted" in any way I can see.
On stores like Google Play, the design favors apps with ad revenue, IAPs, or growth metrics — not minimal, ethical apps with no monetization. Free, privacy-respecting tools often get buried or flagged for things like lack of user engagement, sparse permissions, or not following monetization guidelines (like not using Google’s billing).
That’s why I released my app, MBCompass, on F-Droid first. It's where users expect simple, ethical apps — and where visibility isn't tied to commercial strategy.
So yeah, free apps aren't “targeted,” but the environment isn’t really designed to support or surface them either.
Thankfully, I don’t have mess with any of that. All the apps I oversee are companion apps to another service. I’m not trying to attract people _on_ the AppStore to my app. People get the app because they use the service.
I spent a lot of time doing free QA for F-droid apps exclusively and there are a lot of people who do that
Pretty snappy, almost matches the refresh rate and latency of the iphone's compass app.
TFA looks way more sluggish, but I guess it is an effect of the smoothing.
Thanks for asking! :)