As early as May 2021, the developer of Magisk announced that he will start working in the Google Platform Security Team (also see XDA about this). This also means that MagiskHide – a method for hiding root access – is no longer supported. As of version 24.0, installing Magisk inevitably means that you can’t use apps that no longer run on rooted devices.

Since I need some apps in everyday life that can only be used without root access, this means for me that I will not use Magisk any longer. Data backups and adjustments in the system are a bit more cumbersome because this is only possible in the recovery ROM – but at least not impossible. Fortunately using the custom ROM by xiaomi.eu on my Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite is also not a problem – apps won’t complain as long as Magisk is not installed :-).

Thanks to attentive people, I was made aware of another illegal copy of Periodical via Github (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.droidfactory.periodtracker.menstrual.calendar).

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I recently received an email from “We Buy Apps” declaring that this company is a startup for the marketing of apps and would be interested in buying “Periodical”. If I were ready, I would be offered something that I would not refuse.

However the conditions on the website already look quite questionable:

You sell the full and exclusive rights to the app. This includes the source code, all artwork, all assets (images, texts etc.), icons, Android credentials, web presence (social media, website etc.) and other assets of the app that are required to maintain the functionality and promotion of the app. You are selling the right to publish the app and will not be able to publish the same source code again, even under a different app name.

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It starts getting annoying! Another illegal copy of Periodical shows up again, this time with the name “Periodical calendar” from someone called “Eminantapps”. Currently available at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eminantapps.infotech.periodical_calander:

This is now the fourth case of this kind I am aware of. It’s just so easy to use existing sources and build your own app that contains advertising.

I can not really stop this happening – but I report every single case to Google and also write to the creators of these apps to delete them immediately.

As a reminder: Periodical is not public domain but has been released under the GPL! The GPL is legally binding and requires that the author of the work on which the app is based is named and that the sources of the modified version are available.

Unfortunately some people ignore the principles of “Open Source” and the GPL. Again I have to deal with an illegal copy of Periodical (also see Again an illegal copy of Periodical and Illegal copy of Periodical). This time it is called “Periods Tracker”, published by “joettaraubapps” (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.joettaapps.periodstracker):

Many thanks to Marie of https://bloodyhealth.gitlab.io for the hint via e-mail!

The procedure corresponds to the known pattern – one takes the sources, removes all references to the original and inserts advertising or offers the app as a paid version. I have already contacted “joettaraubapps” by e-mail and also sent a notice about a copyright infringement to Google.

As a reminder: The GPL is legally binding and derivative copies of my app must comply with certain conditions!

With the permission of the sender I’m honored to publish a positive feedback about Periodical, thank you very much:

Dear Mr Welzel,

I just wanted to let you know, how much I am enjoying the Periodical app for the last three months. I was using the Flo once before, but it was kinda impractical and never gave me the right information, so after I’ve read how they handle their clients’ information, I was looking for an app that will actually work for me and I found Periodical. I really enjoy how it counts the average lenght of my cycle, how I can add almost any info about my period, the minimalistic design and how it can be easily worked with.

I just wanted to thank you for your work because it trully makes my everyday life much better. Keep up the good work :)

Thank you very very much.

Sincerely,
Rudolfová Pavla (Czech Republic)

There is again a new version of Periodical with a number of changes:

• Events and symptoms in the details are now separate lists.
• The calendar now indicates if there are events, symptoms or notes for a specific day.
• Added Greek translation.

With this version there are no less than 13 languages available (soon it will be 14). Thanks to all translators and developers at Crowdin and Github for their contributions!

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For some time now I have been using the online translation service Crowdin for translations of Periodical. This service is free to use for open source projects without any commercial intentions. There I have already received Polish as an additional translation (thanks Tomasz!).

Now another translator has contacted me via Crowdin and offered do the translation for Hebrew. Apart from the fact that there are not many applications that directly support this language, this is also interesting because Hebrew is written from right to left and I may have to do adjustments in the software to support this.

Thanks to all translators for their help!

The Android app “Öffi” has become  Open Source and is available at GitLab:

https://gitlab.com/oeffi/oeffi/tree/master/oeffi

This action was preceded by the suspension of the app from Google. See also the report at Golem (in German).

A while ago someone informed me about an illegal copy of Periodical which was modified without providing sources of the modified version. This copy does not exist any longer.

But there are also business-minded people who create their own version based on the existing sources (as from August 2017) that contains paid ads – of course only after deleting all references to the true origin:

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