Zimly: A Simple, Open-Source Alternative to Syncthing for Android Media Backup

Syncthing has long been a popular open-source solution for synchronizing data across devices without relying on third-party cloud services. However, with its recent announcement to discontinue the Android App, users are left looking for alternatives. In this post, I’ll explain why Zimly and the S3 protocol offer a compelling solution.

While some of the critics towards the Play Store’s policies may be justified, it’s clear that Syncthing’s priorities haven’t been on the Android app for some time. This likely contributed to the difficulties in getting new releases through the review process.

The lack of focus is also evident in the app’s clunky user experience — an issue common among apps designed for technical users. This was a key motivation behind creating Zimly.

Many apps in this space suffer from poor UI/UX for two reasons:

1. A lack of emphasis on design, as technical products often neglect user experience.
2. Complexity. By supporting multiple protocols and use cases, the interface becomes more cluttered, and development resources are spread too thin to refine the core functionality.

To set Zimly apart, it has been designed with simplicity and transparency at its core:

• One use case: Backup for your phone’s media.
• One protocol: S3. Initially chosen for its compatibility with Minio, S3 has now become the gold standard in open object storage protocols.
• Intuitive UI: A clean, simple interface that makes backing up your media easy, without the technical headaches.
• Open-source: Trust isn’t given; it’s earned. Zimly is open-source, allowing anyone to inspect and contribute to it’s roadmap, ensuring full transparency.

The most important aspect here is the open and widely adopted S3 protocol. While it originated with AWS, S3 has become a standard in the open-source community and is now the go-to protocol for independent cloud storage providers, such as Akamai’s Linode and most recently, Hetzner Object Storage launched its beta service.

This means your backup solution is not only open-source but also vendor-independent, allowing you to choose your storage provider without being locked into a single ecosystem.

So here’s my slightly opinionated, alternative open-source backup solution to SyncThing:

• Zimly App for your Android media backup
• Minio for your self-hosted and scalable object storage

If this has caught your interest, head over to the Get Started Guides to dive in.