Ask HN: How can I enable a dumber phone to carry sometimes? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How can I enable a dumber phone to carry sometimes?

3 pointsdeanebarker5 comments

I use my smartphone too much. I'm trying to embrace boredom, so I've been leaving it behind when I go out to dinner and such.

However, I'd still like to be contactable via text during those times. (Apps are the problem -- social media, news, etc.)

I still need my smartphone often, like when I travel or when I'm in a work meeting. So I cannot switch to a dumb phone permanently.

But when I'm out for social occasions, I'd like to just take a device that only texts. (I don't even need voice.)

I can get a dumb phone, but can get my phone number to send texts to two devices? Then I could take the dumb phone when I want to detach a bit.

Or are there smartwatches that just receive texts and no other notifications?

I looked at The Light Phone, but it looks like that requires you to actually switch phones.

https://www.thelightphone.com/products

This would be perfect if I could have in addition to my smart phone and just choose which one to take when I leave the house.

I pay $5/month for 5G on my Apple Watch and leave my phone at home. The watch is good enough for phone calls, especially with a pair of AirPods.

If that sounds too scary for you, consider leaving your phone in your car while you hang with your friends.

[1] https://taylor.town/leave-your-phone-at-home

You can also disable notifications. My phone only notifies me when I receive phone calls. I manually check it for everything else.

[2] https://taylor.town/extinguish-all-notifications

You can have two devices with a single number but it costs extra and no idea if all providers offer this.

On my Samsung phone I can enable an extreme power savings mode, it disables everything but phone calls/text and makes the screen a very simple black and white affair, perhaps your phone has such a mode?

You could set up an apple watch to only notify you for texts and calls with no other notifications or health information. I would hope smart watches like the new Google one could be configured the same.

For years with regular cellphones before the iPhone was introduced this was an everyday thing.

You would just turn off your smartphone, remove the SIM card and insert it into your previous less-intelligent phone.

Leverage Google Voice maybe?

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