I guess a lot of people only need a dumbphone most of the time but a smartphone becomes a lifesaver a small fraction of the time. Like to hire a cab once in a while, get information online or buy museum tickets on a decent browser while travelling, have access to public transport app in an unknown city, navigation in a vehicle, etc.

So there is a case of having the capabilities of the smartphone but not wanting the distraction that are part of the ecosystem. In my own experience, I don't have any social media accounts anymore except one one the fediverse but I only access it from the browser and don't get distracted by notifications.

I just wish there was an easy way to mute everyone but a selected number of contacts (you can sorta do it but you need to go through all your contacts, it doesn't work for unknown numbers or for calls). The only real people I want a phone/message tone is my partner, my daughters and their school numbers[1]. I want everyone else to be silent and when calling being redirected to voicebox immediately.

[1] which doesn't work as usually people from school use their private smartphones.

What appeals to me is the choice about when I want to enable the smart features. Instead of finding myself victim to alerts and being late to the notification, I want to choose when I spend time on my phone. There are a few ways to achieve this, but I decided to give Dumbify a shot.

myb i wanted an iphone 6months ago but today i want a ~dumb phone but im stuck with this iphone i already have. i could sell the iphone but i do need the apps i wouldnt have on a dumb phone so i try to do what i can to dumb it down