Why I Use a Dumbphone in 2025 (and Why You Should Too)
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The first is is supervised MDM. If you have a Mac you can do it yourself (though you need to learn iPhone MDM). You can also pay companies like TechLockdown, they'll give you a customized remote-controlled profile to install that is not removable at a weak moment. You can set a lock with delay. When you need to wait 6 hours to change the settings, you won't be changing your settings to allow $ADDICTIVE_APP.
The second option is much more complicated and has some caveats, like an inability to update apps, but I'll explain it since nobody seem to know about it.
There is a way to turn an iPhone into a dumbphone, while keeping your banking app, without a Mac, for free.
Go to Settings > Screen Time:
- Set up a PIN for Screen Time. You’ll be asked to provide a recovery account. Create another Apple account with a password hard to memorize, like sjhr3762962826. Write that down.
- In Content Restrictions > App Store, Media, Web, & Games > Web Content, set it to Only Approved Websites. Add all the websites you need to use in your daily life. Start simple, you'll quickly discover which ones you actually need. I'll let you in on a little secret: You don't need news.ycombinator.com in your pocket.
- In Content Restrictions > iTunes & App Store purchases, disallow Installing Apps.
- Personally, I also delete all apps that have any sort of infinite online content (even Wikipedia).
- Set up Downtime for when you are supposed to be asleep.
- Set up Always Allowed for critical apps which you might need even during your usual sleep hours (Health app, WhatsApp, Google Maps, etc.)
- Final step: Let a very close person (like family member) change the Screen Time PIN, and let him write it down somewhere safe. Then give the password and the PIN to the person for safekeeping.
When you need to change the settings (you want to add another allowed website, you want to install a new app, etc.) ask that person to make the change.
There is a way you can not rely on another person, too. I won't detail it here, but it involves timelocking the Apple account's password and the Screen Time PIN. See https://github.com/rayanamal/timelock
With this setup, you can’t change the Screen Time settings yourself, and you can’t reset the PIN using “I forgot the PIN” button either.
Brought to you by years of undiagnosed severe ADHD.
That QR code you are always shown when you setup an OTP? It usually uses the TOTP algorithm supported by a dozen password managers or hardware keychain devices that will generate codes for you on demand without a phone.
Say you do not have a compatible phone and the app requirement can be waived by a manager.
Not had a smartphone in 5 years. It is never a blocker.
People quickly find I am reachable at my desk and otherwise am always driving, in a shower, swimming, in a theater, it has a dead battery, every single time. Even in leadership roles.
My time away from my desk is my time, and people learn to respect that, and even empower some of them to do the same.
Re-installed the browser.
It's an addiction, plain and simple. I used to throw away my pack of cigs every single day for months. Months! Always bought one the next day. Very expensive. Crazy how quick the mind changes it's mind.
And UK primary schools - catching up with the kids homework, messages from the teacher - requires an app and a smartphone!
It's so frustrating!
Mandating the need of smartphone apps to access critical services and basic life necessities like payments, parking, refueling, charging your car, public transport tickets, etc should be banned under accessibility laws.
All this only benefits the service provider, not the consumer, since if the service is broken in some way (LTE/internet issue, payment processor issue, backend/cloud outage, etc) or has terrible UX, then the externalities and negative effects of that are all on the customer to deal with. Because what else are you gonna do on the spot? Not charge your car? Leave it in the middle of the road? Not board the bus to get to work? The problem they caused becomes your problem to deal with even though you have the money to pay but no easy way to do it because of their crap.
Governments need to hold service prodivers accountable for the misery they cause and have them offer payment solutions and alternatives to smartphone apps for such critical services.
>The wheels of time wont be turned back.
They can be turned back by laws if the direction they've been turning by the unregulated free market lead us to a bad place that's discriminatory and causing misery to consumers, especially for critical services.
We've been able to park and refuel cars fast and efficient for decades with no issues before apps and smartphones. Not all progress is good progress. Sometimes progress is just for the sake of cutting corners to increase profits for businesses at the expense of consumers. I don't want an "Bezos-fication" or "Musk-fication" of essential services.
I also hate apps for everything & want us to be free & have a simple world & life - I love the terminal & its 55 years old.. yeah, we have much in common friend
Just because something is newer doesn't mean it's better. Obviously, the reverse is also true, but there is so much tech naiveté going around that this needs saying repeatedly. We'd have saved our society a lot of trouble if we'd first thought about draw-backs of new technology, before hooking everything in our lives up to it.
Cool, so I assume you'll be able to tell me which smartphone and doesn't require agreeing to a EULA?
I'm required to wear clothes in public (Indecent exposure laws) and I need to have at least a pen or pencil to sign documents and do tax returns demanded by law. But I have a vast array of options when it comes to clothes and stationery, and most importantly I'm not required to agree to a foreign company's EULA to use them, unlike smartphones.
In practice if they do not make it easy to pay then I just park without paying. The 1/10 times I actually get a fine works out to be cheaper than paying for parking up front.
That said, roadside parking is far more hit and miss for ticketing, but as a source of revenue, most councils take it fairly seriously here for the free money.
And if you don't pay hundreds of pounds for a smartphone, you are not allowed to park? Or if your battery is dead? Or if your religion prohibits the use of smartphones?
If true, I bet framing it that way to the public would help get people on board with some law reform.
No one should be depending on Google or Apple at a government or city or educational level in any way, including in the US.
You can usually also find which car parks have spaces with the apps, to save driving around. It is possible to go cash only still - but it is a pain.
Source: Not had a cell phone carrier or carried a phone in 5 years and never been restricted from doing anything I did previously, as a frequently traveling tech business owner.
The alternative is that the bank sneds you a clunky OTP machine with a code every time you want to make a purchase or transaction.
In particular, the Personal Time mode of iOS has been a game changer for me: https://ergaster.org/til/ask-smartphone-attention/
Take the time to do this so others do not have to.
I make restaurants print me menus, and I make theme parks get me a paper map and accept cash so I maintain my privacy.
It sounds like maybe you should go to a different one.
1. Make the screen monochrome. It greatly reduces the appeal of the entire system.
2. Increase the font size so that things don't look as pretty and slick. You deliberately cripple the UX.
3. As much as possible, use a browser instead of an "app" (e.g. X, Amazon etc.) and then set a limit for the time you can use your browser per day.
4. I use this as a launcher on my phone https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.qqlabs.min... which prevents has "mindfulness delays" for selected apps and other features that make the usage less smooth.
A combination of these has helped me reduce my attachment to the phone. There are also lots of times when I don't take it with me.
Rather, just don't install whatever application is distracting you, and try simply turning notifications off. I still can't believe how many people simply don't have the willpower to do this.
On the battery life point, when you remove a lot of this cruft, you'd be surprised how much gain back as well, since you're also not staring at the thing with the screen on all the time. I'm on a 5 year old iPhone mini that I'm still regularly getting two days out of.
Another pet peeve: graphs should have axes that start at zero, or clearly point out why they are zoomed in. It's to easy to mislead readers otherwise, and great for making something sensational.
Just don't install these apps? There are tons of useful apps that don't require your constant attention.
But it's not a solution. Obviously, that just won't work for people who have a propensity to over-consume, or people who have a propensity to scroll in this case. If it were that easy, then everyone would do it. Then we'd all hold hands and sing Kumbaya.
Or maybe companies could provide a lock down mode that you can’t change for 1 year at a time, like a locked bank account or something.
The thing is that a call disrupts me whatever I am doing while on a chat I can answer whenever I have time physically and mentally. Usually the next time I run by my phone.
I would not want to go back
A company was trying to follow up on a contact form. They called me while I was in a meeting, I used my "screen call" feature to tell them to call me back in 2 hours. They called me back in 1.5 hours when I was in another meeting, didn't leave a voice mail or call me back. A simple text of "When are you available to speak" would have been 1000x more productive.
Yes, there are definitely cases where a phone call is faster than text. But the opposite is also true.
Too many people like to use phone calls as a way of bypassing GDPR (especially around consent to record calls). I know businesses that rely on phone calls as a primary method of communication as they know it's easier to bypass some degree of record keeping.
So I'll take my emails/letters/writing over phone calls any day.
I asked my friends if they were seriously asking me to sign a contract with Apple and Google and Meta etc against my personal beliefs about privacy rights in order to be friends with them.
They respected it and installed matrix and many even use that now between each other because auditable end to end encryption sounds better than not.
Social graphs can pull both ways, and ethics are on your side.
Would you stop being friends with someone that went vegan?
Stick up for the rights for -anyone- to be an integrated member of society without signing data sharing agreements with a cell carrier, apple, or google.
But I have a friend here in Sweden who tries hard to avoid our eID monopoly "BankID", and also doesn't use credit cards, and I see how he struggles with everyday things.
I wasn't put on this earth for a short time to struggle with such mundane things.
That is giving society value.
I'm also driving a 'dumbphone' but disappointed with HMD's / Nokia's definition. It still has a fb app, yuk! and tries to do things with data connection (I had to get a sim with data disabled, not so easy these days). The few games on there trigger some kind of billing charge if you play them a few times. Oh and no developer SDK.
What is nice is the peace and silence it has brought me. I was quite unsure at first, especially having been an App developer for many years. But now I am very happy to have escaped notification hell.
I also dont want to live in a world where I have to carry a 'smart' tracking device around to be able to partake in society. When my bank insisted on an App I waved my dumb phone, and suddenly I was able to continue without.
I am hoping it will be enough to avoid being forced into a digital-euro tracking currency. But too many people take the easy option, and so I am sure I fight a losing battle. But I wonder at what point carrying a smartphone will become a legal requirement? provided by the government? or appear in public libraries for us odd-balls that value privacy. Probably they just make the dumbphones smarter, or illegal, like cash seems to be heading.
1. Signal/Whatsapp/Threema: biggest reason by far - while I message much less than many others, these platforms are just the way a lot of (group) communication works nowadays. It is possible to go without, but it causes so much hassle when organising things or trying to stay up to date with what's happening in a group, and would disrupt my international friendships.
2. Maps & public transport apps: are just super useful to have available, especially if you regularly travel in places you don't know (well).
3. Camera: This one I'm still a bit undecided on, but I think I would miss not having it at hand.
However, I do try to actively give my phone as little space in my life as possible. I have no social networks on it (I don't have any left by now, anyway), and no other apps that involve scrolling. And I continue to think about how I can avoid distractions from it.
But for most of us, life is already deeply tied to apps: banking, transport, messaging, work. A lot of things aren't even optional anymore — many services expect you to use an app.
Once you go convenient, it’s really hard to go back. You don’t just lose access to entertainment — you lose infrastructure.
Bonus: they also work on non android/iOS platforms
While it's true that there are less opportunities to track you through leaky / malicious apps, "dumbphones" remain, well, phones, with data retention laws in almost all countries in the world (and the subsequent leaks / hacks, see the recent Salt typhoon events for a good example) plus extra vulnerabilities due to poorly-developed Operating Systems.
But the privacy gains of not installing a load of third-party apps from a dozen different data-selling businesses (or using an operating system built by the mother of all data-selling businesses) are very substantial.
Probably not for total addicts, but it got me back into focus mode for the last 6 months. I built 3 apps while working a main job.
Unfortunately for email the problem still persists, tons of newsletters and updates and other not so important emails and really urgent ones get drowned in that.
What I typically do is I snooze everything for 2 hours and have a productive session without interruption.
1) you buy a piece of hardware (printer, cctv cameras etc.) that can only be set up with a phone or you have to work harder to find the web interface.
2) Banks - banks really suck.
3) Companies I work for who use VPNs where you need a SMS or authenticator, however this is usually easy to get around with a web authenticator and some companies have let me use a YubiKey instead which is actually much less hassle.
4) Car parking meters where they discriminate - I tend to avoid these ones.
5) QR code restaurant menus - hate these but usually can get around it by just asking somebody for a paper menu.
6) Phasing out of 3G causing low reception - this is annoying because there are fewer good dumbphones that have 4G modems. Also I hate Android and Android based phones which come with facebook app and social media stuff installed so I'm a bit more limited in options. However, I managed to get an Alcatel flip phone which has 4G and it's a bit buggy but reception is now good.
I'm surprised that I'm able to get by, given the enormous pressure everyone is put under to use a smart phone, but it gives me hope that it hasn't worked and you can still get by in society without them. It would be pretty terrible if everyone HAD to agree to a google or Apple EULA just to be a functioning citizen.
I do want to point out =>
"The attention span myth - No, the average human attention span is not 1 second less than that of the goldfish."
What I would need is a dump smart watch with SIM card and proper battery lifetime and proper API so I can build from scratch and not start with android pushing everything on me.
As shocking as this will sound, there really is no person in front of many people. The human is desperately trying to feel part of a body of people, but the solutions we have (social media, internet media diet) is the least nutrient rich thing imaginable.
People you follow are not friends.
Now I carry an Android phone with an epaper display and a physical keyboard, which feels like a really good middle ground to me. It's good at the things that are important to me (reading, writing, communication), can do whatever other essentials I need it to in a scrape, and is absolute dogshit at scrolling through nonsense. The device itself feels rather less polished than the Pixel I was using before, but since I'm using it much less that doesn't seem like a problem. My old pre-smartphone phones always felt kind of janky too!
In an emergency in public, I yell "Help!" and 20 phones come out.
In a major emergency when cell phone lines are down I can tune to the frequency of my local police and yell at them all to come to me. They never deploy any useful encryption on those things.
So far so good. Even when I totaled a vehicle. Always reliably other people around with emergency phones so I do not need one.
then on the phone, you can use other apps to help modify your behavior, firefox with leechblock, etc.
I could get a camera maybe, or one of the tiny emergency 911 keychain phones that do not require a cell phone plan... but a smartphone? Why is that needed?
I use planes, trains, taxis, rideshare, hotels all over the world and shop all over the world and never been denied anything for not having a phone.
I think it is a good practice from a security perspective as well.
I am used to doing these things though. For example, I use NoScript in the browser with deny all as the default setting. To me, it is worth taking some extra steps to prevent unwanted alteration of my behavior.
But the battery of my cheap debloated Xiaomi lasts 5 days...