Hacker News Reader

Comment by kh_hk | Hacker News Reader

My recommendation for someone considering a minimalist / dumbphone / detox / whatever is to avoid expensive products that over-promise their utility. There's no middle ground, it's either usable or it is not, so any in between will just become e-waste eventually.

The alternative I went with, and which I recommend, is getting both a smartphone and a nokia shitphone (no internet). Then ask the carrier for a sim duplicate. These exist, and are in fact a new number that redirects to your number. Use and carry whichever you want, knowing that calls will all go to both phones.

View on HN

I’m drawn to the idea of a dumb phone, but I can’t realistically move to one full time, as I need an Authenticator app for work. Also, losing mobile access to my password manager would be a nightmare. Going with a smart + dumb phone setup feels like a non-starter. That’s adding more complexity to life, not removing it.

I tend to delete apps from my phone if I find myself spending too much time on them. My “social” folder in the app drawer contains Phone, FaceTime, and Messages. Just the built-in stuff. It also helps to have a healthy level of distrust of these companies, so you don’t want to use their services in the first place.

This doesn’t make the phone “dumb”, but it does make it more of a utility device. I go through my apps pretty regularly looking for stuff to delete. I still have more apps than I’d like, but they are mostly boring (banking, healthcare, etc).

The only big issue that remains is the browser. I can’t get rid of it, but it is still a portal to YouTube, HN, and other such things. This has its pros and cons.

Speaking of e-Waste:

> Can Communicator be used as my primary phone?

Without them making a statement of how long they will provide security updates for, this could easily go like past phones of mine.

My work tightens their mobile security policy, and the device can no longer meet it. This is for both Android version and security updates. Happened to me a few times where I had to stop using a perfectly good phone which wasn't that old.

(Now I bought a Pixel I only use on wifi - 7 years of updates, and actually better for my WLB, since I leave work at home by default, or stuff a second phone in my pocket if I want to take it with)

> Without them making a statement of how long they will provide security updates

They said this:

  What version of Android will be supported?

  Communicator will run Android 16. We’re comfortable committing to 2 years of Android updates and 5 years of security updates.

I've never had a pixel phone last more than 3 years before it stopped turning on, all the way back to Nexus devices.

I'd stop buying them but everything else is bad in some other way. It is hilarious that the official Google phones have the fewest ads and forced app installs.

Why don't you have a work phone? How can you let an employer rule over what you do with your personal device?

I do have a work phone - which works only in wifi mode.

If it's super important, my regular cell gets called. My regular phone has 0 work stuff on it. My employer couldn't access personal stuff on it if they wanted to.

Did not know these existed. Just ordered a duo sim from my carrier, thanks!

Can you elaborate on the sim duplicate thing - I've never heard of that before - how would I go about getting one of those?

smartwatches use those often, so perhaps that's something your carrier will have heard of / offer as a service

On my carrier it's called a MultiSIM. It's having two SIM cards with the same number. On most carriers you can set up if you want this extra SIM to have voice or data (or both). It's usually cheap.

It's true that having two devices might seem complicated, but this is the only setup that ended working out for me: when I know I won't need any smart features on my life, I am happy to go out with my dumphone without worrying about missing urgent calls.

I just keep my iPhone locked up.

You can go to Screen Time and disable Safari and App Store.

You can protect it with a passcode, which is what I did.

After a few weeks I just got used to my phone being dumb.

Now these apps are unlocked, but the habit is there, and I use it for utility only.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com