Dumbed down my smartphone

02/22/25

Pining for a dumbphone

I've wanted a dumbphone (AKA a "feature phone") for a long time. At least since last year, when I practiced being more intentional about my phone usage and began really taking note of how much time I spend online.

I was a kid during the mid-to-late 2000s. Smartphones only gained mainstream adoption when I was in junior high. My first cellphone was a generic flip phone that offered cool customization features like five different UI colors, or the ability to use your own ringtones (I downloaded bootlegs from Phonezoo.com).

I vividly remember the pre-smartphone era and how people used cellphones¹ back then versus now. It's hard to wrap my head around how disconnected things were back then. "Going online" was something you sat down at a computer to do, and phones were only meant to communicate through calls and text. Any other tasks or services were deferred to dedicated devices² like CD/MP3 players, auto GPS devices, handheld video game consoles, etc.

As much as I want a dumbphone, I'm stuck with smartphones for the foreseeable future. I'm in a long distance relationship with my wife, who lives in England. This requires us to text and call through internet based apps. We used to use WhatsApp; since the 2024 election I've decided to divest myself from all things Meta, Amazon, Google, etc, and my wife graciously switched to Signal with me.

In any case, these apps require a rudimentary version of Android. There are some "middle of the pack" options such as the Unihertz Jelly Star series which boasts itself as the world's smallest smartphone, as well as the CAT S22 Flip which is a smartphone jammed into a rugged flip phone.

These options offer Android OS and all the Android apps you need in a form factor that de-incentivizes usage. They're a valid choice but don't appeal to me personally. If I'm going to spend money on a niche phone, I want it to match the exact use case I have in mind, which is simple texts and calls.

My dream dumbphone EDC

Ironically enough, I've wasted a lot of time on my smartphone window shopping for dumbphones. If I were to get a dumbphone today, I'd go for the F1 Pro Maple from Sunbeam Wireless.

Sunbeam makes truly modern dumbphones that provide things like Wi-Fi hotspots, navigation, weather updates, email, etc. You can pick and choose how many features you want. Most importantly: they all use USB-C charging ports!

Last year I started carrying around a pocket notebook to take notes, bought a digicam, etc, so my EDC is already spread out among several dedicated devices. But here's my dream setup:

• Sunbeam F1 Pro Maple
• Kobo Libra Color (currently saving up for this!)
• my Kodak Pixpro FZ45 digicam
• my pocket notebook
• my hacked 3DS
• my traveler's notebook/sketchbook
• Penny Dell puzzle printouts

Thoughts on dumbphones and old tech vs smartphones

I found out about the Sunbeam through this YouTube video. She posted another video detailing her experimental return to a smartphone after using a dumbphone for a year (spoiler alert: she went back to using a dumbphone!). The latter video reminded me about my own grievances with modern tech and how I use my phone.

I watched another YouTube video today about why young people love old stuff, whether that's old phones, computers, TVs, gaming consoles, vinyl records, etc. It's really well done. The biggest takeaway for me was how old devices and technology were meant to be used, repaired, interfaced, and owned. Today, a lot of modern devices have the primary purpose of serving us content, trapping us in algorithms, trying to lure us into using apps, etc; their actual stated purposes and functions are an afterthought.

This all got me reflecting on how I've been using my smartphone since my first internet/social media detox. I was surprised at how quickly my old bad habits returned; Ashton discussed something similar in her second video that I linked above.

Another go at dumbing down

I told my wife today that trying to detox from social media, the internet, and invasive tech while using a smartphone is difficult. It's like trying to quit smoking while carrying around a pack of cigarettes in your pocket.

In spite of these difficulties, I figured it might be worth another shot at "dumbing down" my smartphone. You can find lots of posts and YouTube videos on the subject.

I've gone back and forth dumbing down my phone over the past year and a half. At first I just used the stock Android OS, deleting all but the essential apps. I found it hard to stick with and unnecessarily clunky.

Last May I found Niagara Launcher, which I've been using until now. I even paid for the full version. It's a really great option, but I found that it didn't really change how I interfaced with my device as much as I wanted. It's less digital minimalism, more design minimalism.

Today I found Indistractable on the Play Store. After tweaking it a little bit, I like it a lot. I'll most likely buy the full version once I get paid. The general setup is pretty similar to Niagara, but the feature that sets it apart for me is the screentime display. It shows my total screentime on the home screen (after the battery percentage) as well as the screentime for individual apps. I find this super helpful in curbing my phone usage.

Current setup

Here's a list of things I do to dumb down my phone:

• Disable notification/status bar on home screen
• Only have notifications enabled for calls/messaging
• Keep my device on Do Not Disturb as much as possible
• Hide/disable any non-essential apps
• Delete all social media apps; if I want to look at anything, I have to go through the browser (see below)
• Use Firefox extensions to block social media websites
• Set nearly everything to light mode so it isn't as comfortable to stare at my phone for long³

Screenshots

Here are some screenshots showing how everything looks:

Wish me luck!

We'll see how things go this time around. I'm sure I'll end up writing another blog post about it.

I think my next goal will be to find a cheap music player. Outside of texting my wife, I get sucked into using my phone while I'm loading up music (which I now only play locally).

As always, feel free to email with questions or comments.

Take care! <3

✘ Posted on — 02/22/25
✘ Last modified — 6 months ago
✘ Link — https://blog.xavierhm.com/dumbed-down-my-smartphone

Footnotes

#blog #detox #digital minimalism #internet #mental health #tech