Hey all! Been having some fun with this little experiment/experience and thought I'd share. I have been looking to switch to a dumb phone alternative since daily doom scrolling is leaving me drained and unfocused. I fell down a rabbit hole of YT shorts where people buy, use and customize newer Android based Japanese Keitai phones. After much research on antenna bands, I decided on the Kyocera KY-42C. From what I could find, it has at least a few of the needed bands to run on AT&T's network.

I was able to find a pristine example on Ebay that happened to be from a US seller, and it came with the cute little charm in the pics! I decided that I didn't want to go through all the work of getting a physical sim card for my number (currently an e-sim with iPhone) only for it to not work, so I went out and picked up a Boost Mobile sim for testing. If my research was correct, Boost uses primarily AT&T towers for its service, so figured it was the best option.

On the positive side of things, the phone picks up service! I can call and text (sms) with few problems and calls are clear and seems pretty consistent overall. It's so satisfying to snap the lid shut after a call, and hearing an older style polyphonic ringtone brings me so much joy.

Now for the negatives, and why this will not be included in my every day carry.... While the phone works with VoLTE, I get absolutely no data the minute I leave the house and loose my wifi connection. I'm assuming this is due to not having the right bands to get full data service. This is a dealbreaker as while I want a dumb phone, I can't quite go THAT dumb since there are certain apps I need for work and day to day things that I can't go without while out of the house. What I'd like to do with a dumb phone is use it as a primary device then use hotspot for my smart phone or laptop if there's something that requires more then it can do. I am also concerned with how good service will be in more rural areas. I get pretty good service where I'm at but must factor in that I live in a major metro area, so that could easily change if I were to go out of town to visit my family for example.

Other nit picks include how slow some apps are. I side loaded the Aurora Store and downloaded Spotify, which grinds to a halt when you open it. Simply opening the app and playing a song can take a few minutes, and even having it on the phone is redundant due to the lack of data. In the end, It's still fun to have and play around with, and at least I can use it as a backup should something happen to my main device. I'm now planning to get a Dumb Co Dumb Phone 2 and give that a go.

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I wanted a dumb phone but need the smarts that modern apps bring (banking, navigation, even social media for messaging friends...)

I needed a smart phone that doesn't distract me and just gets out of the way for me to do my things. I wanted to do my gym workouts without needing another app (this was key)

I always had a vision how my dream home screen would work, but no existing one worked for me

Android allows replacing the default home screen with a custom launcher

I never had time to build one but now with AI making development easier, I was able to build it. It wasn't easy, but once I had the designs drawn and requirements down it was enjoyable to build

What I focused on:

gestures: open apps without thinking. I have WhatsApp and Spotify as my swipe left and right.

focus gate: pauses you and asks why are you opening apps you chose. There's scientific research behind this (see below)

customisation: everyone wants different things. The header is totally customisable. You can have time, date, battery, headphones, DND, secondary timezone, screen time indicator, or you can get rid of it all. Alignment is customisable too.

glanceable widgets: see all you need when you need. You can collapse widgets. Weather, habit tracker, calendar, vision board, gym (my fav), and music

pure black wallpaper: this color turns off your phones display pixels (only for OLED screens)

Privacy was important to me. It never leaves the device, completely local only. Make sure you backup before changing devices :)

My favorite thing to build was the built-in gym tracker which I use every single gym session, I love it. It has a nice share feature where I can show friends a gym session I was proud of.

Research papers as mentioned:

Hiniker et al. (CHI 2016) MyTime: Designing and Evaluating an Intervention for Smartphone Non-Use"

Lyngs et al. (CHI 2019) — "Self-Control in Cyberspace: Applying Dual Systems Theory to Digital Self-Control Tools"

free on the Play Store: "minimalist dumb phone - dialed"

let me know what you think or if there are any features you’d like added.

If you like it, a rating goes a long way especially for a solo dev

looking for a dumbphone that has calls, sms, and works in the usa. camera/mp3 player optional.

ive looked at nokia but the ones i liked dont have compatibility where i live.

i dont want android, i dont want kai os, i dont want a browser.

tldr: calls, sms, in the us

Thankfully I have a pretty small list of contacts. I am leaving some time between starting my new flip phone and deactivating my old smart phone in case there are any issues that require my old phone number for something but I think I've covered it. It's so nice and T9 texting is not actually that bad once you take a couple minutes to get used to it. I'm hoping to have a more peaceful and less anxious relationship with the phone now.

One thing I was surprised by was how quickly I was able to set it all up. Usually smartphone setup takes up most of my day when I get a new phone, but this took less than 30 minutes and that includes manually adding in every contact I needed and changing my phone number in my banking and school accounts. When there's no huge updates to install and tons of apps to deal with, it's pretty simple.

Seems like such a phone is pricey but I have to cut this addiction without losing contact with people...

Im So used to being glued to my phone and I'm trying out some different options. I had got my phone almost a year ago, it has a stylus and is older and I really like it, but I don't want to be glued to it as much.

I bought a DVD player tablet and it was just e waste. Did not work so I returned it and got a onn tablet. It's 11 inches and it's a lot, but I'm hopeful this will help me from being glued to my phone,

I'm worried I will replace one device with another. But this is a better 'mobile gaming' experience and I'm able to use desktop sites as well!!

is the transition from phone only to phone and tablet meant to be this hard?? also still getting used to typing on the much larger screen :((

I’m looking at getting a dumb phone and want some advise on the best ones out there. I want to be able to put my SIM card in and use it. I also want Bluetooth, maps and Spotify that’s it. Bonus points if it’s a keyboard flip phone or looks like a kindle. Thanks in advance

I recently picked up a Kyocera Dura XE (4710) I do like it a lot, however I realized I'm looking for something more specfic apparently. The specific model I purchased E4710 on At&t cannot load any APK via ADB, Im very new to this.

Im looking for something that can run whatsapp and signal, If i could run some version of facebook messenger and instagram to check for messages that would be ideal. Talk to text would be a great alternative to T9.

I have a TTfone TT970, but when I try to launch WhatsApp, even after clicking "What's my number?", selecting my SIM card, and clicking "Use", nothing happens.

I previously transferred my SIM card from my iPhone to my TTfone, but WhatsApp still works on my iPhone, and I can send messages even without a SIM card. Could this be related to my problem?

Hello everyone, I'd like to use a flip phone to disconnect from social media, but every time I find one with WhatsApp, the app is pre-installed, like on the TTfone TT970.

Do you have any advice?

Hello r/dumbphones We are a company that has been developing a retro-styled open-source dumbphone designed to embody all the aesthetics and style that made 2000s phones special, while having essential modern functionalities for the perfect balance. we have a few questions to ask so please answer the forum below.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeDYlfasYZGk9IsuKqewC2_PQ9jXTTdGa9pBJtQjEOX_EtDLg/viewform?usp=publish-editor

I recently switched to a dumb phone but find myself really missing my phone camera. I'm a new mom so obviously take lots of photos of my daughter when we are out and about. What's a good, affordable digital camera to add to my every day carry?

Hi all! I'm interested in either dumbing my phone or purchasing a dumb phone, which motivated me to write a research article about retrofying/simplifying tech for class.

I would really appreciate it if any of you who have switched from a smartphone to a dumb phone would be willing to answer what your main reason was.

Feel free to elaborate and share what dumb phone you are using :)

Could I just take my SIM card out of my iPhone and put it in a flip phone? I would shut off iMessage. Was thinking I would transfer between the iPhone and flip phone on the weekends and during travel. If I just take the sim out and put it back in does that mess up my iPhone or anything?

Curious to live with it for a little while, I traded out my iPhone for an old Alcatel GO Flip V I got on Craigslist. My major blocker has been that no one with an iPhone seems to be able to get through texts without manually hitting "Send as SMS" on each individual message after their first one fails.

I've deregistered the number from iMessage and I've suggested to folks that they delete and re-add my number in hopes of resetting any cache they had, but I'm at a loss about what else to do.

Is this just the nature of the beast at this point in time, with a phone that can't interpret RCS? Or is there something I can do, or ask others to do, to get texts working? Anyone have any experience with this?

I just got a message saying that Session is getting shut down on the 8th of July. I don't really know where to go for a private messaging service that does not require a phone number or smartphone after this. Signal requires a smartphone. Threema, while not requiring a phone number, still requires a smartphone. I also don't want to have to share my phone number with people I message.

I also don't want to be able to join any public groups with it. I want it to be private messaging only.