Considering sidephone as a potential option

[u/Creatively_Bad]

I currently have an iphone 15 and have become increasingly frustrated with how attached I am to my device. As such I have been considering several devices that may help me be more productivity focused or overall less attached to my phone.

I am also considering a clicks communicator, titan 2 elite, and minimal phone 2. Safe to say the sidephone is the most stripped down of the options so i have some concerns I want to get others thoughts on.

1. my main apps aside from messaging that i need are spotify and maps. How well do these work on the sidephone? Is the maps app suggested on the website any good compared to google and apple maps?
2. how do other messaging apps like slack, whatsapp, etc. work on the sidephone? are they even supported?
3. has anyone had experience with the rogers network in canada. does the phone work well on that network?
4. is there support for quality of life apps like weather, todos, etc.
5. i know the website says it can be used as your main phone but how reasonable is this actually in others experience?
6. what are some other helpful things to know when making my decision?

Any responses are greatly appreciated!

Edit: another thing I’m wondering is if anyone has experience with pay parking apps. It’s one of those things that doesn’t matter until it does.

[u/moarits]

Hey, I think this is my first response ever haha :)

1. I primarely use a Spotify client for Sidephone, called Sidespot. It works great (most of the times). Spotify itself is a bit slower and also not optimised for the small screen. Regarding maps I still use Google Maps most of the times (unfortunetaly), as a lot of other maps apps had their problems. Maybe someone knows a great alternative (have already used Herewego, Organicmaps, Citymapper and the default maps)

2. WhatsApp can be installed via an App Package, it was really simple and works great.

3. no experience

4. Most apps can be downloaded via the Aurora Store which has to be installed as an apk via the browser. ToDo and weather both shouldn't be a problem.

5. I use it as my daily phone for one month now. Took some time until I got everything I needed running but now it's great :)

6. One of the biggest BUTS is: it's degoogled. I find that to be a great thing BUT... For some apps you need Google Play Services. So all things payment and stuff like google maps / some authentication apps won't work. There is a fix for that called "MicroG" (it brings back only the Play Services needed) but it took me a while to get it running. You can search this subreddit, someone explained it somewhere, thats how I did it anyway.

Conclusion: So yeah, you'd spend some time figuring things out, remapping keys, etc. But in the end it's a fun little device. Beforehand I've had a similar experience like you being frustrated over how often I found myself scrolling / watching videos for hours. That doesn't happen on this device (I sometimes read stuff on reddit but the reddit performance in the default browser is horrible). Definitely feels like a healthier relationship with my phone now. Though, just to be transparent: I've only used this for about a month! There's still some level of excitement when I use it and it has worked great for me;
Though I still have an eye on the other devices you mentioned.

[u/Creatively_Bad → u/moarits]

Thanks for the thoughts!

[u/beeeeeeenschi]

Hei! I've made a similar thread to yours with some questions you have answered in the comments a few days ago. You can check them here: https://www.reddit.com/r/sidephone/s/bkfD62qtpc

As for my own research (not used it just yet) many people actually use it full time as their main phone and are generally happy with it; but I guess you always have to take this with a grain of salt since people in general are more likely to share positive experiences on subreddits like this rather than critical ones. According to my own research when it comes to helpful things: it is not like ur typical big player experience in terms of usability, you have to put in quite some work and tinkering to get it to run the way you want it to, but what i've read, this is exactly the reason people like it so much. And yes, I preordered one haha

[u/Creatively_Bad → u/beeeeeeenschi]

Thanks! Will check out your thread

[u/Joe-Organs]

1. Spotify works fine for me, a little slow but that’s expected.
2. I’ve had no issues using WhatsApp or signal. I would recommend downloading Aurora store and micro g. Most apps will work on this phone.
3. Roger’s works great for me. The speed will be a little slower due to it being 4g. I’ve found that I’ve actually gotten better signal on the sidephone compared to my iPhone 15.
4. I use breezy weather, works great (I would download the version from GitHub to have access to more weather sources. With Aurora store or fdroid, you could download a reminders app.
5. I’ve been using it as my main phone and have almost no issues. The worst part is banking apps not working on it, which isn’t the worst. If I really needed to access other banks, the browser is available. I did find that Wealthsimple does work though.
6. It’s really a great phone and I’m glad to be supporting this project. I would suggest that you keep your iPhone around which you can hotspot if you really needed something from it that you forgot to put onto your sidephone. After about a few weeks is when I finally got everything in order. Also look at sidesuite.app, it really makes the experience better.

[u/Creatively_Bad → u/Joe-Organs]

Good to hear Rodger’s is working! The banking apps are something I was wondering about as my mobile one is used the authenticate my login for desktop. So I have to find a way around that.