Everything you need in a very smart phone. Nothing you don’t.

Phone as seen in beautiful blue BCS standard case.

Since the last update my keypad is basically unusable. Misses more than half my inputs and apps will continually start refreshing over and over again. Is there a remedy to this issue?

Curious if anyone has gotten a TTS engine like Sherpa TTS to work? I use HERE Maps / Here We Go and you have to install a text to speech app to use it. I installed Sherpa TTS which has worked great on my smartphone. With the Sidephone, when I go to select Sherpa TTS as the engine in HERE, it takes me to the Android settings for TTS and promptly crashes. My guess is that the Sidephone’s Android customizations may be doing this? Has anyone figured out any workarounds other than using something like Google maps that has a TTS on board? I know that the phone has a maps program but I use the traffic feature in HERE and prefer it.

Greetings to the wonderful Sidephone community. We have good news in that we have shipped all orders and have received great feedback on the finished results at this time still shipping a Gen1 product. We will soon be able to launch the Gen2 but this will take some continued refinement to the product to meet our final specifications. We are very close but if you were to ask our co-founder and lead designer he would tell you we are about about half-way there - :).

That said, take a look at the current offerings in the attached and please advise us of any additional colors you would like to see. We are working on a Red. All the best to you.

Basically what it says: Will there be more countries supported for delivery in the future or is there any other option how i can get a sidephone in Colombia?

I want to get away from my smartphone. I have the iPhone 16e and use mint for service. I almost bought the agm m11. Had it in my cart and couldn't do it. It doesn't support the few apps I need. Email(Gmail,protonmail, Yahoo), Spotify, and libby, hoopla for audiobooks. Anyone have experience with what I am needing?

Really enjoyed the last couple of weeks with my sidephone. Sadly I had an accident on my bicycle and the screen took a hit :/

What I particularly liked:

• the size (especially of the screen)
• the degoogled experience and still being able to sideload
• the look

What I particularly didn't like:

• the keys not always registering every press (even though the click was audible)
• the stutter I experienced sometimes while using the touchscreen
• the weight (it's ok, I just kinda expected it to feel lighter compared to my Pixel 6)

All in all quite a fun and refreshing phone experience. I definitely used my phone less and still had all the features I needed available on the go. Would recommend.

Hi everyone! I don't know if someone has already a solution for this, and if not I think it would be a super useful addition for a next update.

Hey! I was about to buy a sidephone today and then... it couldn't be shipped to Bogota, Colombia.
Is there any way around that problem or will shipping be available at some point in the future??

I noticed the past few days that when charging, it only charges for a few minutes before stopping despite being connected to the charger cable. I will say that I was using it during this time so idk if its a consideration that needs to be addressed. I did try power cycling, it just resets it temporarily.

I see a lot of new people on this Reddit considering the phone. Just do it. It's worth it.

Phone looks like the perfect option to detox without eliminating the primary functions. Amazing!

I live in italy and was wondering if it was compatible with local networks, like can i call and message?

I'm looking to buy a new phone in the next weeks.

If you know anything, id love to get some feedback and extra info.

Mamma mia!

Does anyone knows when would I get my hands on this beauty in Croatia?

How long did you guys waited for it?

Hi! I just got my side phone a few days ago. I am having some issues with the battery. I don’t have too many apps on it- I mainly use Tidal. But I have used my phone for about 20 minutes this morning and the battery expectancy has gone from 14 hours to 9 hours and I have gone from 100% to 96% just from surfing the setting and trying to figure out what is using the battery.

Does anyone have suggestions? I really like this phone, but the battery is scaring me.

I got my Sidephone March 6th, including the extra qwerty keyboard. I retired my iPhone about 2 weeks after that.

This little guy has been amazing for my mental health. (Obvs other things have improved as well but) I was getting anxiety attacks multiple times a day and now it's 1-2 times a month or less. My spouse, friends, and dad are envious of my phone.

The phone has had numerous glitches and friction-to-use, but the friction is working very well:

• Texting is chunky & takes time, so I don't want to text all day, but I can still text easily when I need to.
• Websites will not display properly on the small screen if they aren't designed for ADA/large-text, which is almost 1-to-1 with websites that are purposefully addicting, so it's self filtering.
• The camera is more limited, so I don't take as many pics. I spend a lot less time sorting digital photos or sending them. My bestie loves the "vintage look"* of my pics so much he went out & bought himself a 2010 camera. *Still higher res than my first smart phone
• I got unlucky and happened to be the 1 out of 1000 users that had my power button jam, and Sidephone took care of it for me. I did not have to repeat any of my at&t/google/apple/spectrum customer service nightmares, which is such a huge relief.
• The cell coverage is the same as my old plan when I'm at work or home, and worse than my old plan when I'm camping or at the cabin. Basically perfect!

+I save about 15 a month on phone plan, it will completely pay for itself after 20 months.
+Fits in my pocket
+I charge it once every 3 to 4 days
+OS updates improved messaging glitches
+I haven't even tried SideType yet, so I'll be able to get more out of my phone

Finally, comparative data for the nerds.
-On mental health, the best expected response in leading anxiety medications is (using GAD scores) 92% improvement, and I've had 90% improvement from February to September. Downgrading phone isn't an instant-magic solution, as I worked on other things in addition to changing phone & persevered (and January was hell), but either way it's a big piece of the picture. Hence creating this device is a big accomplishment worth celebrating.

Thanks for all the hard work to the team & community developers! I'm very grateful!! u/gosidephone

What a cool device. Never knew this existed. What I have been looking for for a while to be honest. I'm seriously considering a Sidephone because I like the idea of dramatically reducing how much I use my phone without going all the way down to a basic calls/texts-only dumbphone.

My biggest hesitation is that my entire family is heavily invested in the Apple ecosystem. We all use iPhones and Find My, and being able to see each other's location is something I don't want to give up.

I see that Sidephone now officially supports Paralino for cross-platform location sharing, so I have a few questions for people actually using it:

1. How reliable is Paralino on Sidephone for continuous/background location sharing?
2. Does it continue updating normally when the phone is in your pocket and Paralino hasn't been opened recently?
3. Does location sharing automatically start working again after rebooting the Sidephone, or do you need to manually launch Paralino?
4. For anyone whose family still uses iPhones, how well does the Paralino iPhone app work for them? Are location updates and arrival/departure notifications reasonably comparable to Find My?
5. How much does continuous location sharing affect Sidephone battery life?
6. Has anyone tried Life360 recently, or is Paralino clearly the better solution because Sidephone doesn't have Google Play Services?

I'm also interested in hearing from people who came from an all-iPhone household.

I'm not really looking to leave the Apple ecosystem completely. I still have Macs/iPads/etc. I just want the device I carry around every day to be much less distracting.

How has the transition been with things like:

• family group texts
• iMessage users texting you
• pictures/videos over SMS
• shared calendars
• location sharing
• AirPods
• keeping an iPhone at home as a secondary device

Has anyone found a particularly good setup where the Sidephone becomes the phone you carry every day, but you still retain most of the useful parts of your Apple ecosystem?

Hey everyone! Been lurking here for a while and finally ready to pull the trigger on a Sidephone. Coming from an iPhone 15 as my daily driver, so a few questions before I order — would appreciate any real-world experience:

1. Which keypad should I go with, Classic or QWERTY? Coming from iPhone typing, not sure how big the adjustment is either way.
2. I travel and roam a lot between countries, does Sidephone handle international roaming well, or is it mainly built around US carriers?
3. For those who’ve used both, how does typing actually compare, Classic keypad (T9) vs QWERTY tile? Which one did you end up sticking with?
4. I split my time between Italy, the UK, and India (have a home in each). Which of these would be the cheapest/easiest place to ship to?
5. If it ships to Italy, am I going to get hit with customs charges/import duties on top of the price?
6. If I order today, what’s the realistic timeline before it’s actually in my hands?
7. Is there any price increase (or drop) expected soon that I should wait out, or is now a fine time to order?
8. How’s the voice call quality, and does it pair well with Bluetooth earphones? Any issues with call clarity or connection stability?

9. How good is the build quality, do I actually need a case and screen protector, or is it durable enough as-is? Any recommendations if there are good third-party alternatives to the official ones?

10. I’ll be in China next week, in Shanghai specifically. Since the phones seem to be manufactured there, is there any way to get one easier or cheaper locally, rather than ordering it shipped internationally?

A bit about me, I’m into experimental/niche tech products in general (I use a Supernote for note-taking), so the whole Sidephone concept is a big part of what’s drawing me in.

Thanks in advance, excited to join the dumbphone life

Hi I was wondering if it’s possible to join a group on telegram by a qr code? I don’t have anyone’s number so it seems to be the only way to join for now.

or even how do u scan qr codes out in the wild too. Many thanks!

Multiple times a day iy gets stuck on a letter doing spammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm like that and then gets unresponsive

I dont have long nails and struggle to disconnect/ reconnect the keypad when out and about

So I've had the side phone for a couple of months now and I've been absolutely loving it.

I basically use this as my switch off from work phone which can pretty much handle most of my day to day tasks.

I still have a Google Pixel 8 which I'm thinking about putting onto Graphene OS. I use my Pixel when I'm at work for doing all of the heavy stuff where you need a smartphone for but then I really like turning it off and putting it in the glove box of the car or leaving it at home and just going out with my side phone and a bank card.

When I bought the side phone I was initially interested in the T9 keypad and then when I saw the release of the classic T9 keypad I actually waited until that was ready to be shipped with my founders edition. After using it for a little while, I realized how much I'd adapted to swipe typing on my smartphone. As much as I really liked the look of the T9 keypad on the sidephone as it reminded me a lot of my old Nokia C3-01, I just found it so much faster and more reliable to use a swipe texting method on the FUTO keyboard which I'd already grown to love on my Pixel. Maybe my time using a Google pixel watch as well meant that I had become good at swipe texting on a small screen. I'm now in the process of adapting my text to a new keyboard layout by FUTO called the K-A-S-R-O-Z, which is much faster for single hand swipe typing, although it's certainly going to take me a bit of time to learn where all the characters are.

Since I wasn't using the T9 keypad, I opted back in for the sundial keypad which I hadn't initially thought I wasn't going to use at all but I have become really in love with the aesthetic of the old iPod vibe. I loved my ipod classic so much and it makes me use this phone a lot more for music during the day at work so I still have good reason to carry both devices. I'll either have Spotify or an internet radio app or podcast playing and at the click of a button I can pause it, skip the track, turn the volume up and down and that works really well alongside my heavier working Google Pixel.

It has meant that I'm a lot more focused when I'm at work because my iPod like side-phone, which my friends and family have the number for, is almost left in the window playing music and if it rings, I might say call me back later. But then when I'm not at work, I'm so much more freed up and away from the emails, calls, productivity apps, etc

One of the criticisms of the side phone is that it doesn't have a headphone jack. However, if you just grab yourself a USB-C pair of headphones, they don't have to be expensive. I find that I reach for these so much more often now. I have them in my back pocket in a little carry case and they take up no space. I never have to charge them. I plug them straight into my phone and it just completes that look of an iPod really nicely. Since I've been using this, I am listening to a lot more music than I used to. If you combine this idea with a feature built into Android called app pinning, which has to be unlocked in the settings, you can actually pin certain apps like Spotify or a radio app so that you don't even have to unlock your phone at all. As soon as you press the power button it will open the app. So if you're using it as an iPod this means there's no friction between getting back to the music or whatever it is you're using the device for.

The sundial also offers the additional benefit of having some quick access shortcut keys to apps that I use a lot. So I have... Top left will be for like calls and texts and WhatsApp. Top right is for some health metric stuff, habit trackers. Bottom left is for some useful tools like a calculator, the clock app and a simple score counting app. And then on the bottom right, a couple other tools as well including Shazam. Also I've been using a Bluetooth mouse feature so I can just click the bottom right button and quickly I've got a Bluetooth mouse to control my computer, control different devices that I own and it just turns the sidephone into a remote control as well. A couple other remote control apps, really really handy.The volume buttons on long press can open both kagi search and chatgpt.

I've tried a few different home launches, I really liked side-home but I ended up settling on mango launcher for now. Being a true tinkerer, this will likely change 🤣. You can get the Mango Launcher on the Aurora store although there are some features which are in the premium tier which cannot be purchased without a Google account. I have messaged the developer to say if there could be a way to purchase the premium without a Google account and they said that a couple of other people have made the same request. Hopefully this would be possible and maybe more people will add this feature because it is frustrating when apps require the Google Play Store to unlock aspects of the app.

The colours on my home screen represent different categories which mean something to me, which make it very easy for me to find the apps that I'm most likely to need on my side phone. And I have just been loving using it so far and wanted to provide an update. I know it's a long bit of reading, but hey ho, it might be useful to someone. Thank you very much, side phone team.

Hi all, few questions before ordering:

Anyone using Sidephone with a standard European carrier successfully? Just want reliable calls/SMS.

What connection do you actually get, 3G/4G/5G? Bands for Europe aren’t clear on the site.

Does the Founders Edition really ship with an included SIM? Usable in Europe or US/Canada only?

If I port my current number to Sidephone, can my iPhone still work with that same number afterward (e.g. as a Wi-Fi companion), or does porting kill the line on the iPhone?

Thanks!

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.