salaam, this is not so much as a total guide as much as it is some stuff i've learned and where to go to get more information. in that sense, i think this would be a good starting point for someone who's interested and wants to know about some options. some quick disclaimers:
- jose briones has contributed a lot in this space. i am not personally endorsing him 100%, but he has definitely posted good resources (more mentioned in #picking a phone)
- most phone carriers, at least in the us (tmobile, att, verizon, etc), no longer support non 4g devices. phones that fall in this space are aware of this and build that compatibility into their devices, but this is a very important note. a 2g only or 3g only device should not be expected to work as a phone
- if there is one "hybrid" phone that would be a flat out recommendation, it would probably be the cat s22 flip
- details on phones i've used and my current setup will be mentioned towards the end
i would recommend reading/skimming through this to get an idea, but the easiest path to try out is usually:
- android launcher (in combination with some of these sub points)
- uninstalling apps
- limiting notifications
- using a physical wristwatch
- hybrid phone
- dumb phone
in that order. hopefully this doc helps you figure out what will work best for you.
before we even begin discussing dumb phones or some kind of phone switch, i think it's important to discuss what is it that you hope to achieve. there are a variety of outcomes and potential benefits, but we should be clear about it from now, so as to not have confusion later.
smart phones, but more specifically modern social media exist solely to keep you in a loop. countless hours and dollars have been spent trying to figure out how to make a social media app as appealing as possible. you can find any number of articles and videos made on this topic, so i won't go into detail about it here. but if you ever feel lost in a cycle of scrolling or "just a little more", know that it's by design.
so now we move onto potential goals. it's the goal to move away from social media, away from heavy mobile phone usage, or something in the middle. if you aren't sure what you need, i think a general word of advice is to find at least a way to cut down on social media usage. social media use has been shown to make people unhappy with use, instead of the other way around. either way, it's something you'll have to decide, and once you have, you can continue reading.
naturally, someone would think the easiest place to start is by uninstalling the targeted app, or using the new built-in features of smart phones to limit the use of certain apps to a set amount of time per day. if those work that's great,
i think another good combination of simple techniques is to limit notifications of all non urgent apps in combination with a (non-smart) watch. less notifications means checking your phone less, and even if you do, less things to pull your attention to. using a watch means checking the time on your wrist instead of pulling out your phone, accidentally checking 5 things, and then putting your phone away without checking the time. yes, we've all been there.
if you are using an android phone, you can install a launcher. if you're unaware, the home screen + apps drawer layout can be changed to something completely different. for example, maybe you want a launcher that only allows 5 apps on the home screen, and the rest of the space is used to show your tasks or calendar events. it's a bit hard to describe each launcher and why you might use them, but i'll mention a few with a brief description
here's a subcategory of some 'light phone' type launchers. basically, very minimal and text focused, meant to keep you focused on the task at hand.
- slim launcher
- olauncher
- unlauncher
- before launcher
the first 3 also happen to be open source (which i believe comes with some beneficial pros), but if that's something you're not used to, you can look at 'before launcher' on the google play store.
there are a few other launchers i wanna mention, but first want to preface it by saying that they may not necessarily fall into the minimal category, but can potentially help keep things somewhat utility focused:
- aio launcher - i used this for a bit. cool concept of having everything on one page, and can have some decent styling. i liked throwing information on the home page so i can unlock my phone and get information quick
- kvaesitso/starlight launcher - these are kinda a hybrid between partial widget and partial search based launchers. both kinda cool, i used kvaesitso a decent amount, but at the time i was searching for some specific functionality so ended up trying some other launchers out
if you want to continue to commit to a bigger change, such as changing your phone, then continue reading on. we'll start off by first defining the categories.
there's smartphones, hybrid phones, dumb phones, and light phones
- smart phones: this is probably what most people are most familiar with. idk the official definition, but here we are using 'smart' to refer to the ability to operate as a computer and all the internet/app functionality that comes with that
- hybrid phones: imagine the old nokia or the old motorola razr, or if both of those sound like they're from a different era, then imagine a basic telephone or maybe even a walkie talkie, and then sprinkle on some of that 'smart' functionality mentioned under 'smart phones'. this is a very loose definition as hybrid phones have a whole range and spectrum to them, but the important thing is that it will typically not be a glass slab smart phone that we are used to, but may have some of the smart phone functionality.
- dumb phones: this is what you'd call the classic nokia category. a phone with physical buttons that makes calls and texts, and maybe does like 3 other things.
- light phones: this is basically 1 company that makes its own product called 'the light phone'. they currently have 2 versions, and it's basically a hybrid phone, but i put it in its own category because 2 things make it unique. first, that it has its own 'OS', meaning the creators are, and have, added functionality that the light phone previously didn't have, but they felt was in-line with the goal of the product. second, it can have its own phone plan, instead of a traditional phone plan.
smart phones and dumb phones are pretty straight forward, but i want to talk about the hybrid phones in a little more detail
you can find some independent phones in this category, but i want to focus mainly on two types. kaiOS and android go
android go is a 'lite' version of android built to run on lower end devices. in our case here, it can run on a much simpler device without having the need for a powerful cpu. in other words, it makes for a decent option for a hybrid phone operating system. most apps available on android will work here, or have a 'lite' version that can be used here.
the best way i can think of describing kaiOS is kinda like this. you know how when cars got screen for their infotainment systems, they had their own 'mini operating system'? imagine kaiOS like that, except actually pretty decent. their mission is to create affordable devices with access to apps that people use. things like whatsapp, youtube, and google maps. if there are specific apps you need access to, you can always check their website here
similar to kaiOS, the lightphone is a very simple phone, running it's own operating system. this phone is meant to be a 'just the essentials' kinda phone. if you're wondering 'who defines what essentials are?' the answer would, naturally, be the developers/creators. fortunately, they are open to adding features, and have previously done so, such as with navigation and podcasts. in the past, there has been a way to opt into a 'light phone plan', where users can call their provider and opt into a $10/month plan. here's a thread where that was done on verizon. this would be a your mileage may vary kind of scenario, so i wouldn't use this as a sole reason to switch. i would also consider this phone to be just 1 step above using a normal dumb phone, as the feature set is limited, and the phone is almost completely text based.
if you are committed to changing your phone, then the biggest step will be to actually pick a phone and start using it. if you've read/skimmed through this, you should hopefully have a decent idea on what you're getting into. from here, you can head to jose briones dumbphone finder, which has a whole database you can filter through to find something that fits your needs. there's also a quiz on there if you want something suggested for you.
one phone i used is the 'xiaomi f21 pro' which is an international phone. i purchased this, and flashed custom firmware on this to remove some of the chinese apps, and get things a little more to my liking. i genuinely found this phone pretty nice, but because it was an international edition, it did not work well for the cell phone provider i was using (tmobile). since then, there has actually been a kosher version that is designed to specifically work well on tmobile (and possibly other) us mobile carriers. you can confirm this by looking at tmobiles 4g bands (2, 5, 4, 66) and their extended bands (12, 71), and compare it to the kosher f30 pro (2, 4, 12, 13, 17, 66, 71). upon doing some further research, it seems like the f21/international version, with some tinkering, can be enabled to use the america phone bands. this is something i may personally test, but that would be a big plus for this phone.
an 'upgraded' version of the f21 pro has been released. i say 'upgraded' since the main upgrades come in the form of screen size and processing power, which may seem contradictory if the primary focus is to be more minimal and cut away from smart phones. i did want to try it out at some point, so if that does happen i will update this section, but at the very least i wanted to make a mention of it for the sake of relaying information.
yes, cat, like caterpillar, like the construction company. no, they do not sell a smart phone. they, in fact, sell multiple smart phones. the cat s22 flip happens to be sold through tmobile as well, has android go, and is literally a flip phone with tactile buttons. it also happens to have a touch screen on the inside, and both a selfie camera as well as a rear facing camera. the only 'downside' here would be that if someone wanted this phone purely for minimal purposes, they would be stuck with a device that's a bit on the bulkier and heavier side physically. i only recently got my hands on this, but overall have seen pretty good reviews, and from my initial hands-on, i'm quite impressed with what they've made.
now i have not personally used a kaios device, but i believe there's a lot of potential here to find a phone that fits your needs in a somewhat decent physical form factor. initially, i thought this category had more potential, but it seems, at least for the americas, that kaios isn't exactly a growing market. what this means is limited options, and maybe less/unreliable software support. this is something i'll keep looking into, but just wanted to point out that detail.
this is almost like an honorable mention in terms of recommendations as it doesn't quite fall in line with a purely minimal mindset, but can potentially have that effect. i'm running a pixel device with the custom operating system grapheneos. grapheneos is a completely separate topic, but it's basically the most secure mobile operating system there is, while also being very privacy friendly. security = saftey, privacy = your data being respected. edward snowden has previously also approved of grapheneos. my reason for installing this os was mainly on the privacy side of things, but once i started using it, the security and privacy focused nature of the device led me to not wanted to overload my phone, especially not with social media apps that were spending thousands of dollars and hours to farm my data. in conjunction with this, i'm currently using a garmin hybrid smart watch with lift-to-wake disabled. what this means is that 90% of the time, this watch operates as a normal wrist watch. only when i double tap the screen will it 'turn' into a smart watch.
this little blurb has only scratched the surface of grapheneos, security, and privacy, but as those topics aren't necessarily the focus of this post, i didn't want to go into too much detail here. i do like this setup, but i'm still looking into different phones and looking for ways to maximize the use of my phone as a tool without letting it become too distracting from more important things in life.
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