"Dumb Phone"
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https://9to5mac.com/2024/07/30/how-to-turn-your-iphone-into-a-dumb-phone-to-avoid-all-distraction/
Dumb Phone is designed to minimize cognitive distractions with a minimalist user interface. The goal is to make your phone a tool again instead of being a doom-scrolling device, which it is for many people. It also aims to reduce all friction for the apps and tools you choose to use by making everything reachable with one hand.
Setting up your Dumb Phone on your iPhone is very simple. There are how-to videos and get-started guides that are very easy to follow. What is happening here is that you are using the Dumb Phone app to create an interactive widget. You select one to six of the apps you want easy access to. Those apps get placed in a large widget. Then, you download the correct wallpaper (which is in the dumbphone app) to color-match the widget. This gives it that clean look, as if the words are just floating.
The last piece is the dock. Technically, you have to remove your dock apps from the dock. There is no way to remove them based on focus modes. This is an iOS limitation, not an app limitation. So, I just removed my dock apps and put the Dumb Phone app in the dock. That it was gives it that hamburger menu look.
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Reminds me a bit of "brick" or "unpluq" which basically bricks (disables) any/most apps and you can only use those apps if you tap your phone to the tag.
Link to video -
To each their own... I think working on self-control is a bit better of a solution, at least for me. I try to only use my phone when I need to... and don't lie in bed or sit on the pot just doom scrolling. At least not most of the time.
There are also various apps I use throughout the day, whether it's microsoft authenticator, or slack, or panera, or safari, or whatever...
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@blondie said in "Dumb Phone":
I see advantages for the elderly and others who are tech challenged.
This would be ideal for Mrs. George.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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I just keep mine tethered to a charger in the kitchen.
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@blondie said in "Dumb Phone":
I see advantages for the elderly and others who are tech challenged.
This would be ideal for Mrs. George.
@George-K said in "Dumb Phone":
@blondie said in "Dumb Phone":
I see advantages for the elderly and others who are tech challenged.
This would be ideal for Mrs. George.
I've wondered why the major manufacturers like Apple or Samsung don't offer a simplified phone such as this, as a regular part of their line:
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@Jolly Truly. I don’t understand why dumb phones aren’t offered either. I learned in my 40s presbyopia affects almost all of us as we age so we need cheater readers, at minimum. When I talk to people my own age, many don’t have added apps or even use standard features of their smart phones. Many don’t bank or pay or even access their email. Many have their fonts increased just to see what they need to for text messaging. A dumb phone certainly would’ve helped grandma or my auntie when they were in the nursing home. Both couldn’t grasp steps needed to receive-respond to a text or phone call. To increase the volume, to recharge. And their hands/fingers were quite shaky.
