Want to avoid easy distractions when you pick up your iPhone?
Dumb Phone has your back by transforming it into a minimalist style phone to reduce phone addiction, swapping flashy icons / colors with a sleek and minimal Home Screen for accessing essential apps.
This removes the addictive dopamine from your phone which helps you think twice about why you just picked it up without realising, like we always do each day!
I've upvoted this because I 100% support this product's intentions! I see 2 important use cases for this:
1) desperately needed for people with ADHD (me!) as you mentioned, I can't pick up my phone to do a task without getting distracted with the on-screen alerts that draw me into some deep hole of endless distraction & before long I've forgotten what I picked up my phone to do - aaaagh! It kills me! & ...
2) I'd love it if there were a version suitable for kids with parental controls. To share my current biggest life problem with them re smartphones...My kids are aged 9 & 11. Both are harassing me all day, every day, for access to their own smartphone. I'm trying to hold them back as long as I can (ie 16 once their brains are developed to avoid device addiction etc), but having a smartphone is like some kind of status symbol for them. "My friend has one, he has one, she has one". Parents are all trying to resist. I've bought my kids' dumb phones, like literally back to the late 90s type phones that have no WiFi, no apps, nothing. I love them - all they do is make/receive calls & SMS msgs - but my problem is that my kids are "too embarrassed" to take them with them. What a joke, I know! Also my kids complain (& I get it) that calling all the time is often time consuming & to send an SMS on a dumb phone is incredibly frustrating as it has no keyboard like smartphones do. But what your app offers is a smartphone with the features we love like a keyboard for fast SMS, group (SMS) chats etc, but without all the nasties like distracting apps, the full internet etc. Could your app allow contacts to be updated, SMS to be sent, maybe basic stripped back emojis, access to a camera & block everything else ie no apps, no internet? You'd have every parent of kids aged 8 to 16 wanting one I'd imagine. Kids would have the street cred of holding/answering a smartphone but without all the features that cause mental health issues at such a young age.
@emily_willis1 Thanks for the support Emily! I wish I hadn't yet given out all the awards because yours is my favourite of all the comments!
I resonate strongly with #1, i'm normally good at it but on days that my willpower is super low I always get sucked in. It's so refreshing having DP set up on my phone for the last few weeks.
#2 is a fantastic idea too! I hope Apple open up the tooling to create custom home screens to make parental control support possible. Going to bookmark this comment so I can revisit in another year or two if it becomes possible!
You're doing a fantastic job holding them off from smartphone use too. My two cousins weren't allow an iPhone until they had started high school - and it was too bad for them before them! I did buy them iPod touches though so they could play around with at home as a stop gap. π
Thanks again and I hope you get lots of value from Dumb Phone in the meantime! π π
Congratulations on the launch @teeeeeegz
I love simplifying the home screen with simple text buttons and quick access to essential apps. The ability to customise with Dark or Light themes, text font, size, and colour is a great touch. Plus, the shortcut support for adjusting displayed apps is super convenient.
Wow Michael! Back to the basis to boost our performance. Love all these minimalist tools and you're actually helping to focus on what we really need. A big clap buddy! Keep on that way
@german_merlo1 Thanks for the shout GermΓ‘n, will keep it up!
Helps when I work on these kinds of tools for years and figure out how to scratch the itch best π
This is a great idea and cool design. I know a few people who have gone back to physical dumb phones so that they can't waste time on their phone anymore, I wonder if this would have worked for them.
@jack_michalak Thanks for the support Jack!!
It's something I'd love to try myself too, but given I make apps, I need my iPhone around all the time. π
Do they buy the fancy dumb phones like Lightphone or just simple cheapie feature phones from the shops?
@teeeeeegz They all bought feature phones. They had to relearn T9 for text messaging. In my opinion that was the main downside of the feature phone, the pain of typing. Otherwise I'd love to be free of distractions more.
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I know quite a few folks (myself included) who want to have a bit more control over distractions. I normally just switch my phone to black-and-white mode, but this looks way more powerful!
@cameron_napoli Appreciate the support Cameron! π
I flick on the black & white mode occasionally too. This is what the action button in the latest iPhone Pro models was made for. π
Give them a shout about Dumb Phone if they're using an iPhone!
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I think your version is somehow smarter than a classic one ! At the same time it's giving me anxiety just thinking of how many unnecessary stuff i have on my iphone ...
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