Hey everyone, I was entertaining the thought of going away from owning a smart phone.
I already have a modded ipod classic that I use as my main music player.
I also know how to use a paper map.
I also have the Microsoft authentication app for work (I could just use my phone on wifi mode for this)
The last issue I have is WhatsApp where I communicate with friends and family around the world.
Is there a way to use WhatsApp on a non-smart phone? Or should I just buy a pixel and install a secure rom?
I had the exact same Problem.
You need an Android Emulator for your PC, since Whatsapp for desktop always needs to be paired with a phone, then install Whatsapp Business. The Business Version lets you sign up with a landline number. Youll geht a call with the code read to you, and youre done.
If you already have a number, and are planing to keep it, you can just use that, and read the code from your phone.
If you decide to use a desktop app or the web version instead, you will have to open Whatsapp on your phone once every two weeks or it will unpair.
What are you looking to get out of your dumb phone experience?
It sounds like you want/need the smart phone part, but not the doom scroll and spyware part.
For that I offer the following advice;
Step 1 is to delete all unnecessary apps. Keep 1 or 2 time killers, preferably puzzle games or something not related to endless scrolling, that you can start/stop anytime.
If you have one, make an old phone your “entertainment” device. This is for things like Lemmy and whatever else you do fun/pass time. Leave it the bathroom or at your spot to relax. This way you can get your internet fix, but it doesn’t follow you throughout the day.
Step 2 is to make sure you set your notifications right, only communication from actual people (text/call) and important stuff like work/bank emails should make noise. Everything else can shove off.
On the spyware front, Pixel+Graphine OS is a good option, it does works with MS authenticator.
You must not have been born in the 70s or 80s. It’s really easy. Step 1, replace your smart phone with a flip phone. This concludes all your steps.
Not so easy for someone who was born and raised in a time and place where key services all rely on smartphones (especially the WhatsApp for family communications)
Is there a way to use WhatsApp on a non-smart phone?
WhatsApp has a browser app you can use, turning it into something more like an instant messenger akin to Skype while you’re on a computer. Not sure if you need a phone to manage the account or not, but you could keep a cheapo burner phone for situations like that and then just toss it in a drawer and ignore it until you need to make changes again.
A 2000s Garmin GPS with OSM is neat and durable like a Nokia. Still use it even though I do keep my smartphone:
Everyone has an email address. Just saying.
I think with 2fa, qr codes, talking with family, and emergency services it’s not reasonable to not have a phone. Instead of purchasing a device why not just turn it off and put it away when you’re not using it?
Your maps and ipod have already showed you these are just tools. Continue down that route.
BTW, this post is so close to my own recent questions I thought I had posted it, lol. Share your modded ipod over at c/ipod , trying to start a little community
Addiction is a tough thing… Hard just to out it down.
And price.
When I go just walk my dog, I almost never take the smartphone with me. I always did that. Later I just bought a cheap dumb phone for 10 bucks, just in case. I always have that on me now.
So yeah, trying to not break something more expensive. Plus it’s far more reliable than any smartphone. It just works, no stuttering, no crashes, buttons rather than touchscreen, the alarm app doesn’t get
killedoptimized… Though it has the same problem as every single modern phone I get: the minimum headphone jack volume is way too loud. I wanted to use it for music, but that’s a no-go. There’s no equalizer to tune it down.
Almost all of these things can be done from a computer, siting in comfort at home. And some of them, i.e. communication, are even more pleasant that way. The supposed convenience of the mobile form factor is mainly a function of habit. I speak from experience, having mostly kicked that habit.
The “emergency” argument is particularly tiring BS IMO. Somehow we managed for all of history until basically yesterday without this functionality and got by just fine.
The fact that technology exists is not in itself a reason to adopt it. If only we would learn this lesson at last. Rant over.
I don’t know man, I’m often out and about when I need to communicate to people.
I find it rather convenient to not have to find a library or an Internet-cafe, especially seeing my city doesn’t have any anymore probably.
And I remember living without a mobile before they came along. There’s a certain romantic novelty in agreeing to meet under x sign in y place at x hour. But it wears off fast, and if you’re running a bit late or want to reschedule something on the fly? Good luck without a mobile of any sort, smart or not.
want to reschedule something on the fly
Yeah it certainly got easier to be late and generally not keep commitments, that’s for sure.
I do agree that communication when out and about is a genuine killer feature. It’s was the original use case after all. But doomscrolling social media, or banking, or shopping, or playing dumb games, or most of the other things I watch people doing in public - personally I am never going to buy the argument that this is about “convenience”. To me it’s pretty obvious that it’s just addiction and irrational social contagion.
Instead of purchasing a device why not just turn it off and put it away when you’re not using it?
Easier said than done. We’re emotionally connected to these devices and the freedoms they seem to provide
Godspeed!
You didn’t specify your reasoning for getting away from smartphones. Cost or to escape the trappings? Other? I was thinking you could hang on to your smartphone and just delete the nonessential stuff.
You could always ask for their address and use mail.
There are kaios phones, which are basically very weak smartphones (like 512 mb of ram weak) that run kaios, which is android. They perform poorly enough that you wouldn’t want to use for social media, and you can run whatsapp on them
Correction: KaiOS is a Linux distro that only runs web apps. It descends from the botched Firefox OS project and uses Firefox’s browser engine.
You’re probably right, I’ve only used old nokias with symbian, so I wouldn’t know.
KaiOS is more like “Firefox OS” than Android, but otherwise, yes.
I did a 30 day dumbphone challenge a few months ago. Was originally going to use a Nokia with KaiOS but wanted to be able to re-purpose it afterward so I went with an Android-powered flip phone.
Android-powered flip phone
That doesn’t quite sound as a dumbphone to me.
I disabled pretty much everything and dumbed it down for the 30 days to nothing more than what a modern “dumb” phone would do.
Check out the Light Phone. It only has a handful of functions. Talk, text, directions, music, notes, and a camera.
What is it about a smart phone that you don’t want/like?
I feel like these devices are too annoying. For example, I dissabled notifications for almost all apps, but a couple of updates later, and the notifications are back (even though the setting is still dissabled), and I feel like when these apps are developed, they want to bundle critical notifications with non-critial ones (ie. Do you want a notification when someone breaks into your house AND when our sales team wants to upsell you something? Or neither?). Then there’s the data privacy aspect.
A minimalistic custom rom might fix some of those issues for you.
Matrix has a WhatsApp bridge and an SMS bridge. Perhaps it’s possible to combine these for a WhatsApp <> SMS bridge? I don’t know if these bridges can work in this way. I’m just aware of their existence. Even if it does work, I imagine it’d be pretty suboptimal. But it’s potentially an option.
Or use matrix on the computer
I don’t think the key to getting away from your phone is to buy another.
if your friends aren’t gonna support your switch, and you therefore need WhatsApp. maybe those people don’t care enough.
I had this, when I switched to an old LG L70 and WhatsApp didn’t run, so I switched to telegram, and less than a handful of my “friends” even bothered. Glad to say I cut ties with the rest :).
So… you unilaterally decided to change the method of comms you and your friends had been using, then decided they were bad friends for not falling in line?
The issue is that these friends aren’t in the same continent as I am. Online chat is the only way we can chat and the rest of the world (unfortunately) use WhatsApp. I have maybe 2 friends who use sms who are in the states.
I use a fire tablet for maps. osmand allows you to download whole states at detail and it does not take huge amounts of space. its not great for privacy but I use google voice. That being said I have a smartphone I had to get for work. I picked up the free talk and text thing. I basically keep it shut down until I need it.
