I found that Android was better for dumbing down. If you have enough technical sophistication to run adb over a USB cable, you can run a single command to uninstall any app, including the built-in web browser app. Super nice for getting exactly what you want on your phone.
The science behind an iPhone dumb phone
41–50 of 79 posts
Re: The science behind an iPhone dumb phone
#42iPhone is already dumb. It's a toy that's not within the control of its user, and Android is only marginally better. I'm using GNU/Linux on my phone and while it offers me the power of a full unrestricted computing device in my pocket, it only ever distracts me with things I explicitly opted into. Despite of some of its shortcomings, it really ends up being a much calmer and more usable experience overall.
Tbh it's much easier to turn off all notifications on iOS than other platforms.
But say, what happened to Ubuntu? I haven't used desktop linux in quite a few years (in spite of doing headless linux projects 2/3 of the time), now I have a project that requires that I see the desktop and it feels... spammy. What's with all those notifications and auto downloading of updates? Do they want to remind me why my main desktop is a Mac?
Re: The science behind an iPhone dumb phone
#43I ditched my smart phone 2 years ago. Huge life improvement.
I'm on the computer or iPad a lot, but when I close the lid, I'm in the real world, like the old days. Highly recommend.
(It does help to have burners though, because you do require them on occasion)
Re: The science behind an iPhone dumb phone
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe a map for navigation. And banking apps. Music player.
I have multiple iPods and it’s a shame I can’t use them with subscription services. It’s too expensive to buy all the music I like because it’s just the perfect use case. You highlight 2 important use case though that are almost impossible to have without a smartphone (but an alternative can be done on the desktop computer and the map with a paper map). They are just the collateral because it’s not those that cause a…
Get an Android phone and uninstall the Play Store and built-in web browser via adb. Gets you Maps, Spotify, banking etc. and nothing more.
Re: The science behind an iPhone dumb phone
#45I have in my backlogs of projects (one day I will have time for them...) an extreme "dumb smartphone". I want to have maps, whatsapp, chatgpt, a document scanner, my banking app, a guitar tuner... these are tools. So I need both an app whitelist (there are only so many apps that I actually use on my phone) and a website blacklist (no more HN, reddit, twitter, facebook, news websites, etc). I can use those on my compu…
I went down this path, it's actually very easy to uninstall the built-in web browser and the Play Store via adb, which actually got me exactly what I wanted in my dumb phone without too much technical work.
Re: The science behind an iPhone dumb phone
#46The grayscale suggestion is pretty interesting. I was skeptical it would make any difference, but I tried it and my home screen instantly felt more calming to look at at. It seems like we really underestimate how much visual complexity exhausts us. Not sure how long I'll keep it like that, but I think I'll leave it for now as I've been trying to minimize my phone for a while now (biggest difference was removing socia…
Can someone explain on an iPhone how to set grayscale? The article doesn’t and I’ve been through the Accessibility settings without any success.
It's convoluted for some reason...
Setting -> Accessibility Display & Text Size Colour Filters
edit: Shoulda refreshed before I commented...
Re: The science behind an iPhone dumb phone
#47Why is it impossible to reduce color saturation on all apple products? I still like a slight hint of color context but don't want these CASINO looking MacOS and iOS experiences.
On iOS, go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Color Filters > Greyscale and then adjust the intensity level as needed. I think that's what you're asking for? I don't know how to do it on macOS but I'm sure if it's possible, Google knows
Yup, on macOS there's an adjustable greyscale filter under Accessibility > Display in System Settings.
Re: The science behind an iPhone dumb phone
#48I've uninstalled all social media, which is the main notifications hook. I really think the power of apps is in notifications, and it's best to cut them out. If I want to see a Tweet or a Facebook post, probably because someone I know on Whatsapp sent me it, I'll use the website. I don't want to be dragged in by notifications. Anyone else the same?
I'm only on LinkedIn, but not on my phone, so no social media. I'm also very reluctant to install apps to begin with, very few things really belong on a phone. I have very few apps and they aren't the kind you'd use regularly, other than a streaming app and podcasts. Personally I have some issues with limiting YouTube consumption, but not on the phone, because I don't have YouTube on my phone and using it in the brow…
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Re: The science behind an iPhone dumb phone
#49I've uninstalled all social media, which is the main notifications hook. I really think the power of apps is in notifications, and it's best to cut them out. If I want to see a Tweet or a Facebook post, probably because someone I know on Whatsapp sent me it, I'll use the website. I don't want to be dragged in by notifications. Anyone else the same?
Hacker News is a social network.
Re: The science behind an iPhone dumb phone
#50I've uninstalled all social media, which is the main notifications hook. I really think the power of apps is in notifications, and it's best to cut them out. If I want to see a Tweet or a Facebook post, probably because someone I know on Whatsapp sent me it, I'll use the website. I don't want to be dragged in by notifications. Anyone else the same?
I use the iOS "Focus Modes" pretty heavily. All of them are set up in the "whitelisting" mode.
The "Personal" focus allows call and message notifications only from a set list of contacts and apps which are mostly OS-level (alarms, calendar, etc) and the chat app I use to talk to my wife and a couple important friends.
The "Work" focus allows call and message notifications from anyone, and the above app list plus some work-related apps (e.g., Slack).
From time to time if I'm waiting on a notification (e.g., the teleheath app to start an appointment) I'll just turn focus mode off and deal with the firehose until I see the one I need.
Doing it this way I can have the apps available so I can easily use the service/product _when I want to_, but it's never forcing itself in front of my face.
I really don't know how people use their phones otherwise. There's so. much. noise.