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iPhone dumbphone

stopa.io

381–390 of 403 posts

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#381
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just have all notifications turned off permanently. "But what about..?" Yes, even that.

I do this, but be aware that peoples expectations are that you reply quickly, especially the younger generation. They will perceive your lack of response as you not prioritising them. This has cost me a relationship. (it was long distance to be fair).

> They will perceive your lack of response as you not prioritising them.

And correctly so: you are prioritizing people that contact you in the normal way (via phone calls).

If I send you a text message, it's usually because I don't need an immediate reply; answering me tomorrow is good enough. If I do need a faster reply (if I'm texting an image or some such, or in a noisy place), I'll make a call afterwards, just long enough to set off your ringer so you hear it.

I also deal with notifications in a different manner: I have different ringtones and extensive notification filters set up. Most of my apps will not make any noise with a notification while the screen is off. Most notifications will not show up on the lockscreen. Most notifications will not show up in the status bar. My standard ringtone is an mp3 with a short quiet ring and a long pause before it ends, so while I do get call notifications they're easy to ignore; only important contacts (family) are allowed to bubble or pop on top, and they also get a different ringtone.

I dread migrating my phone, as none of this can be backed up. I changed phones last year and still find the occasional app that I forgot to blacklist notifications for and never noticed because things related to https://dontkillmyapp.com simply prevents it from running altogether when I haven't used it in the past couple days.

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#382
post #100

For those that are looking for something more advanced in the Android space a friend of mine built https://limitphone.com/ to handle something like this. It requires a reset, but comes with a lot more options.

Looks very interesting. The price is not good. I mean, we have to do it for 4 fones, that is 120 dollars per year, which is a lot of money, not in it's own, but it ads up with other subscriptions. The trial is too short, i think a months will be better.

Requires more setup, but you can use ownDroid to do this manually. Though it can't filter apps it doesn't know about (no smart filters)

https://github.com/BinTianqi/OwnDroid

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#384
post #264

This is how I cured my social media addiction. I turned my iPhone into pure utility device by uninstalling all the entertainment apps. I only allow music and podcasts as those don’t require my active attention. Then I have an iPad mini at home which has all the entertainment and social media stuff installed. However I don’t have many opportunities to use that device during the day.. After maybe a week of having this…

This is exactly what has worked for me as well. Before this, the iPad was rotting in a corner for years, because the phone was just always available and I had consumed everything on the phone already, obliterating the need for the iPad.

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#385
post #303

I took an easier path. I carry two phones - a smartphone and a dumb phone. The smartphone is usually turned off, and is only charged once every 3-4 days. It holds its charge. The dumbphone is actually a second-hand Sony Ericsson Walkman phone which I really love. It has basic web browsing, some very basic utility apps and excellent sound quality, which I care a lot about and bluetooth too. This physical, non-software…

Do you use an iPhone? If so, how are you making it work with iMessage? Do you just disable it completely?

I just use regular text messages :) So, the dumbphone just gets them.

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#386
Here's what worked for me - after trying screen limits, nokia phones

1. Remove all social media apps from iPhone 2. Use Opal in deep focus mode to block apps and websites (I can't exit the deep focus mode - but I allow myself a 2 hour window when deepfocus isn't active) 3. Keep my phone inside my bag - out of sight out of mind 4. Remove "tap to wake up" in settings - you'll have to click the side button to see the screen 5. Deleted slack and email - was hesitant about missing important notifications, but decided to try for a week and realized it made no difference to my work

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I only allow music and podcasts as those don't require my active attention. podcasts? How do you listen and benefit without paying active attention?

YMMV but I sometimes listen to a podcast or audiobook while playing mindless video games. I can't watch a show while playing video games, since I need to actually watch the screen. Since the game doesn't require mental thought, I can still pay attention to the content of the podcast.

+1 to this.

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been doing what the author did for about a year using Configurator. I have the browser blocked completely. I found that I could still get around it by sending messages to myself in apps like Messenger and using the built-in browser. So I ended up using an allow list for internet traffic with nothing allowed, which stopped that. What do you find you need the browser for?

In the UK it has become very common to need to scan a QR code on your table to order at a restaurant, which takes you to a website. Most certainly you can still order at the bar the old fashioned way, but since COVID, physical menus have been removed, so how is your group meant to decide what it wants to order before one of you goes up on its behalf? (You cannot all go up if you want to hold the table.) I don't even…

Yes it's exactly the one-off situations like that, which aren't super often but occur enough to greatly inconvenience someone without a pocket browser.

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#389

Before installing all those apps the author listed, I'd recommend this exercise: Let the battery die on your phone, and live one week without it. Cold turkey. Tell people in advance if you need to, give them an alternate way to reach you. Replace your phone for that week with a small notebook that fits in your pocket. During that week, every time you want to do something that requires a smartphone, jot it down in you…

Letting the battery die completely on an Apple device is a good recipe for an expensive repair. Just turn it off.

Really? How much damage (in terms of effect on battery capacity) does it do if you let the battery die once? Or once every few months?

Re: iPhone dumbphone

#390
post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> time limits never worked for my kids (they could always override them with one click). Huh, that's weird. Seems to work ok for mine in limiting their iPad use. They can request more time and I can decide to grant it or not, I get choices of 15 minutes, 1 hour or all day.

I agree it's odd, and I've tried to fix this problem for a long time before giving up... While we're at it, I wish there was a 30 minutes option! There are many situations where 15 minutes is too short, and 1 hour is too long.

Agreed. Another issue I have is that the requests will randomly stop propagating from the kids' iPads to my phone. To fix it, I have to either reboot the phone or if that doesn't work, change the name of my phone.
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