The only problem I see with this is that you can’t update your app if you disable the App Store. My bank updates its app annoyingly often, with no grace period - which is bad when you’re in a store and need to pay for stuff.
iPhone dumbphone
211–220 of 403 posts
Re: iPhone dumbphone
#212Interesting! I wish Apple would expand on "Assistive Access" mode. - https://support.apple.com/guide/assistive-access-iphone/set-... They made this for people with cognitive disabilities, but it also works great for older people. It just wouldn't work for me. I need Jira, Slack, and GitHub during work hours for example. But I don't want them during non-work hours. I realize I'm describing something actually doable in…
> It just wouldn't work for me. I need Jira, Slack, and GitHub during work hours for example. But I don't want them during non-work hours. Not an iPhone, but my solution to this is LineageOS + microG, where I just disable push notifications when I'm not working, or enable them for just the few select apps if I am expecting some messages there. The price for this is that I don't always receive the social app message w…
That’s exactly what he meant by using Focus Modes, which is the iOS feature that lets you do just that.
Re: iPhone dumbphone
#213Before 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…
I find that regular wilderness backpacking trips in places without cell service accomplish this kind of reset in a fun, social (bring friends!) way that provides plenty of exercise and fresh air, with the added bonus of being a reasonably "normal" explanation/antidote to the social pressure of those "you're doing what??? I need to be able to reach you!"-type conversations. There's the added bonus that being fully out…
yep, latest iphone has satellite texting that works almost everywhere. and soon t mobile is offering fully satellite data access :(
Re: iPhone dumbphone
#214> Consider email. I still need to have access to email, and I want to have notifications enabled so I don’t miss something truly important. But 90% of the emails I get aren’t important. I was at a talk at FOSDEM this year and they were talking about how most emails now (over 90%) are transactional in nature and not personal. Things like password resets, offers, 2fa, shipping confirmations. This was a lightbulb moment…
Gmail has ben doing this for years, automatically. And it works very well. I think a lot of people don't know the feature exists, though
Gmail's magic algorithms are notoriously unreliable. When they work they work, but when they don't, they really don't. And you won't know, because them not working means you won't get any kind of notification they don't work.
I've gotten direct responses sent to my spam. I've gotten emails, WITH ATTACHMENTS, sent to my spam from a known email address. Its a good thing I check my spam. Many (most?) don't.
Re: iPhone dumbphone
#215So "dumbphone" now means "runs only a preselected by me set of apps"? I thought it meant "phone with no app functionality whatsoever, only capable of voice, text, and other basic cell network services"?
Re: iPhone dumbphone
#216Just uninstalling the endless scrolling apps (Twitter, Reddit, Instagram etc.) was enough for me.
Unfortunately some of us use Instagram specifically to keep in touch with people (IG DMs). and Meta does not seem to want to split off the messaging from the main app the same way they did with FB messenger for some reason (I would love it if they did). For Twitter, some of us need it for work as well (lots of interesting AI research published directly to Twitter). Reddit is definitely pure entertainment yeah. But th…
But you can talk to people on Instagram from FB Messenger.
Re: iPhone dumbphone
#217The Apple Configurator seems like a great tool to setup a phone for your children or tech illiterate elderly parents. Many of us would have people in our lives who might actually understand how to use their phone if the only icons on the home screen where messages and phone. I could imagine ChatGPT would be a good option for them to be able to look up information in the real world.
Re: iPhone dumbphone
#218Before 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…
One aspect of no phone is how to deal with payments. Specifically UPI payments in India. These are QR code based payments and it is getting more difficult to pay by cash at many locations.
Right next to that is OTPs from financial institutions.
Re: iPhone dumbphone
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m a little confused by these comments about not checking stuff unless you get a notification. Do you get notified of every article on HN that you read? Or what about YouTube or other content that you consume? I’ve had email notifications turned off for years, and have no problem checking my email once or twice a day, just to see if there’s anything worth reading. (Spoiler alert: there almost never is.) Just like HN…
> I’d rather check my email (or other X app) once or twice a day, if that, and catch up on low priority things, rather than get interrupted 5-10 times a day for these low priority things. Nobody's saying you're wrong. That's great. I'm just saying there are also people who are the opposite, and their way of doing it is also valid and works great for them. Also, stuff on HN and YouTube isn't for you personally, and it…
> I'm just saying there are also people who are the opposite, and their way of doing it is also valid and works great for them.
Agreed, but if we’re here discussing ways to reduce distractions of smartphones, I think auditing our notifications and the usage of apps that send notifications, particularly of things that are more noise than signal, is worth mentioning.
> Also, stuff on HN and YouTube isn't for you personally, and it doesn't need your reply, so it's not really an analogy for personal messages.
Fair point, but I’d bet that 90% of most people’s email is also not personal messages, and just more noise.
Yes, we should unsubscribe from the noise, and I have, but I still have some things I get that I occasionally care about, just not enough to be notified.
Re: iPhone dumbphone
#220> Consider email. I still need to have access to email, and I want to have notifications enabled so I don’t miss something truly important. But 90% of the emails I get aren’t important. I was at a talk at FOSDEM this year and they were talking about how most emails now (over 90%) are transactional in nature and not personal. Things like password resets, offers, 2fa, shipping confirmations. This was a lightbulb moment…
If google weren’t such an ass about your data you could download everything and run some queries to see how you should create your rules
What is sending you the most emails? What emails did you actually care about?
Yes yes, you can do this technically speaking, but good luck actually trying - everything is so slow and old emails with attachments will simply not download - they won’t load even in the UI sometimes
For me, I did what you did except with a new email address
That address has notifications and they are reserved pretty much for just people - I don’t use it for websites at all - I only give to people whose email id like to see right away