Insights in living without a smartphone Wed, 16 Apr 2025 Technology, Lifestyle ======================================= I have not used a smartphone for about 5 years on-and-off (discounting of course the years as a child where I didn't need to worry about silly things like this). It started in the summer of 2019 when by best friend gifted me his old Nokia 8110 4G (more on this later). Since then, I only had a smartphone for about a year. This device burnt through its charging circuitry a month or-so ago, so I am back to the dumb-life, though now with more insight into how to do things. In this post, I will be sharing the insights I have accumulated over the years. Just as a warning, the advice provided in this post might come across as ultimately unsatisfying. While it is definitely possible to live off of the information-grid, that is not the type of life I can live currently. Therefore, a lot of my insights revolve around using alternative but highly similar solutions to having a smartphone. The main difference being that you don't or can't bring these devices around in your pocket. With they being said, let me start by covering briefly the things which smartphones provide to us. Obviously, this list is not exhaustive, instead only covering those things which I personally find valuable and things which are outside of my control. What do smartphones give us? ---------------------------- 1. The valuable a. Photography b. Navigation c. Phone calls d. Music and podcasts e. Alarms 2. The enforced a. Multi-factor-authentication i. TOTP codes ii. Specific apps (primarily banking and government ID) b. Certain communication platforms i. Notably Whatsapp c. Bus/Plane/Train/Cinema Tickets/Identification How do we replace these services? --------------------------------- Now we come to the interesting part: how do we replace all these services provided to us by smartphones. For this section, I will keep the same divide as listed above, as interesting patterns emerge when we do so. The valuable ============ Generally, for items in the `valuable' category, we have a two main options: specialized technology or feature phones. Specialized technology speaks for itself. Get yourself a camera, map or GPS, dumb-phone, disc-or-walk-man or mp3 player, and an alarm clock. Obviously, this is a lot more to carry around which will force you to be more concious with what you bring with you. Furthermore -- while I find this highly upsetting when it comes to the state of society -- you can get all of these items (new or second-hand) for less than the price of a new smartphone. The other option (and the one I have gone with) is the feature phone. Feature phones are a class of devices reminiscent of the dumb-phones of old though brought into the modern world. They typically allow you to connect to 4G networks, install apps, and use the internet. At the same time, they are typically very low-powered devices with traditional button-navigation. Some of them run Android (which allows you to install all your usual apps, though with the processing and navigation limitations mentioned), Android-go (Android with a reduced and simplified library of apps), or KaiOS (A operating system based on web technologies). Each of these have their up-and-downsides. The android devices are by far the most capable, though in my opinion you might as well get an old second-hand smartphone at that point. Many of them even have touchscreens making them just overpriced smartphones with a built-in keyboard. The android-go devices seem more in line with what I would want, though they are typically not optimized for button-navigation and I have never actually used one. That brings us to KaiOS. KaiOS is the operating system which runs on the phone which I have used these past 5 years (the aforementioned nokia 8110) and exists at the nigh-perfect intersection of usable and limited. I should point out at this point that KaiOS is more-or-less a dead project, though that doesn't mean that it is not still perfectly usable, nor that there are not still exciting (though small) developments made by the community. My Nokia runs KaiOS. The camera is not very capable, but more than sufficient for capturing memories. It runs a stripped-down version of the google-maps website, sufficient for finding your way when lost using GPS and 4G. Obviously it is perfectly capable of phone calls and texts (even with two sim slots -- revolutionary, I know --). The built in music player app is sufficient for my needs, though it does not allow you to make playlists (third party offerings in the KaiStore do offer this functionality) and there are plenty of podcast apps available. In other words, my Nokia covers all the bases of what I find valuable in a phone. Problem solved right? Well actually, the `valuable' list is the easy part. Now for the elements outside of my control. The enforced ============ The enforced section of services is both more difficult and less satisfying. Let me just rip of the bandage right away by dealing with the least satisfying ones: Authentication, Identification, and Communication. Many services in this area simply REQUIRE an app on either android or IOS. Banking applications, Government ID, Healthcare, and Whatsapp all require apps to some extent. Banks occasionally allow you request a dedicated code-device, though more the more-modern e-banks usually don't offer such services. Governments and Health-insurance-providers (at least the ones which are relevant to me) require apps to authenticate to online environments. Lastly is Whatsapp, for those not from mainland-Europe it might seem strange that this app is in the `enforced' section, but here governments, public institutions, customer-service-lines, and the public at-large all use whatsapp. And since these services have still not been forced to allow for interoperability with other services, I am stuck there for now. Now to the (rather unsatisfying) solutions to these problems. Over the years I have found three options: 1. Run an android container on your laptop or PC 2. Get a tablet running android or IOS 3. Get a smartphone that you leave in a drawer somewhere at home In other words, you will be stuck with these services (and Android or IOS) either way, though at least these are not services you will need to have on you at all times. Whatsapp is perhaps an exception to this, though this depends on your lifestyle. Whatsapp is furthermore an exception because it doesn't provide an IpadOS app for some reason. Therefore, if you want to go with the tablet-route, you cannot use and Ipad. Furthermore, while Whatsapp does offer a web-version, you will still need to login from Android or IOS. Personally, I run an android-emulator on my laptop (waydroid) where I authenticate my whatsapp-web and hardly ever look at it again. Do keep in mind that you need to add contacts in your replacement device of choice as you cannot do this through Whatsapp-web. Other communication platforms like telegram are much better in this regard as they just have a standalone web-app, though for the reasons mentioned above, I cannot use these. When it come to non-app-specific two-factor authentication, the story is a lot more encouraging. Firstly, the feature phones I mentioned before all have apps which allow for receiving TOTP codes. Furthermore, such apps also exist for mac, linux, and widows. Allowing you to simply authenticate with your laptop or pc instead. Of course, if you are already getting a tablet for the services above, then you can also use it to authenticate, though at that point you are committing to carrying around your tablet to most places where you might need to authenticate (such as university, work, or public institutions). Lastly is tickets and identification. Once again, you can carry around a tablet whenever you need a ticket for something, though -- especially if you use public transport a lot like I do -- this is not always feasible. Luckily, all services I have encountered thus far still allow you to print a physical card (for identification) or just print your ticket on paper (for entry tickets and such). This does not necessarily mean that you need to buy a printer though. Many libraries and universities will allow you to print for a small fee. Some countries (especially in southern Europe) also have many copy-shops spread throughout their cities. The only difficulty in using the later is somehow transferring your documents to the shop. This is usually done on-the-spot though email, which is obviously not accessible without a smartphone or similar device, though luckily many places also accept USB sticks, and you can always send your email ahead of time with an explanation that you will come by soon. Final remarks ------------- The copy-shop example also leads me to one final point, that being the ability to rely on friends and family for help. At the end of the day, many of ditch smartphones to feel more connected to others, and having a friend help you out with their printer or mobile-internet-connection at the copy-shop is one such way of connecting. The same goes for navigation. In a group, only one person needs to have a method of navigation on them. You can meet-up in-person instead of discussing things over text, or just inform your friends and family that they need to call you if they want to get a hold of you. Obviously, this lifestyle (if you want to call it that) can be limiting, and it can feel especially discouraging when smartphones are forced upon you. I have written in the past about QR-codes and how their proliferation for restaurant menus, ordering, locker reservation, etcetera basically forces you into getting a smartphone (or a friend with one), and this can make be limiting. There is almost always a way around this though (talk with a waitress instead, see if someone around can get you a locker in exchange for cash, etcetera), though there is not one generalized solution (Yes, the nokia 8110 can scan QR codes and use the websites, but I will always try to find a different solution first.). Ultimately, I have found not having a smartphone quite fun, and ultimately more liberating than limiting. If you have never tried it however, you don't and can't know what you are missing (and I can't really describe it either other than a feeling of freedom). I would love to say ``Everyone! Just give it a try'', but there will be a large adjustment period and even a fair amount of money spent in some cases. Therefore, my final point of advice is this: If you want to try living without a smartphone, don't bring one the next time you go on holidays -- provided you are traveling with someone who does have a smartphone. In this way, you will always have the safety of falling back on your partner's device, while simultaneously forcing yourself to keep the experiment up until the end of your trip. ================================================================= All of my writing and software projects are available free of charge under CC-BY unless stated otherwise. 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