---
title: Turn Your Android into a Dumb-Phone
date: 2026-01-16
subtitle: "_Sometimes the best solution is right under your nose._"
---

For all of my life I have oscillated between a full smartphone experience and
having a dumb-phone. Sometimes due to cost, but mainly due to the considerable
number of distractions that smart phones present. Constant access to 24/7
entertainment isn't just a distraction; it’s a tax on mental health and the
ability to sustain deep focus. Usually, people will bring up the discipline
argument - "Just learn proper discipline". I respect the simplicity of the
argument, but it doesn't really align with reality. The modern smartphone
landscape is shaped by maliciously developed apps, designed partly by
psychologists and A/B testing, to maximize the time you waste and their
psychological grasp on your attention span. You don't tell an alcoholic
that purposefully avoiding a heavy-drinking party to simply "man up" and
"show discipline" and they certainly wouldn't want instant access to a bar
in their pocket.

So what are your options if you wish to avoid the current hellscape smart
phones represent? Well,

- You could avoid having a phone altogether, but modern services at least
  require SMS-2FA. Furthermore, it's wildly impractical to meet up and coordinate
  without a cell-phone whatsoever.
- Dumb-phones still exist and can reasonably work, but modern infrastructure
  is increasingly dependent upon smartphones, at least here in Denmark. Some
  of the apps I found it hard to live without:
  - Maps (either Google or Organic Maps), this also includes timetables for
    public transport.
  - Digital Payment (Mobilepay is huge in Denmark)
  - Digital Banking
  - Music/Audio listening
  - E2E encrypted communication (Signal)
  - Various governmental apps, for example digital authentication.

There are of course various solutions to these problems. You could use
printed maps, physical tickets and even get something like an iPod. But these
options can be very complicated and smartphones undoubtedly represent a very
real value proposition. I tried looking at minimalist phones, but all of
these had the same types of problems, namely that they never optimized for
my specific locale. The range of apps is not just geographically dependent
on for example your country's digital infrastructure, but even your personal
preferences. One person may find great value in music or podcasting apps,
another might find them distracting and of _negative_ value. I concluded that
what was really needed was a way to lock down your smartphone on a personal
level, allowing, or disallowing apps and website access depending on your
personal preferences. I went as far as looking at so-called "Kosher Phones",
locked down smartphones utilized by Orthodox Jewish communities but these
were expensive and not well suited to the use-case.

It was at this point that I realized that most phones of course already had
such systems! My use-case was almost exactly identical to that of parental
control of their children and the ecosystem for this is already pretty
well-developed. I started experimenting along these lines but I had to make
some compromises. Google's parental controls are of course not supported by
GrapheneOS, so I had to switch back to stock-android on my Pixel. Annoyingly,
there was no way to access the parental controls outside of an app, so I had
to have a second phone for this. I luckily had an old half-broken android
phone lying around for this. It's of course also very important to properly
limit your notification options, but this is possible on any smartphone.

But it worked _perfectly_. I set up two accounts, one "parent" and one
"child". My main phone was the "child" and the phone at home was the
"parent". I could regulate what apps were allowed, what websites I could
access, even the individual screen-time of each app. It was a bit of a hassle
to set up but the results are undeniable. After a while you stop even thinking
of your phone as a means of distracting yourself. Google has also later
implemented the parental control to be compatible with the browser, so my
laptop could function as the "adult", rather than requiring a separate phone.

I've also recently been looking into more stream-lined solutions such as
[Brick](URL), but they do not yet support white-listing websites for android,
which is a non-starter for me. But I do look forward to solutions such as
this making its way even to alternative smartphone operating systems such
as GrapheneOS or Lineage, which would make them well worth my money.

In conclusion I want to express that there _are options_ for limiting your
smartphone dependence without limiting yourself to simply discipline. Of
course a certain level of discipline is always necessary, I can't reasonably
put restrictions on my laptop or other main computing devices. However,
locking down your smartphone can help, especially on the go. I wouldn't say
I miss any aspect of my smartphone being entirely unlocked, except for the
possibility of GrapheneOS which lessens all the Google spying.

> This article is also available [in raw Markdown](./index.md)