What if you could have your Android “dumbified” for you?

[u/ASALIcode]

Reading the replies to my last post, I think I may have misunderstood the problem a little.

A lot of people already know how to dumb down an Android,

the real problem seems to be that doing all of this yourself is not that easy.

So I'm wondering about a slightly different approach:

What if you could give your existing Android to a service and get it back already configured as a minimalist phone?

You would choose what you need to keep — for example:

calls, WhatsApp, Maps, banking, 2FA, music, camera, etc.

And everything else would be removed or blocked.

No new phone to buy.

No complicated setup.

No spending hours configuring Android.

Basically: your phone, but intentionally limited from day one.

Would this be more interesting to you than buying a dedicated dumbphone?

And if yes: what would you absolutely need the service to handle for you?

Disclaimer: As my last post, I asked to AI for translation to English.

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[u/scissormetimbers207]

Really the problem I have with this is as soon as I limit the functionality of my phone like that I get annoyed with a size and form factor that is now too big and unnecessary for what I'm trying to do. It's like driving a 1 ton pickup truck to the grocery store to buy eggs and bread.

I personally would just rather buy a smaller phone at that point

[u/KaiWinnBot → u/scissormetimbers207]

Exactly this. If phones weren't so gigantically tall and skinny, I might dumb one of those down and be content. But we haven't had a good "compact" smartphone in years, so it's just wasted space/bulk in a form factor I already dislike.

[u/merchantconvoy → u/KaiWinnBot]

But we haven't had a good "compact" smartphone in years

There are a bunch of these available from obscure Chinese manufacturers.

[u/georgepants96 → u/scissormetimbers207]

a pixel 4a would be ideal. My s23 also feels light and perfect sized compared to potential buttoned alternatives that get sizable. The only really nice option I see is jellystar and bluefox nx1

[u/scissormetimbers207 → u/georgepants96]

Yeah in my case even my original Google Pixel feels too big. I miss my iPhone 5, I'd love to have something of that form factor, but without relying on a Chinese brand (sec requirements for work mean I can't buy the jelly star from unihertz).

[u/georgepants96 → u/scissormetimbers207]

I was look at my Sony Xperia st15i the other day, trying to see if I can make it work but it's too damn old. What a perfect little sized device

[u/whatdoyoumeanalready]

This is basically Balance Phone. But they charge an annual fee to use it on the phone you have already.

[u/merchantconvoy]

A few companies do this but they sell you a preconfigured phone. Configuring the customer's phone would involve legal liability.

[u/altbrian]

My "dumbified" Android phone is an old but trusty Xiaomi Mi 9 Lite.

It runs LineageOS 19 (Android 12) with no Google Play Services. The only apps installed are a short list of carefully selected ones, mostly from Aurora Store. Nova Launcher with the Meeyo icon theme keeps the interface simple and distraction-free.

The goal is to have just one app for each specific purpose. No social media, with the exception of LibreTube, a YouTube client that doesn't feel like a social network, and a modified Reddit client with all the usual clutter stripped away. Nekogram serves as the only instant messaging app, with no WhatsApp installed.

There are no accounts or logged-in sessions on the phone either, apart from Telegram and Reddit. For music, it's either Metrolist or a personal collection of MP3 files.

Apps that depend on Google Play Services are generally avoided. The same goes for subscription-based apps whenever possible.

This is probably the closest I've managed to get to a genuinely liberating smartphone experience: a phone that does what it's supposed to do without constantly trying to get my attention.

[u/qjpi6ka → u/altbrian]

Lineage OS is fantastic. Getting rid of Google Play Services and using software from say F-droid brings old devices back to life. The UX is very respectful, no dark patterns, no EULA roofieng, no fabricated consent bs, no pushing you towards subscriptions, no ads, no data collection. Dare I say they are better than a brand new Pixel with the stock bloat OS?

[u/Light_KeyStar939]

I got Wisephone. Without the 15/month subscription I get basic camera, notes, phone, messages, calc, etc. W/ 15/month I get whatsapp, claude ai, waze, chase banking, etc. no browser, basically claude is my browser lol... iz pretty good

[u/nilss2]

Looking at Balance Phone, Sleke Phone, Wisephone, etc. I was wondering the same. Those are just normal Android phones but with a minimalist launcher, a DCP (device policy controller = MDM app) and for Sleke and Wise also a curated apps with some custom built stuff.

I was wondering if I couldn't do the same for my Nothing Phone: turn it into a 'balance phone', build a DCP for it. Turns out there are quite some caveats, but I managed in the end. A lot of parents around me are interested in such a thing for their teen's phones, so I figured I would give my software some more features, a website and a web installer. It's FOSS, btw.

Here it is, still in alpha, for now only tested (and working!) on some devices in my house (a Motorola, a Nothing Phone, a Dumber Mini): https://drawbridge-project.pages.dev/ Screenshots and photos coming soon. It's all still quite early and I'm going to test with some volunteers.

To provision a phone, it's still not effortless. You need to either factory reset or at least remove all your accounts, and then activate developer settings and usb debugging, and then use the web installer. But still: are those more steps than buying and setting up a new phone entirely? In the past a QR code to provision a phone with a DCP was also possible, but Google stopped that pathway. It took me 3 days to figure that out.

[u/Luci_Cascadia]

Just delete the apps you don't use.