Readers reply: If I get a dumbphone, how will I cope in a smartphone world?

I’m thinking of getting a dumbphone, because there are more and more things I don’t like about smartphones and how they work. But I’m worried about how I’ll manage. Yes, it seems silly, but I’ve grown to rely on the tech, and so many amenities of modern life depend on it as well (banking, transport, shopping, to name just a few). I’m concerned that I won’t be able to get around as easily, or find crucial information. Plus, there’s the social side. My friends don’t like getting phone calls. How can I transition to a lower-tech lifestyle without making my life drastically more difficult? Tiffany, Cambridge

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Readers reply

I was a holdout against smartphones until about 2020, so I know where you’re coming from. But these days I find my iPhone very useful for podcasts, taking photos, the authenticator app and occasionally checking my email. All things that a dumbphone struggles with.

You don’t have to download time-wasting social media apps, just the ones you need. Also, change the settings so it’s not constantly beeping at you. Mine only alerts me for text messages and phone calls, definitely not WhatsApp or anything else. Look at the privacy settings, too, and turn off anything that seems creepy. I turn it off at night and keep it downstairs.

The end result is that my smartphone houses only boring, useful stuff, so it isn’t a distraction. It works for me (in both meanings of that sentence). Alex42

My daughter, who has a PhD in maths, recently compromised. She uses a dumbphone during the day for calls about work and any important messages, then when she gets home she changes the sim into her smartphone to quickly catch up on anything else. The timeless waste of scrolling has largely gone. As a result, she has freed up a lot of time and is reading more. Squeakysquirrel

If you’re going to get a dumbphone, shop around and make sure you’re not buying a dud. A few years ago, when a venerable iPhone 5 was finally dead-dead, I bought a Nokia 8110 4G – because the original 8110 is the phone they use in The Matrix and The Matrix is cool. However, the 8110 4G is absolute junk, in hardware, software and build-quality terms. One day, I accidentally left it in my trouser pocket and put it through the washing machine, but I’ve never been happier to obliterate a piece of technology. I’m much more satisfied with the lower-mid-range Android phone I have now. I never want to go back to text typing, either.

A smartphone with as few applications installed as possible is ideal for me. I have semi-permanent tabs on my browser for websites I frequent and I keep as many of the apps I do have in groups: “Media”, “Trains”, “Stuff I Don’t Use But Came With the Phone”, etc. If you’re a chronic Instagram or Twitter/X fiend, this may not be useful advice. DrGroganopilis

My child had a dumbphone and successfully used it for almost two years. After an update, though, WhatsApp no longer worked on her phone. That meant she couldn’t communicate with anyone. Having a dumbphone isn’t really about not wanting to communicate with others. It’s about not having intrusive stuff reminding you all the time of its presence. She had to pull her old iPhone out recently and that is the end of the dumbphone. But I think the experience taught her that she can control her impulse and ignore the iPhone. lingaf

One drawback to not having a smartphone is that many organisations, such as GPs and hospitals, send you appointments via links in SMS messages, which you then have to transcribe on to your laptop or PC. tmandmm

Smartphones dominate the market for a reason. The benefits are real and irreplaceable and it is not even the slightest bit silly to rely on it. The technology itself is just a tiny computer, which would be rather weird to dislike. Perhaps start by revisiting what you dislike about smartphones, fix that and keep everything good about smartphones. Sinacam

A few years ago, I purged everything Microsoft from my laptop and installed Linux and fully open-source software instead. No annoying and unrequested random software updates; all my data stored at home and not on a data server somewhere; and hopefully no tech billionaire looking over my shoulder constantly. But my phone runs Android, with all the aforementioned disadvantages, and the only alternatives seem to be the Apple or Google offerings. Where are the open-source operating systems – and apps – for smartphones? Android is Linux-based at its core, if you dig deep enough, so surely a fully open OS should be possible? Any recommendations? XerxesCork

It’s not actually a smartphone world at all: the tech bros just want you to think it is. I don’t have one and I very rarely find it a problem. No, I can’t receive emails when I’m out and about, but then, I don’t want to. I don’t do online banking or any kind of social media, but even if I did, it’s hard to imagine what could be so urgent that it couldn’t wait till I got home. If I’m meeting someone and want to let them know where I am, I text or ring them. If I want to buy something, I pay with money or a bank card; if I want to buy something online, I sit down at a computer and do it with a credit card; if I want to photograph something, I use a camera.

I don’t find any of this onerous, but then I’ve never known anything else. Sometimes people give me a bit of a blank look when they expect something via smartphone and I haven’t got one, but so far they’ve always been able to produce the analogue version; I don’t think I’ve ever been turned away because I didn’t have the right kind of phone. SpoilheapSurfer

If you get a dumbphone, please don’t rely on your partner to arrange everything for you on their smartphone. Sorry, speaking from personal experience here … Foxybell123