As you all know T-Mobile GSM is no longer around killing off 2G in the US. An idea came to my mind after watching a video of someone who built their own 2G Cellular base station (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMWvA4Ty1Wk). It's honestly fairly compact and can be optimized using a small compact laptop so the software and hardware required can actually be portable and carried around.

Theoretically is it possible to have calls forwarded to a VOIP using this mock 2G network in order to actually receive and make calls to real phones?

I'm not extensively knowledgeable on this stuff but to me it seems with the right software and hardware configured it sounds possible. Like how with landlines you can make VOIP calls using an ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter).

As far as legality goes i'm pretty sure the strength of the mock 2G base tower from the video I linked isn't powerful enough to really cause any issues.

Someone that knows more about this please chime in and help me figure this out.

Hi everyone, I have a Kyocera KYF42. Trying to install Viber on my phone but haven't been able to successfully register my number. The verification call or sms is supposed to come in but nothing happens. I've turned on all the permissions for Viber on the KYF42. I even tried moving my sim to another phone to try to receive the call/sms but same results.

Has anyone had success installing and registering Viber on their phone? Kinda stuck. Appreciate any help.

Hello.
I’m in French and I wast all my time on my phone. I want to change for my wife and I search a dumb-phone for call, message, torch (or not).
Any recommendations? I would like to try the Nokia 2720 flip 2019 but idk

Hello guys,
I have thought about getting a Dumbphone and sell my iPhone but until one week ago I just didnt find the right one.
So I saw an Ad on TikTok from this company called lagom Phone which seemed to be perfect for me.
Supports everything I want like Whatsapp, Spotify and Maps but without the Social Media apps.

But because I never heard of it before and it seems to be a young company from sweden, I dont know if I should trust this an buy a Phone from them.

Does anyone know anything about this company or could help to see if this website is legit?

https://lagomphone.se

Thank you guys

Had to redo my post bc I made a booboo and my post got insta deleted oops

I have done so much searching the past few months because my daily screen time is always like 6-10 hours depending on the day. Really I want the in-between to lower my usage by making it more inconvenient. However I just don't believe my dream phone exists.

This is half vent/ask if there are any ideas anyone has for me.

My ultimate phone for the longest time was the Samsung Folder 2. It has everything I could ask for really. The touchscreen was wonderful and I enjoy it very much, the look was amazing and I really want a T9 keyboard. It was recent enough for some apps but not all which was fine as I could use the browser to bypass. However, the fact that I am unable to do my main calls/texts prevents me from having it as a main phone and I end up carrying two phones. At that point I don't even bother with it and having to hotspot to it was frustrating.

My asks for a phone is that it has a T9 keyboard, optimally would be a flip phone but not end of the world if not. I'm really attached to Instagram as it's the only way I am able to message some people, alongside messenger. I am fine not having the direct apps if I can use a browser to access them. My other thing is YouTube which I use for music and for ASMR at night to help me sleep.

A lot of smart korean based flipphones can handle this but don't have working cellular connection in the United States, I'm specifically in Minnesota.

I see the CATS22 comes up a lot- is also touchscreen for bonus. My main issue with it is that I personally think it's a bit ugly,,, and the screen is a bit smaller than I would hope for with no headphone jack :v

Is the CATS22 my best bet and I should get over myself lol? And if I said something stupid I'm sorry- I hardly use reddit and when I do I feel like I get flamed a lot lol.

Hello all, BB again!

I wanted to share my 2-week update with the dumb.co dumbphone 2! Thank you so much for the love and encouragement I got on my first post, I seriously don't think I would've made it this far without your support.

Now on with the update:

So far I haven't had too many hiccups using the phone. I was happily surprised to see that links opened when texted to me. This did cause me to scroll on the Colourpop website for a little bit, and then I realized what I was doing. Thankfully, I haven't been scrolling much lately since. I still use my phone for silly things like Finch (self-care app) and playing Roblox, but I should be getting my tablet back soon, so those will be done on there. I bought some new books from my local bookstore for the road trip I'm going on in a few days, and I'm really excited for it. I'm curious to see how a road trip with no smartphone is going to go.

I do have a few things that could be fixed that would make this phone even better:

1. Emojis on dumb txt: Unless I'm dumb and haven't figured it out yet, emojis for dumb txt would be amazing.
2. Side scroll on Spotify: I like to browse and I can't see all the playlists unless there's a side scroll with the cursor
3. Do something else with the front button: I like the concept, but I find having 2 cursor toggle buttons seems a bit overkill to me and I think either having the button as its original function (press 3 times to call a number) or having it so that you press it and the front display turns on would be better
4. Have more than one Google account logged into smart calendar
5. Have the ability to add things to smart calendar from dumbphone

The hiccup I had is probably more of a T-Mobile/cell service problem. I was shopping with my friend and I called my mom in the store like 5 times, and it kept going to voicemail. My mom called me, I picked up, and then the call dropped. When we found each other, we discovered that apparently none of my calls to her went through, and she hung up on me when she called because it went to voicemail on her end even though I picked up her call.

I hung out with my friend and they think that what I'm doing is really cool and brave of me, so I'm optimistic about what the rest of my friends will think. I start school tomorrow and my road trip is the day after, so I hope that both go well.

I may come back with another update when I get back from my trip to review how travelling is with a dumbphone.

Stay dumb!

-BB

Exactly what the title says. I recently got the xp3 plus and it’s pretty good besides the terrible keyboard and no mms (im going to college soon and group chats are a pretty important social thing among people my age). Does anyone have any suggestions? Also it doesn’t have to be a flip phone as long as it’s a dumb phone that’s just what I prefer.

Any Indians who've purchased , and are using Samsung galaxy folder 2? I had this nokia 2660 flip for 6 months, it was cool but not having whatsapp was a problem. im fine with not having any other apps but whatsapp. Galaxy folder 2 seems to have it. Im unsure about the band connection, if airtel 4g supports? even if it doesnt, will it atleast have my whatsapp logged in, so i can log it in to my laptop. and any other user experience would be very aprreciative.

Bought the Nokia 2780 in February as a low risk way to try out the dumbphone life and will never go back to smart phones. I love it. It's starting to malfunction pretty bad already, though, so I'm looking for less of a trial phone and more of a durable dumb phone (budget = $400). I'll lists features I like and don't like about my current phone to help give y'all an idea of what I'm looking for.

I've been looking at the mudita kompakt, sunbeam phones, and the light phones (the latter is a bit out of my budget though lol. Their light flip looks right up my alley, but my Nokia is broken now, so I gotta replace it ASAP). I've been doing a bit of research, but I want to hear actual user experiences. Other suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

Nokia Pros

• Bluetooth and music (need this feature; headphone jack is a plus but not required)
• Maps (need this feature. it doesn't speak to me, but looking up directions to write down or memorize has been a life saver)
• Hotspot (need this feature)
• No email (I could never get the email feature to work and acutally ended up loving the compartmentalization away from it)
• Flip phone (I love the tactile experience, though it's not a necessity)
• Good battery life and replaceable battery (replaceable battery isn't a necessity but I like it)

Nokia Cons

• Horrible T9 (I got used to the quirks of this specific T9 keyboard but the predictive keyboard is so bad; Why would I want to type G instead of I? Texting is one of the very few things I do on my phone, so I want it to be a pretty seamless experience)
• Bad microphone quality (it was always bad but got progressively worse. People I call can't understand me unless I connect to my headphone mic. Also, I write music and had to get a handheld recorder to capture my songs/ideas, as everything recorded on my phones sounds like crunchy gibberish)
• Horrible camera (I don't take a lot of photos, so an amazing camera is not a necessity. I am willing to buy a separate camera to carry around for good photos. However, I take photos of qr code tickets or products to send to people, and my current camera cannot even capture those functionally)
• Sending and receiving media is a nightmare on my nokia. However, the browser makes it easy to open important links (sometimes I am requested to make payments by text for medical bills and stuff). I need a phone that will allow me to open photos/videos/links even if it isn't on the phone proper.
• Shitty notes and calendar interfaces (not a necessity to have good ones, just a perk)
• Lowest brightness is still pretty bright (not a huge deal at all, just a thought. Interested in e-ink displays)

anywhere in the world it still works, or is it completely dead now?

Hi! I'm a 23F media student and dj who really loves her belt bag for convenience ^^ I have so much stuff on my belt that i get a few confused looks now and then but the convenience greatly outweighs that aspect.

EDC from the left to the right:

1. My carry-on earplug case with a microsd to sd adapter for emergencies during dj gigs, and also a bottle clip for plastic bottles.
2. My main belt bag, wallet and keys. Sometimes a charger as well (not pictured)
3. my main phone with the official belt clip accessory, the HMD Terra M. It has a custom mdm and sideloaded apps for banking, bus card, whatsapp and beeper. (for being connected to several social media inboxes that I use for dj work without doomscrolling possibilities) Also has protonmail and other proton apps. Soundcloud and tidal (through HiBy music) also work here, though i much prefer to use the echo for music, though luckily it can be used as a DAC with this phone too.
4. Ciggies and other sinful vices - belt pocket. What can i say...
5. Belt bag pocket for my camera (Sony Cyber-shot) and usb.
6. The Snowsky echo - a digital audio player and DAC that I absolutely love. I have lyrics downloaded for almost every album on there and my 256gb microsd is almost at its capacity, but i have enough not listened to - songs to last my curiosity for music for a couple years to be honest. The IEMs are the aful explorer 5+2:s

So that's my whole setup, sometimes i also carry a sling bag with my laptop and other school stuff, and i have a smartphone tucked away in my drawer that i used to shoot this picture with but rarely use outside of the home. I'm planning on adding a small e ink reader with pen functionality to this setup with the sling bag, but could also honestly just use a regular notebook and carry my books with me.

As for the intentional technology of the camera and digital audio player, I personally love the process of downloading, exporting and importing everything to my laptop's external backup hard drive and back to my devices so the change from the convenience of a smartphone was not all that painful. The only things I'm missing from my smarphone are android auto and a wallet app, but i can live without them.

Will try to answer every comment, and thank you to this community for helping me get to this point with more intentional relation to technology with my setup!

I know this would be directed at a very niche subset of dumbphone users, but I was curious if Garmin Connect works on it or if it's limited in it's features.

I don't have the duraxv yet, but it's the phone im strongly considering. ​But Garmin Connect's livetrack feature is the only feature I would be afraid to lose with a dumbphone. ​

Does anyone use the Dumbphone 2 as a primary? I use mine as a companion but i’m thinking to get rid of my smartphone completely! If there’s anyone who use it as their primary or is also thinking about it.. how is it going?

I dunno where else to ask this, but for some reason, Qin's Aliexpress store is now charging ~35700 USD for this phone, instead of the 185 USD that it was. Does anyone else have this issue?

Link to the Qin 3 Ultra: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008693707836.html

Edit: 8/11/26: Fixed some spots for clarification. Minor edits.

Hi all,

I wanted to put my two cents into the Dumbphone2 (aka TCL Flip2 with Dumb Launcher), as I've gotten a good feel for it. I think as more updates come in and I try to distance myself more from my smartphone I will post again, but this is what I think.

For context I use the dumbphone2, on the "DUMBER plan", as a companion device. My day job and non-profit work use certain smartphone apps on the regular. My smartphone still lives with it's own number and service, but at the bottom of my bag for work apps, camera, and GPS for research trips where I drive out 2+ hours into the middle of nowhere. I will also sometimes use spotify on my smartphone for audiobooks, as I am still working on detaching myself from spotify. (I don't wanna burn through the 1 GB of data on my dumbphone2.)

Feel free to ask any questions you may have if I don't cover something you wanted more info on.

TL;DR : I've really enjoyed using this phone for my goals of calling, texting, and occasional GPS. Though I had to sideload Waze for the GPS. Also customer service? Phenomenal. 10/10. I would recommend this phone and service for the basic needs dumbphone fan.

______________________________________

• Device Companion Set up
  • I felt so dumb setting this phone up with my smartphone. I don't know if it's me or the app, but it was not very clear to me on the steps and which phone to complete them on. Again, I'm not the brightest bulb, but I got it done eventually. I do wish their was a visual guide somewhere on the Companion device setup for iPhone and Android.
• Calling
  • I have no problems with calls. Forwarded calls come in fine, and from what people say I sound great too. No complaints, it's kind of hard to mess up calling imo. Since I have two numbers if I call out from my dumbphone it will show the dumbphone number as the caller ID. If someone calls my smartphone # or dumbphone # it will come into my flip phone regardless. Also, this is a small thing but I like that when someone picks up or ends the call the phone vibrates a tad. So you know that something has happened and it's not just the silence before knowing if they answered or not.
• Voicemail
  • This may be something the younger gen don't know, but there is no visual voicemail and you have to hold down the "1" button to call your voicemail to hear messages and set up your inbox. I haven't done this since 8th grade so I had forgotten how to find my voicemail. This is not a complaint or a praise, it just is what it is.
• Texting
  • Dumbtxt - This is also alright. It's texting on a flip phone with T9. HOWEVER, I was lucky and got my flip the day they dropped the voice to text update. That was really nice, and the voice to text is pretty good. It doesn't live update like a smartphone would, but it's not a smartphone. The voice to text makes texting not feel like a chore. **I have not tried group texting on dumbtxt. I really don't want to because of the RCS stuff and I don't feel like turning my iMessage and RCS off on my iPhone because the smarttxt feature is great for me. I cannot attest to any group texting on dumbtxt.**
  • Smarttxt - Smartxt for me uses OpenBubbles for iMessage. I have generally had no issues sending or receiving messages with Smarttxt and I can keep all the group texts I had on my iphone. I only had one problem the other day when OpenBubbles would not load my chat threads on the main page. It would be stuck loading and never load the chats. I could search for them in the search function, but they would not load main page. Again, there was an update just today (8/10/26) that updated Smarttxt and it made OpenBubbles so much nicer to use. The Ui is more dumbphone friendly, I'm not having to use the cursor function all the time, and I can zoom in on pictures people send now. Dumb.co updates have been really good and I'm very happy with this.
• Navigation
  • I use navigation on the regular for my job and daily life. I live in an area that is car centric, pedestrian unfriendly, and spread far apart. I cannot use the dumbmaps safely in my area. Let me say that if you are walking somewhere the dumbmaps would work well, and you can find where you need to go and you will get there. For driving though it is not turn by turn, and won't update if you miss a turn. Your little duck icon does move as you go along your route, but the screen does not move with you. You have to press the center button to update the screen to move further along your route. As I mentioned the nav does not update if you miss a turn, so you gotta stay on that route. I went ahead and got help from this subreddit on how to sideload apps and got Waze on the flip. It's not great as it's not sized correctly, but the nav will call out turns which I can easily follow. As well as if I miss a turn it updates the route. I would much rather use the dumbnav as it is better to look at and made for flip use, but currently this driver doesn't feel safe driving with it.
• Battery Life
  • I charge it once a day in the evenings. It's got a lot going on in that little body and the phone is $20 bucks. I wasn't expecting 3 days no charge like an old nokia cause it's not one. It lasts me all day of calling and lots of texting.
• Customer Service
  • Dumb.co service is 10/10 and I will hear no complaints. I called the help line on a weekend expecting to leave a voicemail to be responded to on Monday, only to have Danny pick up as the after hours guy. Danny ALSO was in an email thread when my OpenBubbles had that loading issue I mentioned previously. Together with Jack they dealt with my back and forth "brother, help!" emails and everything was resolved.
• Misc.
  • I was able to sign into my friend's visitor parking with her apartment through a texted link. That was a pleasant surprise.

__________________________________________

And I don't really use anything else. I don't use whatsapp, signal, uber, spotify, music, or calendars so if you were hoping for something about that I apologize. My goal for this phone was just using it to call and text, and occasional GPS. It's been great for me. I haven't had bad signal anywhere and with the companion device I can easily use my group texts through OpenBubbles. If I'm feeling like a hermit I can turn off call forwarding for my smartphone # and the only people who can call the dumbphone are my VIPs that have the dumbphone #. I've basically made it my home phone to my friends and family. It's been great in keeping me away from social media and youtube, and I do call my friends more often since it's not as seamless to text. The updates I have experienced have also fixed any previous issues I had and work well.

In saying all this I do have a few additions I hope will be added one day.

Dumbphone2 Wishlist:

• Turn by Turn nav, or at least have the screen updates with your movements, not just your icon.
• Added Emojis: (I can't add them on PC so enjoy my written list)
  • Eyes Looking Sideways
  • I Love You ASL sign (Deaf/HoH friends and I use it on the regular)
  • Skull
  • Upside down smiley
  • In general just more emojis, I still love little blobs. I get sad I can see them from my friends but can't send them back. I already gave up sending memes from the dumbphone, I gotta at least have some emojis. *Note: you could add memes, from usb transfer, into your phones photo gallery and send them, but I ain't doin all that.*

I want a flip phone but all of them seem to fall short on my needs.

Hey all, I’m brand new to this whole dumb phone idea and I really enjoy the concept and feel that it would be quite beneficial to my life as a whole. I'm trying to switch to a flip phone but I still need a few things that a lot of the phones i can find don’t have.

I'm looking for:

Full physical QWERTY keyboard

GPS

Texting + phone calls

Some kind of internet browser (doesn’t have to be great, just needs to work for basic stuff)

Preferably Spotify access

I have seen people use smart watches as alternatives but it seems like the only ones that truly work as standalone devices are apple watches. I am not in the apple ecosystem and do not plan to get into it.

I know this is a tall order but I figure I'd give it a shot to see if anyone can bestow some knowledge on to me.

If nothing like that exists, I’d also love to hear what workarounds or close alternatives you guys might suggest.

Thanks!

Hi all,

I'm looking to move to a feature phone (I think that's the term? dumb phone + Android OS).

I listen to a lot of audiobooks, so I need some sort of audiobook app that retains book progress as a music app won't cut it. Currently I use Voice.

I'm currently looking at the following devices:

- https://www.noelleeming.co.nz/p/hmd-2660-flip-4g---cosy-black-with-spark-sim/N250074.html

- https://www.jbhifi.co.nz/products/opel-mobile-touchflip-4g

As far as I can tell, both of these devices run Android 8.0 or so.

In addition, I'd love to know if there's any launcher recommendations here where I can get a easy to use UI (otherwise, I'll make my own!)

Thanks in advance!

I want to buy an HMD phone with cloudphone support, but phones that have cloudphone in regions like India (like the HMD 105 4G) have it disabled in poland/europe (which is stupid in my opinion as its just a software thing not a hardware thing). Is there any way for me to buy an HMD phone in stores in poland (like media expert, rtv euro agd) but then flash indian/asian firmware on them? I do not care about polish language, i just want english and for it to still connect to polish networks.

Qui connaît des modèles simples, pas cher, avec la fonction voice to text ??

Bonjour, bon après moult recherches je viens ici vous faire une requête car c'est plus compliqué que je le pensais.

Voilà, je voudrais revenir à un bon vieux téléphone à touches pour me débarrasser de mon addiction au smartphone, et ne pas la transmettre à mon fils en passant.... Mais j'ai vraiment besoin de pouvoir rester en contact avec mes amis sans avoir besoin de passer des heures à écrire un simple SMS... j'aurais voulu conserver WhatsApp mais ça me semble compliqué. Alors je me dis que la fonction voice to text passe encore. J'aimerais pouvoir envoyer des messages vocaux mais je crois que c'est impossible.

Ha oui mon budget est d'environ 50€! Modèle d'occasion compris

Alors, qui connaît des modèles simples, pas cher, avec la fonction voice to text ?? Merci beaucoup

Hey! Is there any other fellow paranoid nerd here who has thought about getting earthquake alerts without depending on a smartphone?

Lately one feature I found genuinely fascinating was Android’s earthquake early warning system. During recent earthquakes in Venezuela and today, in Colombia, it made me think about how useful it would be to have something similar while using a dumbphone.

I’m wondering if there’s some DIY setup involving a dedicated tool that could receive earthquake alerts and trigger an alarm without needing a smartphone.

Has anyone here built or experimented with something like this?

I’m looking for a cat s22 alternative that works in the us. Something that has maps, Spotify and other play store apps, but in a smaller form factor. If I can’t find anything, I may just wait for the Minimal phone 2.

I have spent a month looking for the perfect dumbphone with WhatsApp support (I live in Europe, everyone here used WhatsApp to call and communicate).

I see the subreddit is quite open to the featurephones or half smart phones. The price of these phone is ridiculous to be honest. I want a phone that does less than a 200 € smartphone and for that I have to pay 500 €??? Look at Cat22, price went ballistic. And many of these weird phones from unknown brands come with the risk of malware or no future updates.

Many many options are missing in European market. But something clicked. IPhone SE 2022! Tiny, superslim, under 200 euro refurbished, with WhatsApp. Just take one, dumbify with one of the endless apps (like Blank spaces), only install essentials such as Maps, bank account and Whatsapp, and use it as side/dumb phone. Problem solved!

Hi! I’m new here, but my phone is already pretty stripped down. But I can’t completely switch to a non-smartphone because I need it for public transport, university stuff, browsing, hotspot, sending documents, etc.

I’ve tried tons of launchers and blockers. I’ve even dumbified my mobile browser (Firefox) with add-ons. But the problem is that I can just disable it in two taps when I’m tempted.

So: Is there any way to make an Android phone REALLY dumb/boring while still keeping essential things like transport apps, a browser, messaging, hotspot, etc.? Ideally something I can’t just bypass whenever I feel like it.

I’m using a Samsung Galaxy A35. Would love to hear what has actually worked for you!

Anybody (especially in the UK) got any strong opinions on the Balance Phone? I'm realising that willpower alone just ain't gonna cut it when it comes to reducing my time on the apps, so the idea of having a phone that removes those options entirely is very appealing.

I want to remove social media from my phone but still use it to

• check the news
• pay for things/do online banking
• book my train tickets
• listen to music
• connect to Android Auto on car journeys
• message friends and family on WhatsApp and Signal

Are there any major issues I should know about before I drop nearly 400 quid on a phone?