Here’s how I turned my iPhone into a modern day “dumb phone”
Disclaimer: I only know how to do this for iPhone. Sorry, Android users with phones that run on Snapdragon 8th generation with massive refresh rate of 120Hz.
If you don’t know what a dumb phone is, it is basically a mobile phone that typically lacks the advanced features you see on a normal phone. Dumb phones are primarily designed for making calls and sending text messages, without the additional functionalities of smartphones. They are often favored by individuals who prefer simplicity or who want to minimize distractions from technology. However I didn’t go all out in cutting off everything, I just created a level of friction with the ease of access to the unnecessary apps.
Here’s what my home screen looks like.
The features are basically a very minimalist home screen and lock screen. The apps on the “list” in my home screen are just the apps I want to focus on, for me those are Adobe Acrobat Reader for reading, Bible, Calendar for planning the day, Notes for writing, Opal (which will be discussed later), Spotify for music & podcasts, WhatsApp and Telegram for texting & Phone for obvious reasons. You can set whatever apps you want.
Now here’s how I got here.
First you need to install an app called Blank Spaces.
Go through all the welcome messages until it takes you to a page with the title “Add apps that matter” where you can pick the apps that you want to be on the widget list.
When I first installed the app, I had trouble finding the apps I wanted but after closing it and leaving for some minutes, I then came back and I saw all the apps that were available on iPhone, so I could pick the ones I wanted, if this doesn’t work, uninstall and reinstall and follow the same process.
The app comes with a bunch of wallpapers, I personally use the blacked out one. To set them up, you’d have to tap on them, you’d then have to save it to Files, go to Files, save it to Photos, then set up the wallpaper on Settings (tedious process, yeah I know but that’s what we’re here for)
Just play around the app, you’ll figure it out after some time.
Step 1: Layout.
Next you want to remove every single app and widget from your home screen and remove every other “screen page” so you’re left with one home screen with no apps.
Then you tap the top left “+” sign to add a widget, scroll down so you can find the Blank Spaces widget and add it.
This one right here:
You then add the square looking widget (the one with your list of “apps that matter”), it’s going to look really messed up but you’ll adjust it later in the settings.
You can then do the same process to add the rectangular top widget for time, so it looks something this:
Now when you click a particular app on the list, it should open it up but there’s usually the weird latency animation, we can remove this by going to Settings, then Accessibility, then Motion, then turn on the “Reduce Motion” toggle.
Remember when I said it would all look messed up? Open the Blank Spaces app, you can do this by clicking on a “blank space” on the widget list or go and open it in your App Library, then go to the top left corner and open the settings, click on “Customize Widgets”, here you can change the font, font size, widget color, alignment, the spacing between the items of your list, the number of apps you can put on a list per widget which has a maximum of 10, once you’re done, go back to home screen and voila.
Now, when you do all this, you might see that the names of the apps are too long and maybe some have ellipsis, you change this by going back to the Blank Spaces app.
Then click the names of the app on your list and edit them however you want, and once you go back to home screen, the changes will take effect.
You can stack widgets with the top rectangular one which has the date, I like to have my Screen Time there, so I can check much time, I’ve spent on my phone and consciously make adjustments. You can also customize the top widget in the settings of Blank Spaces.
Step 2: Blocks.
Widget list or not, you still have access to the apps you’re trying to remove access from if you scroll to your App Library. So you can stop this by downloading another app called Opal.
Once downloaded, go through all the set ups. Once you’re done with the set up, which is quite simple, you can select the apps you find distracting, tap “Done” and that’s it.
The paid version allows you schedule blocks ahead of time but if you use the free version like I do, you have to choose each “block session” manually. Specify the amount of time you want the block to last for and just click “Start Session” and all the apps you clicked before get blocked whenever you try to open them. I used blocks whenever I’m reading or working or at the gym so it prevents me from scrolling aimlessly on my phone when I could actually be getting proper work done.
Step 3: App Library (optional)
You can add blank widgets to blank homepages between your main homepage and the App Library in order to further increase friction but this is totally optional.
And there you have it. Your iPhone turned is now a dumb phone.
Credits: Big shout out to Reysu on YouTube. I referenced this particular video for this article, you can watch it for further instructions and for things you do not understand and check out some of his other contents
(This is actually not a paid sponsorship, I just personally like the guy’s work)
