frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Ask HN: What prevents you from switching to a dumbphone?

3•Divisibly3•4mo ago
I’m doing research for a potential project (maybe even a startup) around making dumbphones viable again in 2025.

I’ve personally been living with a flip phone for a while. It works surprisingly well: fewer distractions, better sleep, better focus. The smartphone only comes out for banking or government apps.

Most discussions I’ve found online end up pessimistic: “you simply can’t live without a smartphone.” I found some partial solutions (see blog: https://tim.kicker.dev/2025/09/14/flip-phone/ )

So I’d like to ask HN for input:

- What are the real blockers that keep you tied to a smartphone?

- Which apps or services are absolute dealbreakers (banking, navigation, 2FA, messaging…)?

- Would you consider paying for workarounds/companion tools if they solved those blockers?

- Do you see this as just a niche lifestyle choice, or as an underserved market with startup potential?

I’m especially interested in hearing pain points from people who wanted to switch but couldn’t, those might highlight the most valuable problems to solve.

Thanks in advance for your insights!

Comments

codingdave•4mo ago
You might be asking the wrong question. The first answer you need to know is why a dumb phone is better than just under-using a smartphone?

I can think of a few answers to that, btw, but before you try to start knocking down roadblocks of what use cases dumb phones cannot cover, figure out whether your target audience's desire for a dumb phone is even about the features, or whether it is cost-based, or psychology based (to avoid addiction, etc.), or is just trying to avoid owning devices that are run by big tech companies.

Personally, I barely use my phone. I forward calls to my VOIP line, I handle texts and other messaging from my PC. I don't really use apps other than the occasion bird or plant identification, some maps if I am travelling to a new location, and one notable time when I locked my keys in my car and used an app to unlock the doors. All of those scenarios could be handled without a smart phone, so it is certainly possible to drop the phone. But in that case, I would not get a phone at all.

So I feel you are looking at a niche, and one that is more about lifestyle choice, not feature sets.

theandrewbailey•4mo ago
> The first answer you need to know is why a dumb phone is better than just under-using a smartphone?

This is me. Outside of phone calls, I probably use my phone for less than 15 minutes per day. A dumb phone could be tempting for me, but firing off a short text with a 12 button pad is irritating, and I like GrapheneOS and trust it more than some random probably closed dumb phone platform.

notmyjob•4mo ago
“The smartphone only comes out for banking or government apps.”

You answered your own question.

gus_massa•4mo ago
And WhatsApp

Show HN: MCP App to play backgammon with your LLM

https://github.com/sam-mfb/backgammon-mcp
1•sam256•1m ago•0 comments

AI Command and Staff–Operational Evidence and Insights from Wargaming

https://www.militarystrategymagazine.com/article/ai-command-and-staff-operational-evidence-and-in...
1•tomwphillips•1m ago•0 comments

CCBot – Control Claude Code from Telegram via Tmux

https://github.com/six-ddc/ccbot
1•sixddc•2m ago•1 comments

Ask HN: Is the CoCo 3 the best 8 bit computer ever made?

1•amichail•4m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Convert your articles into videos in one click

https://vidinie.com/
1•kositheastro•7m ago•0 comments

Red Queen's Race

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen%27s_race
2•rzk•7m ago•0 comments

The Anthropic Hive Mind

https://steve-yegge.medium.com/the-anthropic-hive-mind-d01f768f3d7b
2•gozzoo•10m ago•0 comments

A Horrible Conclusion

https://addisoncrump.info/research/a-horrible-conclusion/
1•todsacerdoti•10m ago•0 comments

I spent $10k to automate my research at OpenAI with Codex

https://twitter.com/KarelDoostrlnck/status/2019477361557926281
2•tosh•11m ago•0 comments

From Zero to Hero: A Spring Boot Deep Dive

https://jcob-sikorski.github.io/me/
1•jjcob_sikorski•11m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Solving NP-Complete Structures via Information Noise Subtraction (P=NP)

https://zenodo.org/records/18395618
1•alemonti06•16m ago•1 comments

Cook New Emojis

https://emoji.supply/kitchen/
1•vasanthv•19m ago•0 comments

Show HN: LoKey Typer – A calm typing practice app with ambient soundscapes

https://mcp-tool-shop-org.github.io/LoKey-Typer/
1•mikeyfrilot•22m ago•0 comments

Long-Sought Proof Tames Some of Math's Unruliest Equations

https://www.quantamagazine.org/long-sought-proof-tames-some-of-maths-unruliest-equations-20260206/
1•asplake•23m ago•0 comments

Hacking the last Z80 computer – FOSDEM 2026 [video]

https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/FEHLHY-hacking_the_last_z80_computer_ever_made/
1•michalpleban•23m ago•0 comments

Browser-use for Node.js v0.2.0: TS AI browser automation parity with PY v0.5.11

https://github.com/webllm/browser-use
1•unadlib•24m ago•0 comments

Michael Pollan Says Humanity Is About to Undergo a Revolutionary Change

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/magazine/michael-pollan-interview.html
2•mitchbob•24m ago•1 comments

Software Engineering Is Back

https://blog.alaindichiappari.dev/p/software-engineering-is-back
2•alainrk•25m ago•0 comments

Storyship: Turn Screen Recordings into Professional Demos

https://storyship.app/
1•JohnsonZou6523•26m ago•0 comments

Reputation Scores for GitHub Accounts

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/02/reputation-scores-for-github-accounts/
2•edent•29m ago•0 comments

A BSOD for All Seasons – Send Bad News via a Kernel Panic

https://bsod-fas.pages.dev/
1•keepamovin•33m ago•0 comments

Show HN: I got tired of copy-pasting between Claude windows, so I built Orcha

https://orcha.nl
1•buildingwdavid•33m ago•0 comments

Omarchy First Impressions

https://brianlovin.com/writing/omarchy-first-impressions-CEEstJk
2•tosh•38m ago•1 comments

Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback

https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.12501
5•onurkanbkrc•39m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Versor – The "Unbending" Paradigm for Geometric Deep Learning

https://github.com/Concode0/Versor
1•concode0•39m ago•1 comments

Show HN: HypothesisHub – An open API where AI agents collaborate on medical res

https://medresearch-ai.org/hypotheses-hub/
1•panossk•43m ago•0 comments

Big Tech vs. OpenClaw

https://www.jakequist.com/thoughts/big-tech-vs-openclaw/
1•headalgorithm•45m ago•0 comments

Anofox Forecast

https://anofox.com/docs/forecast/
1•marklit•45m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: How do you figure out where data lives across 100 microservices?

1•doodledood•45m ago•0 comments

Motus: A Unified Latent Action World Model

https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.13030
2•mnming•46m ago•0 comments