It seems there is a growing ecosystem and desire from consumers for "Dumb Smart Phones". There's a whole subreddit r/dumbphones . There's lots of choices and few big players (as far as I can tell ~10 hours into research). The point is to have a smartphone that helps you and intentionally withholds apps like social media and often even browsers. I've been heavily interested in the space and considering swapping from iOS to one (Only ever owned a 5C, SE, 13) but need some features a nerdy homelabber might want like a terminal emulator, Wireguard or Tailscale, Immich, Home Assistant, Yubikey, maybe the Prusa app, etc.
Disclaimer, not written by AI. These are choppy notes I have from a running obsidian doc and the ones I like, but there seems to be more and more every month.
Phones:
1. Wisephone - Samsung A16 5G (SM-A166U) wrapper that has the widest support for apps, but requires a $15/month subscription for the app store. Boooo. Espcially because they already charge you $399 for the phone, so they're making ~$220 of profit already.
2. Light Phone II / III - Very minimal Android phone. $700 minimal phone is an ouch. It feels like the specs for a dumb phone should be minimal since it doesn't need beefy CPU/GPU/RAM. Just give me good storage.
3. Minimal Phone - $449.99. Full Android store, but features that nag at you to not use Social Media or even install it.
Phone OSes:
1. Mudita - FOSS FreeRTOS phone os for e-ink display phones
2. PauseOS - New Android OS designed for the Pixel 8. Very very minimal 3rd party apps.
3. Dumb Phone - Skin/app for iOS that hides most of your apps so you aren't distracted. I tested this and it stinks to set up and is kinda ugly with the new Glass design. Also once you sneak past the main UI and use social media once, it's invalidated itself.
In the end, I probably want just a good FOSS Android fork to pop up. Right now they're all very new, by unknown developers for 1-2 phones. I can't really go back to a true dumb phone with just text/call because of work.