Dumbphones Are Getting Dumber
Last Updated 2025-09-17
Switching to a dumbphone was the best decision that I made in 2025. It's made me far more intentional with regards to how I use technology, saved me countless hours mindlessly scrolling, and forces me to make connections in reality rather than virtually. I plan on writing an article in the near future about the positive aspects of this switch, but, at least in this article... I need to vent.
Switching Is Becoming Increasingly Difficult
Here's the problem with switching to a dumbphone in 2025. We're transitioning into a world that assumes constant connection and access to the internet at any given time. Without intentionally opting out of this, it can be hard to see that the infrastructure we once took for granted is quietly being eliminated. For myself, this has manifested itself in several awkward situations since I made the switch.
More concerning however, is knowing that this societal "paywall" is pushing out an increasing number of people out who don't have access to technology for financial reasons, cultural reasons, or simply for technical illiteracy.
So, I'd like to share some of the troubles I've encountered since making the switch to demonstrate how our increasing dependence on smartphones is creating barriers that extend far beyond personal choice.
WhatsApp is ubiquitous, and since moving away from social media, it has become my primary method of communication. However, Meta is certainly making it difficult for dumbphone users.
WhatsApp technically doesn't need a smartphone to work, just a phone number. However, in practice, I've found it incredibly difficult to set up and manage without one. The main issue is that it requires web and desktop applications to be setup via a smartphone.
Currently, my workaround is to setup these connections using WhatsApp on Android via an Android emulator (Bluestacks Air for MacOS). This is far from perfect, the app frequently desyncs, meaning I lose my message history, and need to reset my contacts from scratch.
What is particularly annoying about the restrictions: the workaround won't work with the MacOS desktop version, only with WhatsApp for Web (or the nchat CLI if you're into that sort of thing). This is as the authentication method requires scanning a QR code on your desktop app from your smartphone (no text message auth available). I haven't been able to get this working with Bluestacks Air (although apparently a recent update may be able to change this; but I'm scared I'll lose my chat history again).
So much of our daily communication has moved to WhatsApp, particularly in the area of public groups. Email lists and group texting has been deprecated in favor of group chats on WhatsApp; events organisation, work group chats, parish mass schedules all demand participation via a smartphone.
Tech Infrastructure Is Changing
Switching to a dumbphone has also revealed to me how quickly we abandon working technology for marginal improvements, systematically excluding people who can't afford constant upgrades.
My first encounter of this was actually when attempting to setup my dumbphone in the first place. When I decided to make the switch, I figured I'd just use my old phone from years back and be done with it. Well, I was a bit miffed to learn that Australia, as of November 2024, has shut down their 3G networks. This meant for me that my old phone was off the table, as well as any other second hand device I would have wanted to purchase. There are plenty of dumbphones out there that can still play Snake just fine, but not many that would still be able to make a phone call...
Purchasing a dumbphone in 2025 means purchasing one with features I would rather not have, as I'm really trying to enforce on myself this intentionality of technology; and unnecessary features have for me always contributed to excessive use. The only "dumbphones" I was able to find for purchase that operate on the 4G network all have internet access, which I find incredibly frustrating.
This frustration extends to mobile plans too; I couldn't find a single service provider that offers voice and text without data. My plan was recently "upgraded" both in amount of data available and in price. I'm literally paying extra now for the internet access I'm trying to avoid, and most sites (including this blog) don't even work on low data connections like dumbphones in the first place!
Perhaps most heartbreaking was recently meeting a community member who had recently spent money they could hardly spare on a phone, only to discover it would stop working entirely due to network changes they'd never heard about or understand. It's become clear to me that forcing upgrades disproportionately impacts vulnerable populations.
Getting Around
Travel has been perhaps the most difficult part of migrating to a dumbphone. So much of how we get around these days has become tied up with using our smartphones.
The obvious change is navigation. Satellite navigation is the one feature I most wanted to keep when I made the switch, so naturally I set out to find a GPS system. It was surprisingly difficult; most are as expensive as modern smartphones, and lack the basic features to be reliable for day to day driving. The first one I bought I returned within an hour. I ended up settling on a Garmin Drive, and just deal with the lack of real time traffic and outdated mapping.
Parking is another pain point. The humble parking meter has largely been replaced by the smartphone app. Just yesterday I was trying to find a park at a library. When I arrived at the meter, I was warmly greeted with a laminated sign asking to use an app or to call a number to find alternatives. I decided it wasn't worth the hassle, and drove off to find another library. For people without smartphones, these "improvements" to parking systems can make basic civic services like libraries effectively inaccessible to the people they have the greatest duty to serve.
Perhaps more subtly, I've noticed the loss of the "landmark". We used to say "Meet me under the statue at the State Library, then we'll walk to Joe's Cafe." Now it's just "Meet me at Joe's Cafe". There is an implicit assumption that didn't exist 20 years ago; that everyone can navigate directly to any named location. Without access to a smartphone, impromptu gettogethers are more awkward to organise; my friends will often receive from me a text disrupting the flow: "Where is that near?".
QR Codes And Authentication
I see a QR code and I throw up in my mouth a little.
Coffee shops have replaced punch cards with apps, restaurants offer digital loyalty deals, and you can save on groceries with app exclusive discounts. Again, the irony is that these systems have become inaccessible to people who would most benefit from these cost savings.
Security has also become smartphone dependent. Two-factor authentication is
often only implemented via an app, and not over text, or better yet, using a
hardware key. Logging out of my password manager has on multiple occasions
become quite a headache to recover from, so much so that I've moved my password
management to the Linux tool pass. I've even fallen victim to public WiFi that
needed to authenticate over email!
My least favourite QR code story is when I attended an event at my local parish. For the purposes of child safety, we were asked to log our attendance. The catch, of course, was that there was no option to log my attendance manually, only via a QR code. I ended up asking a stranger to borrow their phone to sign in, but I haven't been back since cause the whole thing was a bit awkward.
Every QR code has become a reminder that the infrastructure we rely upon is increasingly reliant upon smartphone ownership.
You're Always Contactable
The biggest shift I've noticed is how my inability to be constantly contactable frustrates others. Our new social contract assumes everyone can instantly respond to texts, access shared links, and conduct impromptu research.
When I am sent a video or article over text, a delayed response can be seen as purposely disengaged, when the underlying reason is that it is reasonably inconvenient to respond to at that moment (texting with a dumbphone), or that I lack the ability to contextualise the message ("Hey what do you think about this video?").
A common frustration for myself is receiving an image over text. I can rarely see the content contained within them on a small screen, if they even load on my dumbphone at all! Worse still is that there is no easy way of communicating that you can't view the image without responding via a text that may take a couple of minutes to write. Yet again, we encounter an irony, that you can't easily communicate that you can't easily communicate.
Perhaps most telling for me is how saying "I'll need to check my calendar" has become a euphemism to decline an invitation. For those of us without a smartphone, we legitimately need to check our calendars, as it's unlikely we're carrying them in our pocket that very second. However, this can be seen as flakiness without explaining the context of not having a smartphone.
Conclusion
My choice to use a dumbphone has made me reflect on just how much of what we consider "choice" in technology adoption has actually become an unreasonable necessity to participate in the economy and society.
Ultimately, switching to a dumbphone in 2025 isn't just about personal discipline, unfortunately, it's also about opting out of infrastructure that increasingly assumes universal smartphone adoption.