Dumb Phone (dp‪)‬ 4+

Dumb phone, smart app

I’ve been looking for a way to declutter - not just my phone but my thoughts and interactions with my devices. I stumbled across a bunch of videos about how to accomplish this and this app was NOT recommended - it SHOULD HAVE BEEN!

The app has both succinct video and swipe-able concise text instructions for how to make your phone ‘dumb’ using the app. It’s very easy to set up, already has support for a lot of other, non-Apple apps included, and has a feature to request/suggest an app that isn’t currently ‘officially’ supported. I submitted a daycare app I use daily during the week and the developer emailed me ~24hrs later to tell me it had been added to the list to be supported in an upcoming update! In the meantime, the app has a walkthrough showing you how to add an unsupported app in the interim and the developer included an additional suggestion in their email.

I installed Dumb Phone at the end of my work week and in just a short couple of days I can’t imagine going back. When I mindlessly unlock my phone now I see the screen and I realize I could be using a more purpose-oriented device or just not looking at a device at all.

The price is reasonable for a test drive - US$2.99 for a month at the time of my review (NOV2025) - and just US$25 for lifetime access.

Clunky and difficult to set up

DO NOT x out of those tips/add sections, or you will not be able to get them back! Had to delete and reinstall the app. Also not very intuitive how to reorganize and edit the list of apps. You gotta tap on a blank space within the widget inside of the app, without accidentally hitting one of the names/shortcuts because that will launch the app. What’s up with the lowercase app names? Without giving us control over formatting?? You should respect the name given and allow people to decide for themselves how they’d like the formatting done. And what the heck with the lame degree symbols/small o letters at the top and bottom of the widget on the home screen? How is that minimal? Super distracting. If you want me to pay for this, you’re going to have to improve all of these things, as I’m deleting this for now. it’s the second best one of the ones I’ve tried (2 of the 4 were total garbage). The one I’m going with allows for a LOT of formatting/tweaking/customization of the app titles, AND how many display in each widget pane. I hope you improve this app and make it better than the other one! For now, I’ll have to stick with what looks and works best.

Developer Response ,

Thank you for the review! To address your feedback;
✅ Apps can be changed by tapping the + button
✅ Apps can be reordered by drag and drop (mentioned in the tip)
✅ App title casing is adjustable via the Style screen
✅ Total apps shown per page is adjustable via the Style screen
✅ Widget titles can be hidden by long-pressing the Home Screen -> Edit -> Customize -> tap Large

Some of these don't have particular tips added, so i'll consider adding them and making a proper guide for each in the FAQ so they're not easy to miss.

Hope you give Dumb Phone another shot someday soon, and thanks again!

They care

The dev/devs on this app are very caring people and genuinely want to just make a very good experience for people to help customize your phone the way you want. I have a few apps that I needed to be on the filter that weren’t there and I emailed them with a picture and description of the app and they responded immediately! If that doesn’t show how good of a future this app has then idk what does tbh. Also since I installed this app, my screen time has reduced by at least 3 hours a day! Apps used to be so distracting that I’d lose my train of thought but now the text allows to me to actually think clearly instead of clicking on the shiny red & colorful icons. Ik that makes me sound like a toddler but I’m not ashamed to say that’s how it actually is sometimes. Could be my ADD but hey this app is great at making my phone look hella boring so 🙏.