DAILY LIFE WITH A FLIPPHONE

 

From キーりんちゃん：Can you possibly do a post on your day with just a flip phone? Like how to navigate with it with your daily life, apps, what's good to put on it and maybe just some general info on it?

- Yes! I will try my best!

My phone is KYOCERA DIGNO 3 aka NP902KC.

This phone came out in 2020, it's intended for business and for the elderly. Therefore, it's quite minimalistic and durable. It runs a simplified Android 8 with no App Store and 1GB RAM. There is no GooglePlay service, and you can't root. There is 8GB internal storage and I've added a 32GB MircoSD card (This is the maximum storage capacity). GPS majoritally does not work on these outside of Japan, but sometimes and on certain apps, it might.

I am personally a practitioner of "digital minimalism" (but I'm not very strict) and I don't use any social media that I can't use on my desktop (I only use Discord, Reddit, Pinterest, and Youtube other than my blog). Therefore, I don't need a phone that can do anything other than the core functionalities, but this phone is more than capable of everything a smartphone is, to an extent! I have seen other people running sns like Instagram, Twitter, I have even edited and managed a SpaceHey page from this phone before. it's up to you what you choose to put on it or not.

(Also, tbh there's a crazy amount of bloatware on this phone which I didn't bother trying to pick through, but you can find some info on Reddit from people who did about what you can and can't delete.)

Here's what the UI looks like:

Here is the Home Screen when I open the phone. I can set widgets to the Home Screen for quick access, and I can also set three apps to the 'custom keys' along the bottom which are mapped to physical keys, so they can be opened with one press.

I've set the clock and calendar to be visible on the Home Screen so I can see if I have any events today right away, since I often forget to check my calendar.

I can see my notification icons along the top bar, which can be accessed by pressing up twice and selecting.

By pressing select once from the Home Screen, I can enter the apps menu. Here I can access all the utilities my phone has to offer. 

Mostly from this menu I use the alarm, calculator, 'Tool' menu, and 'service' menu.

the 'tool' menu has my notes, flashlight, pedometer, audio recorder, and even an office suite! (basically like excel, powerpoint, word, all in one). There is also infrared down lower on the menu, which is popular in Japan for uses similar to airdrop or apple pay (I only had apple products before now idk what the android equivalents are I'm sorry).

the 'service' menu... honestly idk what most of these things do. But I go here for Tethering if I need to hotspot another device.

if I click the 'custom' button from the apps menu, I can see my set list of custom apps, these are the apps I have downloaded myself (other than the ones on the Home Screen).

 The first thing I did when setting up this phone is sideload Aurora Store and FDroid so that I won't have to sideload twice. Aurora Store is good for entertainment apps and FDroid is good for utility apps that are open source and change the operation of the device (like KeyMapper. After writing this I deleted this app because I realized I never use it).

If I long press the first custom key (I) I can pull up my "active tabs" menu, and close whatever I don't want running anymore. Not everything stays running in the background when you exit out of it, though.

WHAT APPS DO I USE?

Notepad, Alarm, Calendar, Pedometer, Clock, Camera: These are all standard utilities that work the same as they would on a smartphone. I use them every day and they all work great.

Musicolet: It's a better, much more fleshed out UI for native music files than the built in one. It has a ton of features that I don't even know how or why to use. 

I don't stream music, but I understand that Spotify and Apple Music both work fine (Spotify Lite is recommended for limited RAM, but it seems the full version also works but a bit slower).

Imgur: This is only because I use a Mac computer, which refuses to recognize my phone at all costs. Until recently, this was the only way I could figure out how to transfer photos between my phone and computer for my blog. Recently I installed OpenMTP on my computer which solves this problem for me, so I could probably delete it now.

QKSMS, Messenger, Discord: For communicating, obviously. I have no particular feelings about QKSMS over any other text UI, it's just the one I saw recommended on Reddit when I got the phone so it's the one I use. The native mail UI is also perfectly functional, it's just Japanese style which means it's not threaded, so you can't view your chat history, which can be disorienting for those who are not used to it.

Discord does not receive notifications with the app closed. This is the unfortunate part of no GooglePlay service, some apps are unable to send notifications. This means LINE also can't receive notifications, if you are a LINE user this might be a deal breaker. Since unlocking the bootloader and root is impossible on this phone, MicroG also can't work, so there is completely no way to get GooglePlay Service on this phone.

Podcast Player: It's some random one I downloaded so I can listen to podcasts if I'm away from home, and I've only used it once. I don't care about it in any regard. It works fine.

What does my daily life look like with a flip phone?

Tbh it's hard to answer, it's hard to describe a lack of something, you know? 

My life doesn't really revolve around my phone. When I think of my day, I think of the hobbies I maintain (watering my plants, studying language, doing my makeup) or my chores (cooking meals, cleaning, walking the dog). None of these are really relevant to my phone.

I still use my phone as the alarm that wakes me up in the morning, and as the calendar that tells me what I need to do today. I also use it as the alarms that remind me to take my meds. 

I use it to write my grocery list sometimes (I usually write it on a physical notepad though), I use it to calculate my cart total while shopping. I use it as an MP3 Player, as a camera for my coordinate blogging, and as a 'quickly google something' device. But most importantly to me, I don't use it as an entertainment device.

I think the main highlight of daily life with a flip phone is the fact that I NEVER HAVE TO TOUCH IT. 

Smartphone's are designed in such a way to constantly beckon your attention. The giant open screen is so full of content to consume, every time it lights up with a notification you just have to grab it and see what it is. The black glass becomes a black hole that sucks you in. Even if I take my iPhone back out to use it for vlog filming, I'll often find myself keeping it out and scrolling on it for several days! (yikes). I don't even have anything 'doom scroll' worthy on it, but the shape of the phone itself is designed to encourage that behavior. If you ever find that hours have passed and you don't even know what you did during that time, I think that you know what I mean. 

Rather, with my flip phone, the only time I'm touching it is when I have something specific to do: respond to a text, answer a call, change the song, take a picture. Then I put it right back down and go about my day. It encourages productivity AND peace. I'm able to both focus on my real here and now, and be bored when I should be. Little moments of bored are so vital for a healthy brain.

I'm also so completely at peace without being constantly humbled by influencers, advertisements, people who are skinnier, hotter, richer, better at my hobbies than me. Gyaru who get crazy numbers just because they start random drama or make up "lore" or "history" that's not even true for clout. I'm no longer doing things with the motivation of chasing attention or validation. I'm no longer pursuing gyaru with the motivation of "I need to be the most gyaru person in the comm" and feeling hurt every time I'm left out or thrown into drama. Also, I think I look better for it. Because I'm no longer blinded by what everyone else thinks is gyaru, but rather what I see to be gyaru from moving on my own with the magazines to guide me. 

I never have to see a dumb ass opinion from an ugly ita with upside down eyelashes on TikTok ever again.

SORRY, RANT OVER -

I hope this was helpful in any way... If there's anything I didn't totally touch on please comment and I'll either edit this blog or I'll write another one!