Phone Debloat

I have always eyed those who use dumbphones, flip phones, and minimalist phones with something akin to awe. I too want to have a simple life and not feel as if I need ※ I say "need" but truly no one needs a phone of any sort. We are just so acustom to having a device at hand to distract us and such, that not having one seems very difficult. a "smart" phone. This has led me to a many year long battle to get myself "off" the phone. I'm making progress and from where I used to be, I've come a long way, but I do not think I am really "ready" to jump ship and pick up a simpler phone just yet.

Baby Steps

I'm going to get there, and some day I won't be one of those people with a smart phone in their pocket ready to help them with every challenge and pull them away from reality at any moment. So to get ever closer to my goal, I have "debloated" my phone ※ For some context, I don't have social media and I am already using a stripped down variant of Android called "GrapheneOS". So the "debloat" process for me might be different than for you.. For me this meant deleting a number of apps that serve little purpose, easily distract me, or are redundant. For some other apps I've opted to "hide" the app instead of uninstalling it. This way it's not easily available/present but it is still there if I need it for some reason. What I have left is a phone that hopefully will occupy my time much less and get me closer to not "needing" one of these things at all. It's amazing how even just hiding some apps and getting that app-drawer down to a small size can be a relief!

She gone!

The key things I got rid of were Brave and Firefox. I hardly used Firefox, but without Brave it would become the default web browser, so getting rid of both was crucial. Because I run GrapheneOS, there is no default browser, so by deleting the only browsers on my phone, I am left without any browsers whatsoever. This will save a vast amount of my attention, checking Hackernews had become a real problem for me. I've also gone ahead and done away with my VPN (Proton), not too much reason to have it around, though I hardly ever used it anyway.

The other big things I've gotten rid of are my weather app (Wunderground), ebook reader, and Raindrop. The weather app might come back, I really wasn't glued to that, but I'm going to try foregoing it for the tome being and seeing how I do without. The ebook reader was rarely used, I have an actually eink ereader I use for reading books and this was sort of just redundant. Raindrop was kind of moot without a browser, and also could become a source of distraction if I started turning to it for things to read/scroll.

Hide Aways

Some of the apps I've opted to keep installed, but hidden, whether to keep it out of my mind or just to minimize the number of things to look at. These apps include my Epson printer's app, I never use it, and without a browser on my phone there is even less chance of using it, but it is how the printer is configured, so I thought it best to keep it around just in case. My map app, Organic Maps, got to stay, but hidden. This is another app I pretty much never use. I am very good with directions and rarely do I ever need to consult a map to figure out where to go, especially locally since our roads are all named in a manner that makes it very easy to find where you are going. I've also kept Slack, I only use this app for setting myself away when I forget to do so before leaving my computer for lunch. Starlink and the VictronConnect app are the final two that got to stay, mostly because the two products that they control are things that cannot be controlled without the apps, annoyingly ※ The Starlink has minimal functionaly via the browser, but it is not as complete as with the app. The finally pair of apps I've opted to keep, but have hidden are the FDroid repo and the Aurora Store. I have kept them so I can update my other apps, but I might get rid of these to make it harder to install new apps, and instead rely on APK Pure to get updates when needed.

All that remains

What remains on my phone (in addition to the default things like Contacts, SMS, a calculator, etc.) is my 2FA app for all those secondary logins. I might move this to Bitwarden eventually, say if I ditch the phone entirely, but until than it's around. Bitwarden also got to stay, but in hindsight that might be able to get the boot, there is little need for a password manager on a phone without anything to log into. I've also kept the Sonos App, Spotify, a Bible reading app (Andbible), a podcast app, and a few other utilities -- like a calorie counter and a run/bike tracker.

I think what I've gotten whittled down to is a good start. I am already using the phone less, and in fact have been leaving it off and at home most days this week. I have been unlocking it, looking at it, realizing there is nothing on it to distract me, and then turning it off. I suspect that'll cease as I eventually stop seeking out my phone for entertainment and distraction purposes.

I will report back after a sufficient time has passed.