I use my smartphone too much. I'm trying to embrace boredom, so I've been leaving it behind when I go out to dinner and such.<p>However, I'd still like to be contactable via text during those times. (Apps are the problem -- social media, news, etc.)<p>I still need my smartphone often, like when I travel or when I'm in a work meeting. So I cannot switch to a dumb phone permanently.<p>But when I'm out for social occasions, I'd like to just take a device that only texts. (I don't even need voice.)<p>I can get a dumb phone, but can get my phone number to send texts to two devices? Then I could take the dumb phone when I want to detach a bit.<p>Or are there smartwatches that just receive texts and no other notifications?<p>I looked at The Light Phone, but it looks like that requires you to actually switch phones.<p>https://www.thelightphone.com/products<p>This would be perfect if I could have in addition to my smart phone and just choose which one to take when I leave the house.
I pay $5/month for 5G on my Apple Watch and leave my phone at home. The watch is good enough for phone calls, especially with a pair of AirPods.<p>If that sounds too scary for you, consider leaving your phone in your car while you hang with your friends.<p>[1] <a href="https://taylor.town/leave-your-phone-at-home" rel="nofollow">https://taylor.town/leave-your-phone-at-home</a><p>You can also disable notifications. My phone only notifies me when I receive phone calls. I manually check it for everything else.<p>[2] <a href="https://taylor.town/extinguish-all-notifications" rel="nofollow">https://taylor.town/extinguish-all-notifications</a>
You can have two devices with a single number but it costs extra and no idea if all providers offer this.<p>On my Samsung phone I can enable an extreme power savings mode, it disables everything but phone calls/text and makes the screen a very simple black and white affair, perhaps your phone has such a mode?
You could set up an apple watch to only notify you for texts and calls with no other notifications or health information. I would hope smart watches like the new Google one could be configured the same.
For years with regular cellphones before the iPhone was introduced this was an everyday thing.<p>You would just turn off your smartphone, remove the SIM card and insert it into your previous less-intelligent phone.