No calls, no voicemail, no email, no bluetooth, no apps, no touch. I only want to send/receive SMS. I envision something like 2-way pagers used to work. Radio network or phone network is not as much of a big deal to me, as long as I can interface with SMS.<p>What are my options? All of the pager service sites I found have broken pages and contacts, and their hardware costs 1996 money with AA battery slots.<p>By "modern" I mean things like this:<p>- encrypted transit, when using a gateway to send from radio to SMS.<p>- rechargeable via USB or solar, not AA battery swapping. AA is fine if it can be charged in device.<p>- microsd or some type of removable storage for contacts, maybe message storage<p>- 6 line screen instead of 2 or 3<p>- LED backlight or Indiglo type illumination of characters<p>- something e-paper like would be cool from a practicality perspective, but this would likely hurt the price.<p>- some form of water/dust/lint resistance would be a big plus.
I'm actually building something like this this year. I will likely be open sourcing it so you can build your own as well. But it's worth spelling out _why_ you want that limited functionality set (i.e. threat model, if that's your driver). There are scenarios where you can decouple your physical location and still Tx/Rx text messages, but with some limitations and caveats. But if you are fine with carrier tracking (and everyone else they sell that data to), it may be pretty simple to build yourself today. Ping me if you'd like to keep up with the project or want a data dump of my research thus far.
Unihertz Titan Pocket/Slim are bar phones with physical keyboards and Android. They don't match your criteria that closely, but they are the most distinct offerings that I've seen in the past few years.
> No calls, no voicemail, no email, no
> apps, no touch. Rechargeable is a plus. I
> envision something like 2-way pagers used
> to work. Radio network or phone network
> is not as much of a big deal to me.<p>So what is this device suppose to do if it doesn't connect to any wireless networks? Just take text notes?<p>Or, do you mean that you do want ONLY texting? But then you need all your friends to have one of these devices to text with you as well.<p>Texting phones & Blackberries, and only later, generic smartphones, replaced for 99% of all industies, pagers. Pagers are still a thing only for industies that never bothered changing or had some esoteric requirements (pagers are suppose to use a lower frequency that passes thru thick walls better.)<p>They still sell basic texting phones. SMS only
They still use pagers in the medical industry if that helps your search. I support a service that uses them for communicating with patients and doctors on-site from nurse stations and for relaying alerts. They're often issued as needed for temporary use.
Why not get a phone with long battery life, like some of the cheap androids from companies like unihertz or a Nokia with keios. Then forward automatically all calls to your voicemail that just have a message saying this number don't take calls.<p>Then use sms or any messenger of your choice.
not clamshell, satellite texting device:<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Protection-Globalstar-Subscription-Applicable/dp/B07DYC1PGR" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Protection-Globalstar-Subsc...</a><p>maybe you need to build your own device from a 4g module, arduino, etc.