We carry them with us everywhere, and they keep us glued to the screen for long periods of time. It probably takes longer than recommended, which is why apps pop up from time to time that try to help us avoid getting so trapped.

Therefore, the aim is not to get rid of our mobile addiction by offering us basic mobile phones adapted to new times. This is an interesting alternative and is widely used by some brands (Nokia is a prime example), but there are even crazier concepts.

But in this case, the goal is to take advantage of the applications and settings. They’re turning our flashy smartphones into slightly less attractive handsets. In a more monotonous way. We’ll still have access to all the options we currently have, but the goal is to try not to draw too much attention to ourselves.

The iPhone’s accessibility settings let you apply color filters and leave the screen monochrome. A drastic decision, but one that will definitely make the screen capture us less.

How to achieve such a thing? There’s some good advice on the iPhone from Harrison Broadbent, a software engineer who literally creates a website. Apple dedicated to “simplifying” mobile. It highlights how to get a slightly less flashy iPhone; The steps are simple and repeatable on Android phones:

minimalist launcher

What grabs us in the first place is the home screen, so the aim is to turn it into something much more minimalist and simple. This is what can be achieved on iOS with Dumbify, a launcher that’s limited to displaying a list of apps in a plain background (there are paid alternatives like Blank Spaces or On Point).

There are alternatives on Android that do exactly the same thing, such as Olauncher or Indistract, among others. No icons: Plain, simple text that doesn’t attract too much attention. Although these applications offer to be combined with attractive wallpapers, the aim is once again to prevent distractions, and our second suggestion comes at this point.

plain wallpaper

While it’s great to have great photos as wallpapers, this user thinks it also distracts us and makes us stare at those tiny screens too much.

Using solid backgrounds (dark grey, very light grey) here helps prevent this. He also recommends disabling automatic light/dark modes on iPhone or Android because these modes adjust the color of the dock.

Monochrome screen

The most radical option is to remove the color of the iPhone or Android smartphone, leaving it to function as if it had a monochrome display. According to research, this process, which reduces the anxiety caused by mobile phones, can be done on both platforms. In iOS we can do this with tools called color filters from the accessibility settings.

You don’t even need to do anything to work in black and white in Nothing: the interface itself is designed for this (you can customize it, of course).

On Android this can be done from the Digital Wellbeing options, but on other phones the method is different. For example, it happens on my Huawei P40 Pro+: here it is done from the developer options; Here appears a function that simulates a color space that allows us to choose the “Achromatopsia” option or the same thing, monochromatism. This is very interesting because, for example, the Nothing Phone (pictured) stands out with this type of interface.

Notifications are over

A much more obvious step to prevent our mobile phone from trapping us is to delete all the notifications we can. Disabling them on social networks, for example, can be a surprisingly effective way to ensure we don’t have to take our mobile phone out of our pocket every now and then.

The process of disabling notifications on both iOS and Android is simple, and in the settings of both operating systems it is possible to both disable them all and customize this section so that only those who are really interested in us reach us. One thing is for sure: If you want to avoid distractions, the less the better.

Image | Harrison Broadbent

in Xataka | This is the industry that wants to save us from our “mobile phone and internet addiction”.