Anchor Dumb Phone

A dumb phone, on the phone you already own. Anchor Dumb Phone works like the dumb phones you can buy: a handful of tools on the home screen and nothing else to scroll. The difference is you keep your own device, your number, and the apps you actually rely on, like Maps. No second person to set it up, no account, no subscription. HOW IT WORKS Pick your tools from the same set those phones ship with: Phone, Messages, Camera, Photos, Maps, Music, Podcasts, Notes, Calendar, Clock, Calculator, Weather, Authenticator, Payments, Rides, Email, plus up to three apps of your own. Everything else stays installed and stays closed. Notifications from apps that are not your tools are cleared before they buzz. No browser is ever offered. That is most of what makes a dumb phone work. CHANGING YOUR MIND Turning it off, or adding a tool later, means a wait: a screen that counts down only while it stays open. One, three, six or twelve hours, your choice. Set the phone down and let it run. Open anything else and it pauses. Long enough that it is a decision, not a reflex. TRY IT FIRST Blocking and the home screen run for three days with nothing to pay, and every wait during the trial is five minutes, so you feel how it works before you decide. After that, a single one-time purchase. No subscription. WHAT ALWAYS WORKS Phone calls, including emergency calls. Alarms. Emergency alerts. Android Safe Mode turns the app off on any phone. ACCESSIBILITY SERVICE Anchor Dumb Phone uses Android's AccessibilityService API to see which app is in front, so that an app that is not one of your tools can be sent back to the home screen, and to back out of the Android settings pages that would turn blocking off before its wait is done. It does not read the content of your screen, does not record anything, and sends nothing off the phone. You turn it on yourself in Android's accessibility settings after a disclosure you agree to, and it runs only while blocking is on. It is not an accessibility tool for people with disabilities. PRIVACY No account. The app measures how its own screens are used, to make it better. Your phone usage never leaves your phone: never app names, never what you opened or when. For adults, 18 and older, setting limits on their own phone. Not a parental control.