Hey everyone, I was entertaining the thought of going away from owning a smart phone.
I already have a modded ipod classic that I use as my main music player.
I also know how to use a paper map.
I also have the Microsoft authentication app for work (I could just use my phone on wifi mode for this)
The last issue I have is WhatsApp where I communicate with friends and family around the world.
Is there a way to use WhatsApp on a non-smart phone? Or should I just buy a pixel and install a secure rom?
You must not have been born in the 70s or 80s. It’s really easy. Step 1, replace your smart phone with a flip phone. This concludes all your steps.
I’m born in that era, and where I live, I must authorize bank transactions via app, pay parking tickets through an app, use an app for public transport, and need to scan a QR code that’s changing every 90 seconds to access my gym.
There is no workaround for the parking app, other than inconveniencing myself and staying at malls exclusively. The gym doesn’t have an alternative either. I could surely switch, but that’s the only option.
For banking, sure, I could do stuff over the counter like some octogenarian, wasting time getting there and waiting in line. That changes a 20 second procedure into a minimum 1h long one, provided whatever I’m trying to pay happens during service hours of my bank. No thanks.
Public transport would be the easiest, though that only applies for subways and trains where counters and vending machines exist. At bus stops we don’t have those, and drivers aren’t selling tickets anymore. You must board with a valid ticket, which usually only works through an app, unless you have a monthly ticket that can still be bought as a paper pass.
Not so easy for someone who was born and raised in a time and place where key services all rely on smartphones (especially the WhatsApp for family communications)
Tell the family to stop being cheap bastards and to pay their damn cell phone bills already, so that you don’t have to keep using that Meta-owned crap.