Alternatives
Products that do what I built a way to live with a dumbphone does
Hey! I know many people are addicted to their smartphones including me, so I built a way to actually use a dumbphone in today's world. You just connect your stuff like whatsapp, email, calendar etc. and can then access them through SMS or voice calling with an AI assistant. There are a lot of apps on smartphones that allow you to reduce screen time but they all require you to fight the desire to not delete them. Even if you are disciplined, it takes away energy from your life that could be used elsewhere. Moving to a dumbphone frees you completely since there is no way to get lost to the…
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2014 · play.google.com
- 2HN
(TL;DR: http://i.imgur.com/LuPHqiN.png) While digging around in drawers that hadn't been touched for decades, I found a wonderful piece of history. The Palm Treo 600 [1] was the Mercedes-Benz of the cellphone 10 years ago, and I was lucky enough to rediscover one.[2] So I decided to restore it to working order, slapping in a T-Mobile SIM[3] and a fresh battery. It worked! It could browse the Internet[4], send/receive text messages[5], make phone calls...[6] The onboard browser even passed Acid1[7,8] and could do some level of JavaScript![9] Unfortunately, most websites…
2015
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Hi all! I'm a 17-year old self-taught developer just starting to tap into the mobile world! :3 This summer, I've worked on a minimalist distance-based alarm clock app that wakes you up before you miss your stop! Check it out here! http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/commuter-buddy/cb9b5107-41e0-4d2b-b0d6-110fe555fc3b Feedback and comments are welcome, thanks :)
2014
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My parents got super confused when PhonePe (payment app in India) updated their app overnight. They immediately blamed me for "breaking their phone" lol. I had to spend an hour showing them how to use the new design. Same thing happened with WhatsApp video calls. I realized this is a common problem - we teach our parents tech stuff once, but they forget because they don't practice enough. So I made this tool that lets my parents practice using apps through step-by-step tutorials at their own pace. No one rushing them, no one judging. The goal? Help my parents feel more confident with…
2025 · teach-your-parents-smartphone.com
- 14MA
Long time lurker, short time member. A few weeks ago I released my new Android app, SemiSilent, which allows you to whitelist contacts so that they ring your phone even when it's on silent mode. I've found it useful when on call or when my wife is working hours that I'm sleeping. I've already released a few updates, and I'm working on adding a few more based on feedback I've gotten. I'd appreciate any feedback you'd have, whether it's feature requests, criticisms, thoughts on how to market, or any other wisdom you'd care to share. My site with information:…
2011
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I recently prototyped a web game for a nonprofit to highlight the dangers of phone addiction, but unfortunately I ended up making a really addictive game instead. :-\ I'm sharing this here mainly to serve as an indicator of what can be achieved early-2026 by a senior dev working with Opus 4.7 over 2 days using genuinely collaborative prompting. (ie plan->feedback->iterate) Hope it provides some inspiration or entertainment - there's a level editor too - maybe Hacker Newsers could share their favourite creations here? PS: If there's enough demand I'm happy to Open Source this (or DM me) -…
May 2026 · downtime.partridge.works
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I have a bit of phone anxiety, and have a ton of dread around making phone calls to restaurants, banks, doctors, and so on and on. I thought: AI could do this with a web form turned into a prompt. Stack started out simple -> using 11labs for voice + claude + twillio, but it actually got rather complex (even though I tried vibe coding most). First off, finding the phone numbers quickly is hard. This is done by scraping the web with some basic duckduckgo search and structure with openai calls. Second, collecting the right information. I’m still struggling a bit with this but the architecture…
Feb 2026 · byephone.io
- 17MA
Hi everyone! First time posting. I built this mini memory game in an attempt to beat lazy memory syndrome. because when was the last time you remembered what you did the day before purely based on memory (or without being prompted) ? Super simple fun game for giving our brains a quick workout and actually reminding it on how to remember. If you had those old Nokia phones from the early 90s, the game will seem insanely familiar to you
Sep 2025 · shraddhabuiltitwithai.com
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Hello there! I hope you're doing well today! I wanted to share something with you. Recently I was on the hunt for the best way to journal daily. Well, I had this idea - what if I could feed all my daily entries to an AI (ChatGPT), and create a friendly, supportive character like Socrates or Simon Sinek? This way, I could ask any questions about my life and mental health, and get some amazing advice on how to improve myself! The results have been absolutely mind-blowing ! I even made a short GIF to show you how it works - check it out! - https://gifyu.com/image/SdHLH I've…
2023
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I spend way too much time reading emails and scheduling. I just want something that handles it for me.. without needing a whole new app. So, I’m building this thing that lives in WhatsApp. It helps with emails, scheduling, todo lists etc.. right from my whatsapp. Honestly, I feel like batman with alfred at my sevice lol. Still veryyy early, but I wanted to check if others would be intrested. Would love to hear what you think. <3
2025 · orbi-beta.vercel.app
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Good morning HN, Today we’re launching a free public beta for Vibrato, a consumer AI assistant that makes phone calls for you. The phone calls can be simple, like making an appointment, to complex, like negotiating a lower utility bill. As far as I know, this is the first time consumers have had the ability to make general calls with AI. We’re launching with two major features: - a task library, where you can immediately have Vibrato perform a specific task that we’ve vetted, like making a doctor’s appointment or reducing your Comcast cable internet bill. - a GPT for ChatGPT (Plus…
2023 · getvibrato.com
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Hey there HN! Happy to share a piece of my labor I've been working on for the past 6 months. The idea for the app came to me when I found out that taking notes in Telegram saved messages and private channels is pretty convenient, but it became a mess real quick. Imagine accidentally sending your to-do list to your boss? And there were no work-related stuff, haha So I decided to solve this pain point of mine by creating a little app, just as a side project. But then I lost my job due to a layoff, so I decided to triple down on my idea, polish it, and make it a SaaS in the hope of making it…
2024 · feeedy.com
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hey hacker news! no matter what I have tried, nothing actually got rid of spam calls. built an AI agent that picks up your phone to filter out these spammers dynamically. next on the roadmap is automating scheduling
2025 · apps.apple.com
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