Feedback on Mudita Kompakt

My use case: A privacy-centric device that has fundmental communications functionality (signal, whatsapp, browser, etc) while maintaining an addiction-proof e-ink display.

Love the Kompakt for this use case. I added a ton of apps including Futo keyboard for voice to text dictation (offline, privacy respecting!) and the phone work really well.

Some improvements I would like to see to the OS/phone:

  1. while its off, the phone frequently buzzes as if someone is touching the power button. This is really annoying - it kcould be the side of my khand brushing the phone in my pocket, or just me moving the phone that activates this. I would like to have the option to have fingerprint reading only when pressing the power button to prevent this.
  2. being able to move the app icons order on the device would be really useful
  3. no widgets at all - i have some stock price widgets i would love to have on my display but that option is not available in the mudita launcher.
  4. an easy way to close apps - right now if i run my gallery app and then another image app, all i can do is click on the home button (leaving both apps open unnecessarily). Wopudl love to have a simple menu to close apps im not using at that moment (going in settings is not convenient).
  5. calendar: You can’t add an alarm for more than 5 minutes before a meeting! Please revise to allow alamrs for events 1 hour, 30 minutes, 15 minutes before the meeting.
  6. the camera is very bad in low light. I know this isnt a multimedia device, but sometimg i need to share a document, image, etc and it doesnt take good pictures at all. at least have a flash icon i can easily turn on when in the camera app to have more light.
  7. the camera doesnt allow to take videos. no idea why, i installed open camera from fdroid and it takes videos just fine, so why remove that option?
  8. notifications don’t exist - i hear the sound, but have no idea which app just generated it, was it whatsapp? signal? another app? i have to check all of them. IF this is due to the no-google services, then I am happy to live without notifications.
    Those are my feedback points!

don’t get me wrong, I love the device and am only posting this here because i care about the brand and product!

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to check notifications try sideloading notificationslog from f-droid

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I’m confused why it tries to read the fingerprint without the button even being physically pressed in. It would seem to make a lot more sense to read the fingerprint when the button is actually pressed, not just touched by something conductive.

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I agree, and I hope that the Mudita developers can accommodate this with an update to MuditaOS K.

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This is an essential change. It’s extremely irritating as it is now, and I’ve made a couple of accidental phone calls, and opened several random apps etc.

I think the feedback on this issue has been made clear by many, so hopefully it will be prioritized.

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I think it’s a replicated behavior from other smartphones.

Whether you have a fingerprint sensor on the screen or on the button, it works the same with smartphones.

When using a pocket, I try putting the phone with screen away from my body just in case after what I’ve read here (although I’d suggest not keeping a phone in a pocket close to body in the first place).

I suggest increased scan start delay and slight increase scan duration, hopefully sensitivity can also be adjusted.

Otherwise, moving to always activate sensor with button press seems a necessity.

What I’d like though, there could be no pincode screen after button press. It’s a pity that with finger-based lock I have to go tricky to press the button without activating the sensor if I want to see only the lock screen with time and notifications. Thus, I mostly just unlock to look for notifications.

Edit: Oh, and now I took my phone and unlocked with my finger without having to press the button and without vibration feedback. When it locked, another unlock with the vibration feedback. Dunno why.

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@fdh Thanks so much for sharing such detailed feedback. I keep repeating myself, but FEEDBACK from our users is incredibly valuable because it really does help us make this product better. That said, it’s clear you’ve really explored the potential of the Kompakt & it looks like it works for you.
We love hearing from users like you who care deeply about both privacy and mindful tech use.

hey youre welcome!! I love the product. I think its 80-85% where id like my perfect phone to be in all honesty. Enough to keep me honest (not addicted to screen), but enough for me to operate my digital life (communications, password managers, voice to text, etc etc).

Another thing I just noticed last night - when on the phone lying on ym back, the phone constantly goes to sleep when i’m looking at it from below (phone is above my head while lying down). I think that’s an android feature where if you put the phone down it goes to sleep, except im not putting the phone down , im looking at it from below.

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I can’t reproduce it in daylight by covering top of the bezel with my hand, but every time I put it face-down on the desk, it locks indeed.

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@fdh Are you interacting with the phone & it’s going to sleep? Or are you reading a book (using eReader) and the screen goes to sleep. Can you elaborate more on what you’re doing?