First of all, I’m loving my Mudita Kompakt so far. It’s been about two weeks, and I’m already sleeping better, and I notice my attention span and mood improving. I really appreciate the mission of the people who created this phone. That said, here are some (hopefully) helpful suggestions for future updates. This all comes from a place of love to allow users more digital freedom.
OS:
Continued improvements to address screen sensitivity and avoid pocket dialing
In just two weeks, I’ve lost count of people I’ve apologized to because I pocket-dialed them in the middle of the night.
Open contact cards when selecting names on “Recent calls” instead of automatically dialing
Scrolling through call logs, I frequently and accidentally call the wrong person.
Reduced latency (especially with typing)
I know this is super obvious, and it might be a hardware limitation due to the screen, so take it with a grain of salt. Typing is not always the biggest issue, but it does lead to more spelling mistakes. And I frequently end up calling the wrong person because there’s a significant delay when call logs refresh.
Calendar:
Increase options for notifications
One option for a 5-minute heads-up is just not enough. I would like to be able to change the notification interval to 1 hour or 1 day, set more than one, and have them repeat as needed.
Calendar syncing
Could sync with Apple/Google calendars via the Mudita desktop app or sync directly with email (more on that later)
Chess:
Difficulty tweaking
I know there are probably chess gurus on here who will quickly tell me to get better and quit being a baby, but the difficulty settings here seem pretty off. On similar chess apps I’ve played in the past, I was playing at an advanced level, but on the Mudita chess app, I simply can’t keep up with anything above 950 ELO.
Checkmate/Draw adjustments
I like using the chess app to help me learn new moves and strategies, and the undo button is pretty handy for that. However, whenever a game ends with a checkmate screen, there is no undo option, and the bulky notification blocks the whole board, so I can’t even see the final move from my opponent.
2-player mode
You don’t need online or another phone to play multiplayer on the go. Just make both sides operable by human players who can pass the phone back and forth.
SMS:
Group texting fix
This is a big one. I’m not sure how to navigate getting group texting to work without jumping through major hoops. Please make this work out of the box with future OS updates.
E-reader:
Working page links
I’m not talking about web links that open up a browser. I just want to be able to navigate certain e-books more efficiently. Right now, I’m reading the Bible, and while I have no trouble jumping between books, I can’t utilize the link page at the start of each book to jump between chapters. I just have to scroll manually until I get to the right chapter. No small task, especially if you’re reading through Genesis or Psalms!
Email:
Okay, I know this one is controversial based on the forums, but hear me out. I’m a freelancer who makes my own work hours. Outside of those hours, I’m out running errands, spending time with my family, volunteering at my church, or enjoying the outdoors. The Kompakt has given me my freedom back in a lot of those areas by reducing distractions in my life. Except for one. The need to check my work emails. No matter what I’m doing, I’m always carrying with me a need to get to my laptop to make sure I’m not missing any important communications. I feel like the lack of an email app contradicts Mudita’s design purpose of giving us back our digital freedom.
Think about it. We still get text messages. Hyperlinks don’t work, and we can’t send or download files besides photos that look like they were taken with a GameBoy camera. It’s just enough to get by and keeps us connected with others. I don’t know why Mudita doesn’t take the same minimalist approach with email. Mudita could even set boundaries by making it only accessible when connected to WiFi.
I know many of you are also thinking, “Why don’t you just sideload an email .apk?” One word: security. Email carries some of our most sensitive information. Maybe I’m just ill-informed or tech-deficient, but I don’t fully trust a sketchy Outlook .apk file I didn’t get directly from Microsoft. I also just want one that’s designed to work specifically with MuditaOS without syncing or latency issues.
Cannot resist to say that if you have sensitive information in Outlook, then the mail app you use should be the least of your worries (because, yes, Outlook is really bad).
But that’s not helping. So here’s my proposal:
You sideload “F-droid”, which is quite trustworthy.
From F-droid, you install “Thunderbird”, which is also trustworthy and you configure it to fetch your Outlook email.
Thunderbird works really well on the Mudita. It’s clear and crisp. This should solve your problem.
There’s also something I consider a feature : on the Mudita, Thunderbird will not fetch emails unless I open it and swipe towards the bottom of the screen to force a sync. Which means that I see emails when I want to.
2b) Alternatively, if you don’t want Thunderbird but you want the official Outlook app, in F-Droid, install “Aurora Store”. Aurora Store is an app that give you access to the Google Play Store. So you can install Outlook without worrying about security. Obviously, I didn’t test the Outlook app on the Mudita but I wouldn’t expect much.
If I were you, I would really try the Thunderbird way.
@ploum, I second your endorsement of Thunderbird – not only for computers running Windows or Ubuntu, for example, but also for those who “must” have email access on a Kompakt.
My advice for anyone who is unsure about “needing” to access email from a Kompakt? See whether you can get along without that access!
Regarding the custom ringtones : I really hope there will be a possibility to have DISTINCT RINGTONES (“advanced mode”)
default ringtone
ringtone for unknown / hidden numbers
custom contact ringtone
It would really help a lot in dealing with interruptions. (you know if something is really important - custom contact ringtone - or probably spam or unimportant - unknown / hidden number.
As for the audio player, it would be nice that :
by default, albums are played according to the “track number” ID3 tag
if absent, it would fall back to the alphabetical file name (and not track name !) - and deal correctly with numbering (i.e. : 11 > 2)
After that, it will be pretty perfect to me actually, now that I’ve sorted out my VoLTE issues (carrier related).
I feel that the maps app is not really release-ready because it lacks the ability to enter the origin location. This and public transit are very high on my wishlist. Take a look at the wonderful work comaps is doing at codeberg
Group texting is still not working for me. If I can’t figure this out in the next week I think I will have to return the fund for a refund sadly. Even if RCS is unsupported, this basic group message functionality is crucial.
I want to like this phone and I want to recommend it to my very curious peers, but I don’t feel comfortable doing that yet. Thanks for reading
@Little-User Have you tried using the transit app from your city? Integrating this info to the native Mudita Maps might be challenging, but I will pass this info on to our team.
I have but it isn’t optimized well for the eink display.
However, this should take higher priority. Maps doesn’t always know where I am even with A-GPS enabled. I can’t use this app for bike navigation as long as users aren’t able to to enter their origin.
I can’t seem to send SMS to a phone number directly. Apparently it has to be a contact. This is another high-priority issue that affects the core functionality of the application; users should be able to text phone numbers.
There are apparently several methods to receive sms alerts when an email is received from specific people or anyone depending on how it is configured.
Thunderbird is an excellent choice, I have been using it on computers for years. Regarding the lack of an email client and the minimal phone concept, many people don’t want to have constant notifications, and having a ping from their phone whenever an email is received is exactly why they own a phone like the Kompakt. The ability to sideload apps and tailor it to the users needs is why the Kompakt is such a brilliant device
I’m not sure what is happening in your specific situation, but you can 100% text to numbers that are not in your contact list. I just tested it on two different phones with unsaved numbers- both local & international.
I appreciate you trying to recreate my issue. To recreate this behavior I can copy a number from my mudita contacts, deleted the contact, open SMS, click the + icon in the top right, and paste the number into the recipient field.
After some experimenting, I believe this is a simple RegEx issue with delimiters. If I remove all spaces and hypens from the number, I can send a number directly. See photo below:
Phone numbers are typically formatted with spaces, hypens, parentheses, and dots (the phone itself uses these conventions), so the SMS recipient field should appropriately input mask delimiters.
It is interesting that your phone permits a space between the country code and the phone number. For me, I cannot send a message until I remove that space. I wonder if this is limited to NA phones. Can any users in North America try to recreate my bug?
So, if I am understanding your issue correctly, then your mostly experiencing this when you copy/paste?
Does this also happen when you manually enter the number?
Such an easy solution to OP’s email problem.
