My experience and suggestions after living with Mudita Kompakt

Mudita Products
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So been using my Mudita for around a month now and overall it has been a really positive change, screen time is definitely down and I have only been caught out a few times needing things that I cannot get. Being caught out less would be good though so I have some thoughts about some of the key things Mudita can change to make this a truly practical alternative to modern smartphone living. I know Mudita wants to keep things minimal but I think choice can help users with different preferences so they can customise the device. The growing community forming around modding the Mudita is testament to the desire for this to be in the stock phone. Some of these are very simple changes, others more complex but would love to hear thoughts and understand what is possible. These aren’t necessarily in priority order.

  1. The number one thing I would say is adding the publically available data for public transport that most major cities offer to their maps app. It means that I’ll be able to navigate in a way that is not super limited and switching between a sideloaded app that doesn’t work properly and maps itself. I don’t know as well if Mudita could add like google location services only or something as a toggle so we can just have the option for a maps app like citymapper to work properly? Also stops taxi apps working which can be actively unsafe for some people.
  2. Contact Folders - Especially when using two sims, I might want to keep contacts in seperate folders to avoid mixups or just find better use. It is a simple thing but does help me categorise. Also contact display sometimes cuts off details. There should be a setting bar in the contacts app to change this as have been unable to fix. Similarly searching contacts is quite broken and often does not show the contact.
  3. Been pleasantly surprised by the camera in good light, would be cool to be able to get RAW out of it as the sensor is capable and hey I might want to fiddle with it!
  4. Pedometer - yeah I wanna track my steps, its the thing I kind of miss most about a smartphone as it keeps me active and actually helps me tune out. I know there is a background app issue with the Kompakt but would rather have an imperfect app than none at all.
  5. I use Ink OS so I can see what my notifications are but I do think there could be something like this integrated into Mudita stock software and give users the option to choose when its a daily driver. I think also there should be ring tone suggestions for notifications which are either ‘silent’ but shows the notif on homescreen, or vibrate only.
  6. Audio switching - sometimes I can’t select the type of audio I am trying to boost when I am pressing the up volume button - it will select ringer for instance when I want to hear a voicenote. should be an option to switch between them simply.
  7. For Calendar app it should be able to get alerts at custom times before the event. 5 minutes is the only option, this is sometimes not what I want. I might want it a day in advance, or an hour. 5 minutes is often too late.
  8. I think Mudita do need to plan how they’re going to keep phone secure as Android 12 moves out of use over next couple of years. I’ve seen Mudita have answered this before and it might not feel super pressing right now, but it will only get more so. The current scheme isn’t adequate to protect security fully and I know people have sideloaded Android 13 etc. and at some point I do believe the Mudita Kompakt might need to move forward with either a very modern Anrdroid GO (aka lite distro with notif options available for users to choose) or update to 13/14 to keep itself safe or even look at a switch into linux at some point.
  9. Developer options does offer a way to search in settings but that should be a standard option for more basic users.
  10. I notice the phone is pretty slow, not a big issue, I’m trying to reduce usage but in some situations it can be really frustrating. The RAM usage app says it rarely maxes out its RAM but I feel this is possibly as it shows data over several hours, would be nice to know over a shorter time period. I know this slowness is also partially due to Mudita’s agressive battery management which is useful for some, but some of us may prefer different performance schemes to prioritise speed over battery life at certain times - having a simple fast or default choice would be nice. 2GB RAM was enough for an iphone 8 to still be fast even today, 1GB for an Iphone 6! Not expecting the same performance at all but I feel it should be plausible that on a minimal phone I should be able to text without massive delays.
  11. I do also think either enabling virtual RAM as a backup when we hit limits and also making a 4 or 6GB RAM PRO version would probably help future proof it down the line and just make it a bit smoother.
  12. A less sticky case option would be nice!
  13. Mudita ought to create a series of guide videos taking through users on how to do things like side-loading, enabling developer options etc. I think a lot of questions answered here should be put in a central resource and this will help reduce returns.
  14. Enabling video on camera would be nice.
  15. The forum thread creation text box is crazy tiny haha, slightly unrelated.
  16. A Do Not Disturb option different from Offline where the phone is silent (currently only goes to vibrate) but I can get the messages themselves.
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Thank you for sharing this. We really appreciate it when users send us such detailed reviews.
We’re glad to hear that Kompakt has already helped reduce your screen time and supported a more intentional way of using a phone.

You’re absolutely right that there’s a balance to strike. And it’s important to remember that Mudita Kompakt was designed as a minimalist phone FIRST, and wasn’t really intended to be a fully customizable, build-your-own smartphone experience.
So, that means some features are intentionally limited, even if that can feel restrictive at times, especially when coming from years of modern smartphone convenience.

At the same time, we do recognize that people use their phones in very different contexts, cities, and lifestyles, and feedback like yours helps us better understand where small, thoughtful improvements could make Kompakt more practical without compromising its core philosophy. :slight_smile:

That said, we REALLY appreciate you sharing both what’s working well and where you feel there’s room to grow. I’ve already passed it on to the team.

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I think honestly though, its the difference between Mudita and lets say a true dumbphone - the reason it costs so much more, is because it does have a potential for greater capabilities and could be adapted to fit needs. I assume you guys use agile methodologies like many tech companies and given the amount of similar questions and desire from many users to iron out these flaws, I do believe management need to see the writing on the wall and understand that if we wanted something as minimal as the phone is in its stock version, we would have gotten a true dumbphone which we did not do. They need to see why that is! We could have saved ourselves a lot of money. What different people are asking for is still VERY stripped down from average smartphone use. The core philosophy seems to be applied in a strangling way, its actually become less adaptable rather than more adaptable over time. I just don’t see this as sustainable and it doesn’t seem like your bosses listen even though you really do.

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And it’s important to remember that Mudita Kompakt was designed as a minimalist phone FIRST, and wasn’t really intended to be a fully customizable, build-your-own smartphone experience.
So, that means some features are intentionally limited, even if that can feel restrictive at times, especially when coming from years of modern smartphone convenience.

Wow, what a lazy excuse to not talk about any of the posts suggestions.
I have follow up questions:

  • Why is the do-not-disturb feature intentionally limited?
  • why is the video in the camera intentionally limited?
  • why is the performance and virtual ram intentionally limited?
  • why are user guides and documentation intentionally limited?
  • why are accessibility features for disabled people intentionally limited?
  • why are security patches intentionally limited?

There is just so many different and really crucial points in this list, that all match EXACTLY your design requirements. How can “intentionally limited” be the only answer to this?

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Thank you for following up. However, please, lets keep things civil. There is absolutely no need for confrontational escalation framed as questions.
I want to address this directly, because calling the explanation “lazy” misses what we’re actually trying to communicate.

“Intentionally limited” is not a blanket excuse. It’s the core design principle behind Mudita Kompakt.

Kompakt is not built as a reduced smartphone that happens to be missing features. It’s built as a *different category of device,*one that deliberately resists the patterns, performance expectations, and feature depth of modern smartphones. That decision has consequences across the entire system, from hardware and software architecture to UX, performance, and update cadence.

To your broader point: many of the areas you mention (Do Not Disturb behavior, camera video limits, performance and RAM management, documentation depth, accessibility scope, and security patch cadence) all stem from the same underlying trade-off. Every added layer of complexity increases:

  • system load and background activity
  • maintenance overhead and update dependency
  • attention fragmentation and feature creep

Mudita Kompakt is designed to stay small, stable, predictable, and distraction-resistant over time. That necessarily means saying “no” more often than “yes”, even to features that are standard elsewhere.
That’s why we always acknowledge that we understand that this device is not for everyone & that’s OK.

That doesn’t mean feedback is ignored. It means it’s evaluated through a very specific lens:
Does this meaningfully improve the experience without pushing the device toward smartphone-like behavior?

Some requests pass that test. Others don’t, even if they’re reasonable in a different product category.

That said, we love having discussions with our users in a constructive way & the most helpful direction is to focus on specific use cases where a limitation actively prevents basic, intentional use, rather than framing the philosophy itself as invalid.

We’re always open to thoughtful discussion. We’re not trying to build a phone for everyone, and we’re transparent about that.

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I agree this is not lazy. I think though what we are saying is that a lot of the features I listed above are really fixing broken features rather than adding new ones. I would agree the camera app thing is not a priority but map use, being able to type a text without exaggerated lag and security patches to avoid hacks are not feature creep but literally the very bare basics to avoid real harm. They are by definition just ways to use the existing device for less time, or more efficiently. Security and maps working for public transport are particularly important as a safety feature.

If this is considered as too much, your test might be too stringent and it would be nice to talk to the tech team to understand why they are so dogmatic about where they draw the line! Are they open to being wrong? If not, why? Similarly, if they don’t want to do it this way but are happy for us to modify it, are there ways to make it easier for the community?

  • Some of us are ok with added system load/ battery drain if we can choose when we apply it, especially if it means we can put our phones down more quickly. As an option it really helps intentional use.
  • DnD behaviour in the form of a silent mode rather than a vibrate mode would surely not add load?
  • Android provide security patches for updated android versions so it would surely not increase maintenance overhead? We are happy to do updates if it makes our phones safe, or even less-regular security patches, just as long as there are SOME!
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Thank you for stepping in and for framing this in a more constructive way. This kind of discussion is genuinely helpful, even when there’s disagreement.
I’m on the same page as you. Refinement & ease of use, is different than adding, let’s say public transport ticket app or a parking pay app (which are really useful for those who use them).

On security specifically: Kompakt is not a standard Android smartphone with Google services and the same exposure surface. That doesn’t mean security isn’t taken seriously. It means it’s handled differently, and not all mitigation looks like regular upstream Android patch drops. I understand why that can feel uncomfortable, and it’s a fair concern, but it’s not accurate to equate “different approach” with “no concern”.

Our Managing Director @michalstasiuk discussed this at length in another thread:

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I think we are underestimating and walking around the fact that there seems to be one embedded developer in the team if I’m not wrong, and it’s not just for MK, but for a range of products possibly. This + procedural overhead in sw engineering may add to the impressions things are slow, which doesn’t mean the dev is slow himself, no offence.

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I mean on the security front I will have to second to others as it isn’t my field of expertise, but I know many have expressed concern that apps will at some point stop running too and that whilst the exposure surface is smaller, the depth of risk on these small areas will only grow.

For me ticket apps largely do work, but it is more lets say in New York, Paris, Barcelona, Warsaw, London you want to find out how to get from A to B using public transport - really important but currently maps only gives, walking, cycling or driving which aren’t plausible methods for many. Refining the stock apps to works of art is important, but that would involve lets say adding more to them to make them deeper and that I think is completely valid.

Improving performance to ‘lock in’ to work sometimes does also help as would having aurora store built in but perhaps uninstallable to make it easier for people to setup the phone and reduce your returns. Same reason I suggested the guides videos.

Just looked btw, they have at least a team of 10 or so @buiosu

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1 embedded, 1 frontend, 2 UX/UI, 2 QA, 1 hw eng, 2 PM - that’s what I see; I’m not much into software development job titles but to me it sounds like 1 person writes the actual software mechanics of the OS/apps.

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Ah, you perhaps looked more carefully than I did, I mean yeah that perhaps looks like more of a resource allocation issue than anything else and does raise the question whether part of this is a lack of time more than anything!

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