My Thoughts on What Mudita Should Build Next

Mudita Products Privacy and Security
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The future depends on you
I’ve been a Mudita Kompakt owner since day one, and I genuinely love what this phone does for me. It’s helped me become much more intentional with how I spend my time—that alone makes it worthwhile.
Here’s where I see opportunity for you: the e-ink smartphone competition of 2025 is quieting down. Minimal is stepping back. BigMe isn’t trustworthy for privacy-focused users. Hisense stays locked in the Chinese market. That leaves a genuine opening for Mudita to establish itself as the go-to choice in this space.
But to be fair —the window of opportunity doesn’t mean everything is perfect. There’s still important work ahead to truly capture this moment.

Issue No.1: What are your core strengths?
I get what you’re trying to do with your phone — you focus on the minimal and privacy niche. But here’s the thing: the companies doing well in this space tend to specialize. Either they nail the OS (think e/oS, LineageOS, GrapheneOS), or they build solid e-ink hardware (like Dasung or Modos). Your OS has character and feels intentional, but I wonder if you can keep pace with competitors who focus exclusively on one side of this equation. The phone itself looks great, honestly—sleek and distinctive—but it’s operating power is only designed for the limited software experience.

Issue No.2: Your carved niche is too restrictive.
Here’s my concern: the current phone targets a small group of people who want extreme minimalism AND struggle with open environments. But what about everyone else who’s fine with Android but just wants the e-ink friction added in? Making users jump through loops to install an app store, sideloading apps, sync contacts, get their essential apps working—that’s the opposite of minimal. It shouldn’t be this complicated.

Software: Give People Choice
I think you should offer both options

Option A: Standard Android
Just vanilla Android. Nothing added, nothing removed. Honestly, lots of users would trust you more than BigMe or Boox if you offered this.

Option B: Mudita OS (or Another Degoogled Alternative)
Keep developing your own OS, but also leave doors open for e/oS, LineageOS, and similar options. This appeals to people worried about Big Tech privacy or who cannot manage more open environments. There are many improvement ideas for the Mudita OS, but I will not go there now.

Hardware: Make it a comfortable and unique experience

Cameras
You need strong front and back cameras with a good quality, comparable to other non-flagship smartphones. Otherwise, people will keep carrying a separate camera anyway. Front camera is non-negotiable for online banking setup and video calls. For privacy-focused users, maybe design an integrated physical cover or work with cases that have shutters. Something physical.

5G Connectivity
Include it. Users who worry about EMF can turn it off themselves. Don’t preemptively exclude features people might actually want.

Eink Screen
The eink screen is great and a must. But current display is just too small and really only fits the ultra-minimalist crowd. I’d push for something slightly bigger. It should have black/white and color options. Have you considered collaborating with Modos? Their experience could help you build something unique.

Offline Switch (This One Annoys Me Personally)
The phone frequently goes offline when in my pocket. I would realize it much later and have missed calls because of this. Two fixes come to mind:
• Limit what gets blocked (camera, Bluetooth, mic, Wi-Fi) but keep cellular network active
• Move the switch somewhere it won’t accidentally flip.

Bottom line:

I want Mudita to succeed here. The vision is compelling. But right now it feels like the product is solving for a tiny fraction of users while creating frustration for everyone else. Make it easier, give people real choices, and the market will be wider than you think.

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I was wondering something similar. I don’t know enough about Graphene OS, but was wondering whether it might be easier/feasible to keep a cutdown version of this in sync with latest security updates to avoid being locked into Android 12.

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Damn, I don’t understand why so many people want bigger screens and devices. The current Kompakt is already too big and heavy for me. It’s almost like carrying a brick around in my pocket, even though it’s still relatively small compared to other devices. So I leave it in the car, in my backpack, or at home – which kind of defeats the purpose of a mobile phone.

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With room improvement Mudita invites innovation. The roadmap looks good.
I got the phone to use as a phone and, as an e-ink screen phone, it is less distracting.

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Every single one of the “improvements” you mentioned are exactly why I bought the Kompakt. Especially the offline switch and screen size.

It appears you just bought it because you wanted an eink screen device.

Here’s my hopes for future Mudita ….. keep doing what you are doing, develop the software, maybe make the device smaller / slimmer long term, but please remain true to keeping to the original premise of the phone, minimal by design and focused on privacy.

There are many choices for those that want stock Android large colour screens, and access to every app under the sun.

For those of us who don’t the options are much slimmer.

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Graphene os will only run on pixel devices, and soon a new Motorola model built specifically for it.

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@mudita.blunt818 Thank you for taking the time to write all of this down and share such thoughtful, detailed feedback. There’s a lot here for us to reflect on, and I’ll make sure your comments make their way to the team.

What you describe actually touches on something we hoped to achieve with Mudita Kompakt from the very beginning. We wanted to create an intentional, privacy-conscious E-Ink device without making digital minimalism synonymous with simply restricting what people are able to do.

Interestingly, when Mudita Kompakt first launched, we also heard criticism from the opposite direction. Some people felt that allowing sideloading at all made the device not minimalist enough. That coming from a device, like Mudita Pure, we were basically making an Eink smartphone. That really highlighted something we continue to see within our community: digital minimalism means different things to different people. What one person considers an essential utility might be exactly the kind of functionality another person is trying to get away from. For example, I always say this (but since you’re new here- WELCOME btw): I’ve never used banking apps- EVER. I’ve never paid with my phone (NFC) I don’t see the point. I have cash & cards, and I do my banking online, on my laptop at home. To some people that sounds bonkers, because we’re in 2026 & people we tell me that I’m missing out. But since I never used it, I don’t see the need to try it. LOL But that’s just me.

Finding the right balance between simplicity, privacy, flexibility, and user choice is something we think about a great deal, so perspectives like yours are genuinely useful.

I’d also be very curious to hear what others in the community think about the broader question behind this discussion:

Should digital-minimalist hardware decide what users can do, or should it simply make it easier for users to decide for themselves?

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Ditto. You’re not alone.

I lean towards the latter. But many options may carry the risk of undermining simplicity—minimalism.

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The latter, given that digital-minimalist hardware makers such as Sunbeam Wireless and Mudita can never know every user’s individual situation.

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@kirkmahoneyphd I have to say, I agree with you :slight_smile:

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Users should be able to make the choice themselves yes, I completely agree. You already have those choices with every other phone on the market. I can limit screen time on social media, change the launcher and the colour scheme to black and white on my iPhone, So why buy the Kompakt?

All those who bought the Kompakt knew what the were buying into, no google, no selfie camera limited set of apps with the ability to sideload anything that can run within to confines of the stripped back version of Android, that the device ships with. Unfortunately this forum is filled with “yes but can you please make it possible, for me to do this, or run this app’.

It’s not really even about people’s interpretation of what minimalism is, it’s more about many users fooling themselves into believing they want to drop away from their smartphone, when in actual fact they just want to make it look like they have, by being able to say, look at my minimal phone, it has an eink screen, whilst still retaining all the functionality of any other smartphone.

If you took all the requests for change to the Kompakt, this one included and implemented them you would basically have the latest Samsung galaxy or iPhone.

This device is niche yes and that’s what sets it apart. There are masses of phones with stock android, access to the playstore nfc, front facing camera etc etc they are called smartphones.
Please do not dilute the intent behind the concept of the Kompakt “the phone that wants you to use it less” by making it exactly the opposite.

On a side note Apple have never listened to requests from users, every design choice has been driven by them to steer users towards their vision, it doesn’t seem to adversely affect them. Stick to the plan Mudita, that’s why most of us are here.

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@sundancermartin
I think what makes Mudita Kompakt interesting is that its defaults, hardware, interface, and limitations create friction. The E-Ink screen makes endless visual consumption less appealing. There is no Google ecosystem waiting for you out of the box. There is no front-facing camera. The device is deliberately less stimulating.

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I’m seeing that reaction amongst Light Phone users now that official sideloading support is on their roadmap.

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Amen. These folks should go out and buy a Bigme, Hisense, or TCL eink phone. Then install whatever they want on it (or don’t want on it). They’re 5G, have Google Play store, NFC, a nice camera, etc etc. Those devices are a mid-range Android phone with an eink screen.

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Strongly disagree with @karl and @kirkmahoneyphd here, and strongly agree with @sundancermartin .

If the choice is there, your mind cannot be “at rest”. Given a choice, your mind will be constantly (perhaps subconsciously) pondering that choice. Ignoring the fact that you might finally give in, that constant pondering is exhausting in itself.

If you’re trying to cut down on your alcohol consumption, keeping alcohol at home will either result in you finally pouring yourself a drink, or torturing yourself every time you think of it.

I agree with @urszula that the friction is important in going minimal, but friction can be having to go home to your computer to check that Reddit or Instagram post. Not sneakily installing a sideloaded .apk “just to check this one thing” (yeah, sure!) :slight_smile:

But what the Kompakt does, it should do perfectly. Good keyboard, calendar sync, etc… I’m personally waiting for the Kompakt to reach a level of polish that allows me to use it without even thinking. Something that I have found (surprisingly) since switching to an iPhone : it just works, the default settings make sense, and I never spend any time tweaking it, playing with settings, or circumventing bugs (which I did constantly with my de-googled Androids). In that way the iPhone is more minimalist for me than a phone that I have to constantly fiddle with.

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The iPhone is a very polished device, and if used stock with just base apps, and some of them removed, it can work well as a minimal phone. When I still used mine I stripped it down to basic by removing things like Apple Watch and all of the unnecessary junk blocked all social media and doom scrolling sites and got my wife to change the PIN code and not tell me what it was

It worked quite well, but where I personally found it lacking, was privacy, the tracking and date capture of the iPhone is off the scale and very intrusive. So I switched to a degoogled pixel and then to the Kompakt, I can’t see me ever going back to a smartphone.

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Talking about other products, I think Mudita could be able to make an e-ink PC monitor. There’s market for that, if they wanted to do it it would be cool.

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Agreed. With a protective case it is almost too big :rofl:. Funny, not funny…the minimalist crowd is among the hardest to please. Not sure what Mudita could do better - so much flexibility, privacy but a well designed core with a coherent vision.

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I find that most smartphones are slim but huge in every other dimension, to the point they cannot be used single handedly.

The Kompakt is very comfortable to hold and pocketable, although a bit chunky in its girth, it is also quite lightweight. So I don’t mind its slightly thicker form, when compared to my iPhone we are only talking about a few mm anyway.

I do agree that the Mudita case does add to its size though, which is why I made my own.

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I started a discussion on this, feel free to check it out. Something I didn’t add but have thought about is the fact that Mudita is specifically designed as a lightweight phone focused on mindfulness. Using a GrapheneOS base with their UI as a fork seems more directed for people that want E-Ink devices (with full Android capability). However, if you’re not super tech savvy, having a GrapheneOS base with Mudita’s app store and the basic defaults that the Kompact currently is, would steer most users towards using it the same as they do now. For those more in the know on tech, familiar with sideloading, and wanting a (mostly) fully capable GrapheneOS level phone but with an E-Ink display, they could easily use it as such.

I know some people don’t want the option at all because it’s a temptation, and it’s the reason they got a Mudita phone: to get rid of distractions. Having the option as I’ve described above, however, does expand user market. Personally, I’d like the fully capable device using an E-Ink display (colored preferred), but I totally get and understand the functionally restricted and minimized black & white only approach too. In fact my spouse is how I found out about Mudita, because these are the exact features my spouse wanted.

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