I’ve been using minimalist launchers for a while, and they do help.
But I wanted to push the idea a bit further.
Not just make the home screen cleaner.
I wanted the whole phone to feel like a different object.
So I built a Nokia-style launcher around that idea.
The point is not really nostalgia, even though I love the old Nokia vibe.
The point is friction.
When I open my phone, I don’t want it to feel like a portal into infinite content.
I want it to feel more like a tool.
So instead of only removing icons and making things minimal, I’m trying to rebuild the interaction around a simple-phone mindset:
T9-style navigation.
Text-first UI.
Basic functions always close.
Less visual stimulation.
And eventually more built-in stuff, so you don’t have to constantly jump back into the normal smartphone interface.
You still keep Android.
You still keep Maps, banking, WhatsApp, Spotify, camera, everything you actually need.
But the layer you interact with every day feels much closer to an old Nokia than a modern smartphone.
That is basically the experiment.
Can we get some of the benefits of a dumbphone without actually giving up the smartphone?
The launcher is already usable right now.
I’m still building it, so if you already use minimalist launchers or dumbphones, I’d genuinely like to know what feels useful, annoying, or missing.
This is how it look like