iPhone dumbphone

iPhone dumbphone 2025年9月

I used Apple Configurator to turn my iPhone into a dumb phone. I can only access the apps and websites I want to use, and it’s feeling great! Compared to when I started I’m saving about 2 hours of screen time a day. If I kept this up for a month I promised to write a post about this setup. It’s now two months so here’s my post. What follows is a backstory, observations, and a how-to-guide. To get straight to the how-to-guide, click here. 我利用 Apple Configurator 将我的 iPhone 变成了一部“笨手机”（dumb phone）。现在我只能访问我真正想用的应用程序和网站，感觉棒极了！与刚开始时相比，我每天节省了大约 2 小时的屏幕使用时间。我曾承诺，如果能坚持一个月，就写一篇关于这个设置的文章。现在已经过去两个月了，所以这是我的分享。以下是背景故事、观察心得和操作指南。若想直接查看操作指南，请点击此处。

Motivation 动机

It’s common to rack up 4 hours or more of screen time a day on your phone. Here’s one way to see the cost of that: every 20 years, you lose 5 years of your waking time looking at your phone. This is what had me dreaming about the 2000s and old Nokia phones. But I couldn’t just go back to Nokia. My iPhone gave me Google Maps, Spotify, Uber and Waymo, Kindle and Audible, ChatGPT and Claude, Whatsapp, Wallet. There’s real utility to iPhones. If only access to utilities didn’t mean I’d also have access to social media. I often regretted my time on Twitter and Instagram. It would interrupt my flow states at work and detract from quality time with the people I loved. Even alone time suffered: instead of solitude I found myself checking for notifications. 每天在手机上花费 4 小时甚至更多时间是很常见的。我们可以这样衡量其代价：每 20 年，你就有 5 年的清醒时间是在看手机中度过的。这让我开始怀念 2000 年代和老式诺基亚手机。但我无法真的回到诺基亚时代。我的 iPhone 提供了 Google 地图、Spotify、Uber 和 Waymo、Kindle 和 Audible、ChatGPT 和 Claude、WhatsApp 以及钱包功能。iPhone 确实具有极高的实用价值。如果使用这些工具的同时，不必被迫接触社交媒体就好了。我经常后悔在 Twitter 和 Instagram 上浪费的时间。它们会打断我工作时的心流状态，并减少我与所爱之人共度的美好时光。即使是独处时间也受到了影响：我本该享受宁静，却发现自己总是在查看通知。

Failed Attempts 失败的尝试

I tried and failed to fix this problem three times. Let me enumerate: I tried self-control but I found myself outmatched. On the surface the solution feels simple: why not just stop using distracting apps? For me using self-control here was like a hunter-gatherer using a club in open battle with a nuclear society. Social media companies spent centuries of human effort figuring out ways to get me to check my phone. If I wanted to win, I would need to use guerrilla methods. 我曾三次尝试解决这个问题，但都失败了。让我列举一下：我尝试过依靠自控力，但发现自己根本不是对手。表面上看，解决方案很简单：为什么不直接停止使用那些令人分心的应用呢？对我来说，在这里使用自控力，就像是一个狩猎采集者拿着木棒去对抗一个核能社会。社交媒体公司投入了数百年的人类智慧，研究如何让我不断查看手机。如果我想赢，就必须使用游击战术。

I tried Screen Time but it was too easy to ignore. Apple comes with Screen Time. You can set limits, but I found them useless. Once a limit runs out all you need to unlock your distracting app is to press a button. Do this a few times and you no longer notice the button. 我尝试过“屏幕使用时间”（Screen Time），但它太容易被忽略了。苹果自带了这项功能，你可以设置限制，但我发现它们毫无用处。一旦限额用完，你只需按下一个按钮就能解锁那些令人分心的应用。多按几次之后，你甚至都不会再注意到那个按钮的存在。

I tried switching phones, but couldn’t let go of the long-tail of iPhone apps. There are lots of interesting dumb phones out there. There’s some with e-ink screens that are really cool. But they only have a few apps. There was always some app that I missed. Even with recent Android-based dumbphones, there were still apps that were only available on the iPhone (I am looking at you Things 3). If only I could keep my iPhone, but choose just the apps and the websites that I wanted. 我尝试过更换手机，但无法割舍 iPhone 上那些长尾应用。市面上有很多有趣的“笨手机”，有些带有电子墨水屏，非常酷。但它们的应用太少了，总有一些我离不开的应用。即使是最近基于 Android 的“笨手机”，也依然缺少一些只有 iPhone 才有的应用（比如 Things 3）。如果我能保留 iPhone，但只选择我想要的那些应用和网站该多好。

Apple Configurator to the rescue Apple Configurator 来救场

That’s where I discovered Apple Configurator. Apple Configurator lets organizations deploy specific restrictions onto iPhones. This is what lets Apple Stores restrict the iPhones on display, so you can’t change their wallpaper to something humorous. Configurator is meant for businesses, but nothing stops us from using it personally. And it’s free too! 就在这时，我发现了 Apple Configurator。Apple Configurator 允许组织机构将特定的限制部署到 iPhone 上。这就是 Apple Store 限制展示机功能的原因，这样你就无法把壁纸改成搞怪图片。Configurator 本是为企业设计的，但并没有什么能阻止我们个人使用它。而且它还是免费的！

The Pros of Apple Configurator Apple Configurator 的优点

I found three advantages to using Configurator. The first is that there is real friction to making changes. In order to adjust restrictions, you have to physically connect your iPhone to your laptop and open up a kludgy piece of software. This is cumbersome enough that if you have enough willpower to go through with it, you’ll be level-headed enough to not want too. 我发现使用 Configurator 有三个优点。首先，进行更改时存在真正的阻力。为了调整限制，你必须将 iPhone 物理连接到笔记本电脑，并打开一个笨重的软件。这个过程足够繁琐，如果你有足够的意志力去完成它，那你通常也足够理智，不会真的想去更改设置。

The second is that you can actually disable the App Store! This is a marvelous win. Having an App Store in your home screen is like being dieter with a pastry shop in your kitchen. It’s not a good idea. So no more App Store. And combine that with content filters for websites, and you can really lock down your phone. When you are at your weakest, there’s effectively no way to hack around the restrictions. 第二个优点是你可以彻底禁用 App Store！这是一个巨大的胜利。在主屏幕上放一个 App Store，就像让一个正在节食的人在厨房里开一家糕点店一样，这显然不是个好主意。所以，彻底告别 App Store。再加上针对网站的内容过滤器，你真的可以把手机彻底“锁死”。当你意志最薄弱的时候，基本上没有任何办法绕过这些限制。

And the final win, it’s still an iPhone. This means you can make a dumbphone that fits your needs exactly. There are some apps that sound distracting on the surface, that I just needed plain and simple. For example, my startup uses Discord to talk to users; I want to have it. I want the GitHub app. I want Things3 and Waymo. I want to access specific websites. I can set it all up so my phone is exactly the utility I need it to be. 最后一个优点是，它依然是一部 iPhone。这意味着你可以打造一部完全符合你需求的“笨手机”。有些应用表面上看起来会让人分心，但我确实需要它们。例如，我的初创公司使用 Discord 与用户交流，我需要它；我需要 GitHub 应用；我需要 Things 3 和 Waymo；我需要访问特定的网站。我可以进行所有设置，让我的手机成为我真正需要的工具。

The Cons of Apple Configurator Apple Configurator 的缺点

If you’re getting excited, let me prepare you with two cons. The first is that you have to factory reset your iPhone. You can only set up Apple Configurator with a completely reset phone. This means the initial setup is annoying and will take you a few hours. But perhaps this a good thing too. If you go through this trouble, you’ll be even more motivated to stick with your choices. 如果你现在很兴奋，让我先给你泼两盆冷水。首先，你必须将 iPhone 恢复出厂设置。你只能在完全重置的手机上设置 Apple Configurator。这意味着初始设置过程很烦人，需要花费几个小时。但也许这也是件好事，如果你经历了这些麻烦，你会更有动力坚持自己的选择。

The second is that getting the right setup takes a few weeks, and you may need to rely on others. When you start out you may forget an app or two (or a lot more). For example, I went to my gym the day after I set my restrictions, only to remember that they have a special iPhone to check in. You’ll have lots of little frictions like this. As you do, you’ll improve your configuration so this happens less. It’ll get better but there will still be a long-tail. Maybe you’re at a restaurant and they need you to open a website for example. You may end up having to bug some people around you for their phone. It can be annoying but I haven’t found this to be too troublesome. 第二个缺点是，找到合适的配置需要几周时间，而且你可能需要依赖他人。刚开始时，你可能会忘记保留某个应用（甚至更多）。例如，我在设置限制后的第二天去健身房，才想起他们需要用专门的 iPhone 来签到。你会遇到很多这样的小麻烦。随着时间的推移，你会不断优化配置，这种情况会越来越少。情况会好转，但总会有一些长尾需求。比如在餐厅吃饭时，他们可能需要你打开某个网站。你最终可能不得不麻烦身边的人借用他们的手机。这可能会有点烦人，但我个人觉得这并不算太大的困扰。

Observations so far 目前的观察

So, it’s 2 months in. Here’s my experience so far: The Good It feels great. My phone feels like a utility. I think this is the same kind of change in feeling I would have had if I shifted from eating junk food to healthy food. My phone used to have this gravity: like invariably my attention would shift towards it. Now it just feels like a very useful rock. I found ChatGPT and Claude critically useful. Whenever I need some information, I can just ask my LLM, and it can give me a distraction free summary. It helps the long-tail of weird situations too: for example if someone asks me to take a look at a website, I can ask my LLM to scrape it and summarize the details for me. It’s pretty hard to get distracted this way. And in the the last 2 months I have 两个月过去了，以下是我的体验：感觉棒极了。我的手机现在感觉就像一个纯粹的工具。我觉得这就像是从吃垃圾食品转变为健康饮食后的那种感觉。以前我的手机有一种“引力”，我的注意力总是会不由自主地被它吸引。现在，它感觉就像一块非常有用的石头。我发现 ChatGPT 和 Claude 非常有用。每当我需要信息时，我只需询问大模型，它就能给我一个没有干扰的摘要。它也能处理那些奇怪的长尾情况：例如，如果有人让我看一个网站，我可以让大模型抓取并为我总结细节。用这种方式，我很难分心。在过去的两个月里，我……