I Don’t Have a Smartphone

I Don’t Have a Smartphone… by Ploum on 2026-09-02 我没有智能手机…… 作者：Ploum，2026年9月2日

…or, at least, I wish I didn’t. “I don’t have a smartphone,” is what I tell people and professionals nowadays. This allows me to cut the crap about companies insisting that I install their app or restaurants wishing that I scan a QR code to access their menu on a small screen. ……或者至少，我希望我没有。如今，我告诉人们和专业人士：“我没有智能手机。”这让我省去了那些废话，不必再应付那些坚持让我安装应用程序的公司，也不必再理会那些希望我扫描二维码在小屏幕上查看菜单的餐厅。

“I don’t have a smartphone” is, according to my experience, the easiest explanation, the shortest way to force people to get their shit together and take the required actions to allow me to live without being glued to a small screen dependent on a huge American megacorporation. 根据我的经验，“我没有智能手机”是最简单的解释，也是最快能迫使人们正视问题并采取必要措施的方法，让我不必整天盯着依赖于美国大型跨国公司的屏幕生活。

When I buy something, from a small kitchen appliance to a car, I’m now forced to get formal confirmation by the seller that I will be able to use it without installing one, two or three different apps. I kept the count: in the last year alone, I had to argue against the installation of 18 smartphone apps. Just in my toilet, I’m supposed to have an app for the seat, an app for the flush and one for the ventilation. 当我购买任何东西时，从小型厨房电器到汽车，我现在被迫要求卖家正式确认：我可以在不安装一、二或三个不同应用程序的情况下使用它。我统计过：仅在去年，我就不得不拒绝安装18个智能手机应用。光是在我的厕所里，我就被要求安装一个用于马桶座圈的App，一个用于冲水的App，还有一个用于通风的App。

It is quite fascinating because if you assume using each app for only 3 minutes per day (which basically means opening, closing and does not include doing the upgrade every other day or debugging some problems), that’s nearly 1 hour of your day! 22 full days of your year (assuming 16 waking hours per day). 这非常令人着迷，因为如果你假设每天只使用每个App 3分钟（这基本上只意味着打开和关闭，还不包括每隔一天进行一次升级或调试某些问题），那一天就快要花掉1小时了！一年就是整整22天（假设每天清醒时间为16小时）。

What installing your app means

安装你的App意味着什么

When you ask someone to install your app or to scan your QR code, you make the following assumptions: 当你要求某人安装你的App或扫描二维码时，你做出了以下假设：

1. That person owns a smartphone (which is at least a couple hundred dollars).
2. 此人拥有一部智能手机（至少价值几百美元）。
3. That person has the smartphone on them right now.
4. 此人现在随身带着这部手机。
5. The smartphone is in working condition.
6. 手机处于正常工作状态。
7. It has enough battery to install your app, use it then finish the day.
8. 手机有足够的电量来安装你的App、使用它并维持一天的使用。
9. It has enough storage left for your app.
10. 手机有足够的剩余存储空间来安装你的App。
11. It has enough network coverage.
12. 手机有足够的网络覆盖。
13. That person has enough data left on their data plan.
14. 此人的流量套餐还有足够的剩余流量。
15. They have a valid and connected Google account (or, an Apple one).
16. 他们拥有一个有效且已登录的谷歌账号（或苹果账号）。
17. They are comfortable with taking out the phone and dedicating some time and attention to the screen right now while not paying attention to all those notifications that the phone surely gathered since its last使用.
18. 他们愿意拿出手机，现在就投入时间和注意力在屏幕上，而不去理会手机自上次使用以来肯定积攒的所有通知。
19. They are willing to accept all the conditions of your apps, including sending you personal data, registering an account, etc.
20. 他们愿意接受你App的所有条款，包括向你发送个人数据、注册账号等。

When you think about it, this is an awful lot of assumptions. Just regarding point 8: your Google account could be terminated right now, without reason. It happens every day. It could happen to you. Or an American president could decide your country should not have that service anymore. 仔细想想，这些假设实在太多了。仅就第8点而言：你的谷歌账号可能随时被无故封禁。这种事每天都在发生。它也可能发生在你身上。或者某位美国总统可能决定你的国家不再被允许使用该服务。

If only one of those 10 assumptions is false, for whatever reason, the person will not be able to use your app. You will have to deal with it. People always tell me I’m weird for not installing the app but, looking at this list, I find it weird that you even find people to install it in the first place! But here we are… Those 10 assumptions have become the new commandments everyone should obey. 如果这10个假设中哪怕只有一个因为某种原因不成立，对方就无法使用你的App。你必须去处理这个问题。人们总是说我不安装App很奇怪，但看着这份清单，我觉得你们竟然能找到人去安装它才更奇怪！但事实就是如此……这10个假设已经成为了每个人都必须遵守的新诫律。

Why I will tell you I don’t have a smartphone

为什么我会告诉你我没有智能手机

Ten assumptions that are a bit too long to explain to a vendor or a worker. So, instead of arguing about the time lost and my quest to be Google free, I took the stance of answering, “I don’t have a smartphone.” 这十个假设对销售人员或工人来说太难解释了。所以，与其争论浪费的时间以及我追求摆脱谷歌的努力，我采取了直接回答“我没有智能手机”的立场。

Reactions vary. Pure salesmen try to convince me that you can’t live without the app, that I need to do the mandatory “update” Why? If it’s connected, it can do its update alone. If it is offline and it works, it doesn’t need any update and updates have a higher probability to worsen my situation than to be helpful. If it is offline and it doesn’t work well, why should I buy it in the first place? 反应各不相同。纯粹的销售人员试图说服我，没有App就无法生活，我必须进行强制“更新”。为什么？如果它联网了，它可以自己更新。如果它离线且能正常工作，它就不需要任何更新，而且更新导致情况恶化的可能性远高于提供帮助。如果它离线且工作不正常，我当初为什么要买它？

On the other hand, real workers, those with dirty hands, often smile at me and tell me I’m right or that they wish they could not have a smartphone. On one occasion, a worker installing an appliance told me: “Oh, we will get along well!” Which tells you something important: nobody wants the app. People install the app because they believe it is mandatory in some sort of way. Because they are afraid of missing out on something. Because they are told so by the salesman. But they just don’t want it. 另一方面，真正的劳动者，那些手上沾满灰尘的人，经常对我微笑，告诉我我是对的，或者说他们也希望自己不用智能手机。有一次，一位安装电器的工人对我说：“哦，我们一定会相处得很好！”这说明了一个重要事实：没人想要那个App。人们安装App是因为他们认为这是某种强制要求，因为他们害怕错过什么，因为销售人员是这么告诉他们的。但他们其实根本不想要。

In fact, when pressed, most salesmen even have a hard time justifying why I should install the app. So “I don’t have a smartphone.” But it is not true. 事实上，当被追问时，大多数销售人员甚至很难证明我为什么要安装该App。所以我说“我没有智能手机”。但这并不是事实。

Mudita Kompakt, my not-so-dumb-phone

Mudita Kompakt，我那部“不那么笨”的手机

My main driver is a Mudita Kompakt, a small minimalist smartphone with an e-ink device. I’ve spoken at length about it in the following piece: Une vie sans notifications. 我的主力机是Mudita Kompakt，这是一款带有电子墨水屏的小型极简智能手机。我在以下文章中详细讨论过它：《没有通知的生活》。

The main point is that, despite being an e-ink device and being totally Google-free, the Mudita is an Android smartphone. I can install apps and, yes, I love the smartphone concept for the tools I choose. I have Signal (well, I use Molly to connect to Signal). I also have the app of my bike GPS. I don’t use it often but when I’m lost far from everything and it starts raining, I launch the Komoot app, ask for the shortest way home and upload it to my bike computer. That’s very useful innovation! 重点是，尽管它是电子墨水屏设备且完全没有谷歌服务，但Mudita依然是一部安卓智能手机。我可以安装App，是的，我喜欢智能手机这个概念，因为它能提供我选择的工具。我有Signal（准确说是用Molly连接Signal）。我还有自行车GPS的App。我不常使用它，但当我在荒郊野外迷路且开始下雨时，我会启动Komoot App，查询回家的最短路线并上传到我的自行车码表上。这是非常有用的创新！

I also use Comaps, an online calendar and the local train schedule app. So, seriously, I do really like the smartphone idea. It’s just that I don’t have any browser or “social” app on it. And I don’t want anything else than what I have. I wish I could say it is all I have, that I’m a true minimalist. But it is not true. 我还使用Comaps、在线日历和当地火车时刻表App。所以，说真的，我确实很喜欢智能手机的理念。只是我的手机上没有任何浏览器或“社交”App。我也不想要除了现有功能之外的任何东西。我希望我能说这就是我拥有的一切，我是一个真正的极简主义者。但事实并非如此。

The secondary desk phone

备用的桌面手机

Somewhere on my desk, I keep an old FairPhone 3 that I repaired after it took a deep plunge into the ocean. It runs the Google-free /e/OS operating system. But why? The reason is simple: sometimes, you are forced to use an app. Those apps may even check if your phone truly uses Google. So /e/OS has a solution to fake it (microG). The main use case is banking apps. I highly prefer to do banking on my computer. But, having been brainwashed enough by Google, banks think I cannot be trusted to do banking on a computer I own while doing it on a small piece of glass that I keep in my pocket is “safe.” 在我的桌子上，放着一部旧的FairPhone 3，它曾掉进深海里，被我修好了。它运行着无谷歌的/e/OS操作系统。但为什么呢？原因很简单：有时你被迫使用某个App。这些App甚至会检查你的手机是否真的在使用谷歌服务。所以/e/OS有一个伪装方案（microG）。主要用途是银行App。我非常倾向于在电脑上处理银行业务。但是，由于被谷歌洗脑太深，银行认为我不能被信任在自己的电脑上处理银行业务，而认为在我口袋里的一小块玻璃上操作才是“安全”的。