Smartphones are smarter than ever. Maybe too smart. Yet Google and Apple are making them ever-smarter with "Artificial Intelligence." Pure genius? Well, it remains to be seen how practical AI features will be. But as these mature pocket computers grow increasingly capable, I think there's wisdom in simplifying them. A "less is more" approach might be sage advice for future smartphones.
The original iPhone was simple compared to today's version. It grew naturally, adding new features over the years. With that came increased complexity. I think many would agree today that our smartphones do more than enough, even too much. Some want their phone to be less distracting or less capable.
We consumed the smartphone; now we're consumed by it.
With Apple, its new suite of AI tools marks a split in the iPhone lineup. Only the iPhone 15 Pro and newer will have AI. Prior phones, while "smart," will lack Apple Intelligence. So it might be said that new Apple AI phones will be truly smart, but non-AI phones will be basically "dumb." For example, older iPhones will be stuck with the simpleton Siri that can merely set a timer and run a web search by voice.
This division in the iPhone lineup may be a feature. What if AI is not all it's cracked up to be? What if it introduces new unanticipated problems, like taxing battery life? It might be best to keep your non-AI smartphone that will do less yet be better overall. iPhones from the last four or so years are in many ways already more than good enough. Why have an AI-phone when a smartphone is plenty?
Maybe "dumber" or simpler smartphones are what we really need. Actual "dumb" phones have seen some resurgence in recent years. Many who use them seek to minimize their digital lives. That's understandable given the ills of being distracted by today's always-connected smartphone. But smartphones, like cars, are now ingrained in culture. They're assumed if not required by most individuals, companies, and institutions. So if smartphones remain, maybe it's time to innovate by doing less instead of more. "No new features" can be the feature.
Imagine today's iPhone was much like the original without the App store or maybe no notification system. Apple could make a simple pocket device that adheres to the original vision of three-in-one: a good phone, a music player (iPod), and instead of an "internet communicator," a camera.
That initial third category is problematic. Having the internet in your pocket can be too detrimental, too distracting, or too limitless. Confining the world wide web to laptops, desktops, or tablets might be most wise. Such healthy boundaries could actually improve people's mental health.
Johnathan Haidt in his landmark book, The Anxious Generation, speaks to this:
“…it’s not healthy for any human being to have unfettered access to everything, everywhere, all the time, for free.”
Cal Newport, in Digital Minimalism is succinct and apt:
“…humans are not wired to be constantly wired.”
Likewise, a tech writer at The Verge promoted the need for a dumb phone to avoid the mobile internet:
“…we’ve come to a point with our internet consumption of having too much of a good thing."
Years later on The Verge, another tech author voiced a resounding cry for disconnecting from the mobile web:
“I — no, we — need the dumb phone to make a comeback. We need something to help us temporarily disconnect from a fake digital world so we can be more connected to the real one.”
The Light company makes a "lite" smartphone that’s minimal or less-smart, knowing the problem of an "internet communicator" in your pocket:
"When we are living our lives through hyper-connectivity, going light is a profound shift. Our users describe the hours they get back each day, and the peace of mind that comes from more intentional internet usage."
Whatever a simpler smartphone looks like, today's tech companies can envision it, and we need to see it. We need simpler yet capable options to avoid complex phones. The fact that phones today feature "Focus modes" shows that they need to be less distracting. One way to ensure that is to make them less complicated, stripping down to bare necessities. Or as Light says, "Going light."
Smartphones should have stayed simple. Yet we're on the cusp of ceding control of our digital lives to the overgrowth of Artificial Intelligence for the sake of convenience. But such complexity is not convenient. Simpler is better. A less-smart phone is a smarter choice. Dumbing down the phone would be genuinely intelligent.
Update 2024-09-07: Today I discovered Dumb Phone. It’s an app that morphs your iPhone into a text-only app-launching minimalist phone — and it looks incredible.
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