Introduction Link to heading

Human technological life used to change slowly. Your grandparents’ daily tools and habits were, for the most part, your parents’ too. That slowness meant generations had time to build up wisdom for how to relate to the tools around them: not just how to use them, but how to use them well.

The smartphone breaks this. It’s existed for such a short time that no such wisdom has had a chance to form. There’s no accumulated tradition to draw on for how to relate to it healthily.

This post is my attempt to work that out for myself: first the problems I think smartphones present, then the actual tools and setup I use to solve them.

DISCLAIMER: the practical solution applies only to Android devices.

The factors underlying smartphone’s main problem Link to heading

Given how smartphones are portrayed in the media the issues pertaining to them could be summarised simply as causing distraction. Swapping out meaningful activities for meaningless entertainment.

The following factors are major contributors to issue with smartphones.

1. cue proximity (visibility): The smartphone has the issue of every application being in close proximity of each other. You open your app drawer to look for your email application. Within few centimeters of the email icon might be some social media icon. The social media icon triggers a habit cue such that you now open some social media app and is distracted from your original intent, which was checking your email.

2. lack of friction and strain: I remember when i was studying some subject at university there were several books i had to read. once i was sitting on room with all the books laid on my bed and i started reading a bit from each book. Juggling read each of them a bit each. I remember how extremely cumbersome it was to lift one book up, put down another, and how very obvious it was that these were separate pieces of information by them having different physical locations and forms.

To switch between unrelated tasks on a smartphone however is extremely easy. There is a single physical location where every piece of information appears with virtually zero strain or effort to switch between them. I am not a neuro scientist, but i would imagine smaller, less strenuous movements causing some stimulating effect are a lot easier for the unconscious to try to perform automatically many times per day than more strenuous tasks.

3. availability: There is also the general problem of something you do not want to be able to do is able to be done on your device at all. For example watching pornography which adding friction is not enough you would want total removal, or maybe you dont want a web browser to be present on the device in general.

4. enforcement: Even if the stated factors were to be solved by some application or setting on the device the final issue would be to keep the application or setting configured that way.

There are many applications add more friction for example but uninstalling the app removes the friction. Something is needed to enforce the solutions of the previous factors no matter what such that either yourself if you are particularly or a child you are responsible for is not able to bypass the solutions.

Solution Link to heading

Dumb, Midwit, Smart Link to heading

A possible solution i was thinking of was just getting a dumbphone to avoid all the issues of the smartphone all together, but sadly smartphones have become a requirement for daily life for many tasks. For example i can not wash clothes without an app where i live. I therefore propose the solution of a multi profile smartphone-setup thats dumb for most of the time but when necessary can switch to a smart profile to carry out those tasks. Something between the smartphone and dumbphone. We could call this the midwit-phone

Finding solutions on the internet to cue proximity, friction and availability have not been difficult. It is however a solution to enforcement that took me the longest to find. I have not seen anyone mention using Owndroid for these specific purposes and i want explicitly highlight this tool to help guide those looking for control over their own device.

Technical solutions and what problems they solve Link to heading

Owndroid Link to heading

Owndroid works by leveraging features built directly into android originally meant for enterprises being able to manage enterprise-owned devices. Owndroid lets us access features such as disabling or suspending any app on the phone otherwise uninstallable, and many other restrictions such as disallowing installation and uninstallation of applications. When Owndroid is setup correctly it will have the role of “device owner” making it uninstallable no matter what as long as it holds this role. The only way to disable this role is from within the app and the app can be set to require a password to be able to alter any setting.

Owndroid is therefore the main solution to the enforcement problem. For example Owndroid can suspend settings such that after configuring the devices settings to your liking the settings app will be unopenable for any normal user and effectively locked. Something i have no other idea how to do except through a device owner like Owndroid and Owndroid took me the longest to find a solution to of all the problems mentioned.

Profiles. Link to heading

This is an android feature which lets you have multiple virtual devices inside of the same physical device. Each profile acts as its own device with separate applications and settings.

This lets us remove the proximity cue because distracting applications can be placed in its own profile which requires and active switch and do not show up in the main profile, which could be designated for non-distracting applications. In addition, switching between profiles can add more friction if you configure a more cumbersome longer password for your profile with more distracting applications. Profiles then tackle both cue proximity and friction.

Curbox Link to heading

Open source application for tracking app usage and limiting time spent. Lets you block certain apps at certain times of day or after certain amount of usage and add friction for opening apps. Which aids in the lack of friction problem.

Implementation Link to heading

I will be creating a video series which will be posted on youtube and my video platform videos.sebbe.no

The videos will cover how to childproof a device using primarily Owndroid and maybe Curbox i will also go over my personal setup using Owndroid and multiple profiles in more detail.

Before i get around to actually film the videos here is a short step by step guide of what i would do to get Owndroid setup on a fresh device such that in the mean time you can research this yourself and i can maybe save you some time by pointing you in the right direction.

Step by step Link to heading

The flow i have used the last times i have set up a phone is the following.

1. take backup of phone
2. wipe phone
3. install Shizuku from github Shizuku
4. install Droidify from Droidify.app
5. install Owndroid from Droidify
6. enable developer mode on phone
7. start Shizuku (follow in app instruction for wireless adb)
8. open Owndroid and grant device owner through Shizuku Optionally the following steps can be taken in addition to limit screentime of various apps
9. install Curbox from Droidify
10. configure Curbox with the desired screentime limit for various apps
11. suspend Curbox from Owndroid such that the limits can not be altered

You should now have the working infrastructure to manage and restrict the device on a deeper level. Owndroid does not have that much documentation beside the main README.md so have a look through the settings in the app. Each setting should be mapped to some built in android bool which you could research more on the offical android docs. For example the android bool DISALLOW_INSTALL_APPS is in Owndroid named no_install_apps.

Since the Owndroid documentation is not really that detailed i wanted to present some issues which might not have immediately obvious solutions and how to fix it. To save you some time

no_switch_profile Link to heading

If you want to you can disable the ability to switch profiles. This is systemwide and after this is toggled from the admin user you can no longer switch to any other profile from the usual menus. There exists however a menu inside of the Owndroid app called “user operations” from which you can still switch users. The only way to get back to your admin user after this is to restart your device.

Special notes on Samsung phones Link to heading

Samsung phones with its default home ui launcher lets users hold on an app and access app shortcuts. If you have set up a password on Owndroid users can bypass this password and use some Owndroid features from the shortcuts present in Owndroid. Owndroid has a setting however to disable shortcuts which you can toggle solving this issue.

Samsung also allow users to disable any app through their home UI. This bypasses Owndroids no_uninstall_apps no_configure_apps settings. To solve this issue a custom launcher can be used. My preferred one being “lawnchair” which can be downloaded on Droidify. It should be noted that non of these issues are present on Graphene OS, so i did not realize these issues existed until i tried to childproof some family members device.

Current profiles Link to heading

This section will detail out my personal profile split. I aim to create some more detailed and instructional videos on this topic in the future.

For all profiles except smartphone i have disabled the web browser as this has been my main distraction on the phone throughout time.

Admin Link to heading

The admin profile is the profile which is first created on Graphene OS and one which must always run. I rarely do anything in here. The only time i use the admin profile is when first installing Owndroid, setting up device owner and creating the other profiles. After this is done it is just a technical requirement.

Dumbphone Link to heading

My dumbphone profile is meant to be the profile i reside in for most of the time. The dumbphone profile is meant to function as a dumbphone plus any functionalities which are deemed to have no distraction potential given what i know of my usage habits.

having apps i find useful but non distracting only in the dumbphone profile helps foster the habit of staying in this profile. For me that is the basic applications that come pre installed on Graphene OS, a meditation timer and a podcast app as these apps do not distract me and aid in me in my day to day life.

The dumbphone mode does not contain my main messaging applications as it is attempt to be reachable for only urgent matters and turning other forms of communication into something i can actively dip into rather than being always present. As such all i have in this profile is the default sms and calling application.

Contact Link to heading

For my general communication applications such as signal, email and others i have a dedicated profile with the same pin as my dumbphone. This is basically the same as my dumbphone but with the added communication applications. I do not have the meditation app and podcast player here as there is no need to duplicate these. Duplication would give me less of a reason to stay in the dumbphone profile.

I am unsure if having a contacts profile like this is something i would recommend. It might be something you dont feel a need for. I however enjoy experimenting with being a bit more unconnected but still reachable when needed.

Smartphone Link to heading

The smartphone profile is as the name implies where i get free reign to install whatever else. However i try to be conscious in not unnecessarily duplicating applications from the other mode in this smartphone mode as it would make it easier to stay here and maybe reduce my usage of the other profiles. however this may not be an issue given that this profile has a very long password which means it is quite a lot of friction to enter. I originally thought of having banking and such separate but given i am Norwegian and we have a bankid application which is necessary to authenticate to various services in Norway it was necessary to co-locate this application with any other application which needed it which is why i decided on having fewer profiles and instead getting my friction from a very long password

The intention for this profile is to be able to carry out rarer than daily tasks such as washing clothes transferring money and such. by adding friction to my phone i aim to shift my actual research and work which could be carried out on a smartphone to my computer since a computer is a better form factor for any serious work any day. at least in the fields in which i work in.

Notes for further thought Link to heading

I might add Curbox to my smartphone profile and tune the friction more per app. So that i can reduce the password length such that the less distracting apps like bus ticket apps can be used more easily while more distracting apps like web browsers are more restricted.

I might also however just setup some system so that if i buy a ticket in smartphone profile i can transfer it to my dumbphone profile that way i dont have long stretches of time where i need to be inside of the smartphone profile. which would become very annoying with a long password.

Conclusion Link to heading

Thanks for reading and i hope that we will be able to figure out how to best configure our smartphones, such that they are useful tool adapted to the needs of the owner and not a distraction box.