Normie-friendly alternatives to cell phones

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graduation

graduation

kiwifarms.net
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24 de Nov, 2025
I wish a could through my cell phone into a river and never touch one again, but unfortunately texting and calling is the main way people contact me. My plan is eventually to live off the grid, but paying for something I absolutely hate kind of conflicts with that. Has anyone here found a decent alternative that isn't impossible to get everyone you know on board with?

A good alternative needs to:
  1. Have at least 1 good and usable mobile clients that can communicate with other types of devices
  2. Replicate the function of a cell phone well enough (instant messaging and calling)
  3. Not be complete spyware
  4. Be end-to-end encrypted
  5. Be free software
  6. Be decentralized
  7. Not be complete bloatware and pain to self-host

I can't name a single protocol that does all of that well, but maybe someone can. Hopefully there's something, but if there isn't, I don't think making a new protocol would help much. It seems like every other week a new, privacy-focused messaging project comes out. Does anyone know someone that uses SimpleX, Briar, or Session? I don't. They just seem to obscure to be useful.
 
Signal (centralized) and Session/Element are good enough, however bringing frens to those apps are nearly impossible since not everyone wants to switch or add another app, and to truly get off the grid you need to become amish, or use a dumbphone with SMS.
 
What does "living off the grid" means if you're still going to be interacting with people via phones/computers?
Off the grid means you're off the grid, if you want to call someone you find a payphone and talk to them, if someone needs to talk to you then they should send you a letter or something. I mean, ideally you wouldn't need to talk to anyone and maybe you would have one shitty phone just to keep in touch with your parents and/or siblings.
 
If you don't like paying much, you can probably find bottom-of-the-barrel MVNO phone plans at around $15-20/month.

If you don't want to be tracked, leave the device in the home. Governments know your address.

If you want to get rid of the phone plan and still connect to the normies, maybe you could use some sort of service like Google Voice that will give you a real phone number to keep, and come under the cost of a trad phone plan (maybe free). Then do everything on Wi-Fi. It's plausible "calls" could come through, e.g. a friend voice called me through the Telegram app when my phone was on store Wi-Fi and I didn't even know that could happen. I don't use GV or anything like that so ask around about how well it works.

If you aren't going to have Starlink or other Internet service "off the grid", then you have a problem.
 
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If you're relatively immobile and your family/friends are nearby, you can set up some kind of Meshtastic solution. That requires a good amount of electricity to maintain your own radio network though, depending on how truly off-grid you're going it might be hard.

If you only need apps, you can get any old unlocked Android device and connect over Wifi. No SIM card or monthly plan needed, however you'd need Internet-connected Wifi from somewhere.

If you need fully compatible SMS messaging and voice calls, with a non-VoIP number so you can do 2FA, that might be tricky. I don't know if there are any major carriers left that do calls/text without a monthly access fee. There's prepaid cards and phones you can buy in Walmart or Dollar General, but I think even those charge a flat access fee. (I haven't checked recently, maybe I'm wrong.) They also require you to do KYC with a credit card or bank account info, so it won't be truly un-traceable unless you can fake something.
 
cleanerfromvenus dijo:
Yeah it's called going outside and talking to your friends lol
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This post is more about family that I don't always see, the people I need long-distance communication for. With friends it's whatever, if they want to see me they'll find me. If they don't, I guess they're not very good friends!

Nigger Cattle dijo:
What does "living off the grid" means if you're still going to be interacting with people via phones/computers?
Off the grid means you're off the grid, if you want to call someone you find a payphone and talk to them, if someone needs to talk to you then they should send you a letter or something. I mean, ideally you wouldn't need to talk to anyone and maybe you would have one shitty phone just to keep in touch with your parents and/or siblings.
Presiona para expandir...
"Living off the grid" in the sense that I deal with all the utilities myself like electricity and whatnot. Internet is interesting because you can't do it all by yourself by definition, but you bring up an interesting point. I just feel like giving up on internet all at once might make maintaining some relationships more difficult, which is why I made this post. I'm interested in the compromise between being isolated and present. But then again, I'm already horrible at answering texts anyways, so it might not be as big of a change as I thought.
 
graduation dijo:
"Living off the grid" in the sense that I deal with all the utilities myself like electricity and whatnot. Internet is interesting because you can't do it all by yourself by definition, but you bring up an interesting point. I just feel like giving up on internet all at once might make maintaining some relationships more difficult, which is why I made this post. I'm interested in the compromise between being isolated and present. But then again, I'm already horrible at answering texts anyways, so it might not be as big of a change as I thought.
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Your internet access could be just you going to a public library to check on your e-mails if needed, to be honest. Yeah, there will be a homeless guy jerking off in there, but then you just check your e-mails and dip.

And that doesn't even mean you can't have a computer as tool, you could very well have a computer with no internet connection if you like playing vydia or something like that, just get a 6 tb HD and download all the roms you want for old consoles before you leave, just in case you get bored. Download all the music you like, all that kind of stuff. Get an old mp3 player, an old digital camera with no modern functionalities like uploading pictures directly to the internet, download a fuck ton of movies too, that's that.
I would do that, personally, since having nothing to do but watch TV is a fate worse than death.

I don't know, it's insane to me that my dad was born and raised in a farm and he was poor, now you have to be rich to go live in a farm and only poorfags stay in the city.
 
MrTroll dijo:
You're gonna live off the grid but can't bring yourself to give up text messages?

:thinking:
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It's about staying in contact, not the texting. I made this post looking for an alternative way to do that, but I think my original conclusion may have been right: there's nothing. I still think this sort of lifestyle would be the best for me, I just wanted to know if it was possible to do both. I suppose I can't have my cake and eat it too, but it's not a deal breaker.
 
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