Still.

Ideas

A text-only home screen

App icons are small advertisements. Each one is drawn in a brand colour, tuned to be recognised at a glance, and stacked twenty-four to a screen. A text widget replaces all of that with a short list of words. Nothing changes except how loud the screen is.

Why words are calmer

Icons work on you before you decide anything. The red badge, the gradient, the logo you have seen ten thousand times: your thumb moves before your head does. A word does not do that. You have to read it, and reading is a decision.

That small pause is the whole trick. People who switch to a text-only screen mostly report the same thing: they still use their phone, but they stop finding it in their hand without remembering picking it up.

9:41 AM
  • Messages
  • Kindle
  • Notes
  • Camera
  • Maps

Setting it up

  1. Install Still and pick the apps for your list.
  2. Add the Still widget to your home screen and move the icons off the first page.
  3. Choose a look. Six sets of type and ground, from near-black to warm cream, and the list stays plain text in all of them.
  4. If you want the list hidden most of the time, use the folding widget: it rests as a clock and opens when you tap it.
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More ideas

Minimal iPhone home screen ideas · Turn your iPhone into a dumb phone