How to turn your iPhone into a dumbphone

To turn your iPhone into a dumbphone, replace Safari, delete distracting apps, block new installs, and protect those settings with a Screen Time passcode. You keep calls, texts, camera, Maps, music, and payments.

The setup has four steps: Block Downloads, Block Safari, Delete, and Lock. Here's how to prepare and work through them.

What counts as a dumbphone?

A dumbphone is a phone that does a few things and doesn't try to pull you back in. Calls, texts, maybe a camera and directions. No infinite scroll, no search bar, no store full of new apps to try.

You can buy one. The Light Phone is the well-known option. But buying a second device means carrying two phones or giving up things the iPhone does well, like the camera and banking apps.

Turning an iPhone into a dumbphone gets you most of the way there with the phone you already own.

Before you start: decide what stays

Make the list before you start deleting. It stops you from rationalizing later. A reasonable keep list:

Phone, Messages, FaceTime
Camera and Photos
Maps
Music or Spotify, podcasts
Wallet, banking, and your ride share app
Calendar, Notes, Reminders, Weather
Anything you use for work that can't live elsewhere

Choose which social, feed, and entertainment apps you want to remove in the Delete step. Keep the tools you rely on.

Before you start, install Anti Browser and any essential apps you want to keep. Set Anti as your default browser in Settings > Apps > Default Apps > Browser. Do this before blocking downloads: iOS requires another browser to be installed before it will let you disable Safari.

Anti Browser includes this four-step guide during onboarding, along with a Screen Time code generator and vault. If you use its generator, Anti keeps the code stored in the vault in case you ever need it.

1. Block Downloads

Turn off new installs so the apps you delete can't come back. If you've deleted Instagram before and had it back within a week, this is the step that stops you reinstalling social media apps.

Go to Settings.
Tap Screen Time.
Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions.
Enable Content & Privacy Restrictions.
Tap iTunes & App Store Purchases.
Tap Installing Apps.
Set to Don't Allow.

2. Block Safari

One browser is enough. With Anti set as your default, links sent to your browser open in Anti.

Go to Settings.
Tap Screen Time.
Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions.
Enable Content & Privacy Restrictions.
Tap Allowed Apps & Features.
Turn Safari off.

3. Delete

On home screen

Social apps and spare browsers go now. Accounts stay intact; only the app leaves. Keep Anti Browser and the essential apps you chose earlier.

Long press on a social media app or another browser.
Tap Remove App.
Tap Delete App and confirm deletion.
Repeat for other distracting apps.

4. Lock

A Screen Time passcode keeps the settings above out of reach of a bad five minutes.

Open Settings.
Tap Screen Time.
Scroll down and tap Lock Screen Time Settings.
Have a friend or family member set a code, or use the code generator in Anti Browser. Anti keeps the generated code stored in its vault in case you ever need it.

Optional: make the Home Screen boring

You now have a phone with a link only browser, no social apps, and no store. Finish the job by making it visually dull:

One Home Screen page. Move everything else to the App Library.
Turn off badges for everything except Messages and Phone.
Turn on grayscale: Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Color Filters > Grayscale.
Delete widgets that show news, stocks, or anything that updates.

The minimalist iPhone setup goes deeper on layout, and how to make your iPhone boring covers the visual tricks.

Can you really turn an iPhone into a dumbphone?

The Lock step helps the changes last. Have someone you trust hold the code, or use Anti's generator and vault so you can retrieve it when you need it without keeping it in memory.

The goal is to give you fewer reasons to check the phone out of habit. Links, the camera, and Maps still work. You may find it easier to put the phone down when you've finished a task, even if the habit takes time to change.

If you also want to pace the apps you can't delete and keep your Mac from becoming the new phone, the Anti Phone System bundles Anti Browser with Gentle Screen Time, Drain, and a guide to the first month.