What are the Most Wanted Apps on Dumbphones?

16 October 2025

Robert Duke

Dumbphones are becoming a popular purchase for those who are trying to make a lifestyle change by reducing screen time and escaping the addiction of doomscrolling on social media. This usually involves willpower when using a regular smartphone, but many are taking that extra step to completely digitally detox and choose a phone with only basic features.

What is a dumbphone?

A dumbphone is a minimalist mobile device that offers just core mobile phone functions, such as calls and texting. Whilst many dumbphones are just basic mobile phones, there are some that are designed specifically to be an antidote to the bright screens and colour of smartphones, utilising greyscale, limited internet access, and other features to deliver an intentionally stripped-back experience.

Despite the desire to move away from feature-heavy addictive devices, there are still apps and features that many people like to have access to even when swapping a smartphone for a dumbphone.

At Protect Your Bubble, we conducted research to find the most popular apps that have been mentioned on Reddit and the best dumbphone options available that have the most desirable capabilities.

Most Mentioned Dumbphone Apps

Most Mentioned Dumbphone Apps

The most mentioned app on Reddit was WhatsApp with 1,168 mentions, with many users needing it for work and as a better messaging service to contact others around the world.

Spotify was second with 693 mentions, with many users keen to keep using the music app. This was followed by YouTube, with the video sharing app being mentioned 338 times.

Most Mentioned Dumbphone Features

Most mentioned dumbphone features

Hardware features were also assessed to see what people prefer when choosing a dumbphone.

In first place, the most popular feature was the flip design with 1,178 mentions. This was followed by the camera feature, mentioned 630 times, and 4G mobile connectivity with 399 mentions.

Top 10 Dumbphones

Based on the most mentioned apps and features, research was then conducted to find the best dumbphones that had the top three capabilities, focusing on flip phones, WhatsApp and Spotify compatibility.

Top 10 dumbphones

AGM M7 is in first place with an overall score of 6.7, and whilst not a flip phone, it is WhatsApp and Spotify compatible, along with having an average cost of £137. It is also well-reviewed with an average of 4.6 out of 5. The battery capacity is also 2,500mAh which can be very long lasting, depending on consumption.

In second place is Jelly 2E, which is also WhatsApp and Spotify compatible, and this device achieved an overall score of 6.5. It has a high average rating of 4.7 out of 5 across 49 reviews, with a low weight of 110 grams.

TTFone 280 and Freetel Mode 1 Retro II are in joint 3rd with an overall score of 6.2. The Freetel is both a flip phone and compatible with WhatsApp and Spotify, and an average cost of £227, whilst the TTFone 280 is WhatsApp and Spotify compatible, with a low average cost of £80. Both have a large battery size with 2500mAh.

Conclusion

While getting a dumbphone can be the best way to reduce your daily digital activity, there are other options available, such as services to limit your access to your most frequently visited social media apps, and settings within smartphones to help limit your time on certain apps.

Methodology

To find the most mentioned apps and features, two subreddits (r/dumbphones and r/digitalminimalism) were scraped on Reddit to count the number of mentions from a seed list of 37 different apps and features over the past 12 months. These were then totalled to find the most popular apps and features users would like on their dumbphones.

A core index was then drawn up using the top three most popular apps and features across 28 phone models that had one or more of these features. We then researched other metrics, such as device age, rating, and specifications to find the best dumbphone with at least one of the most popular mentions on Reddit. The metrics were normalised using minimax standardisation, 0 being the lowest and 10 being the highest

Data Sources