1bit: Minimalist Home Screen

You know that feeling. Headphones on, lying in the grass, just you and your music with no distractions. Those ten minutes on the bus with the snake game on your T9 keypad. Blocky photos you took with your first digicam. That is 1bit.

We think the early 2000s got something right. Not just nostalgia. A clear head. No algorithm waiting when you only meant to check the time. No doomscrolling. We don't block apps, we just give you a more fun one. You keep your banking app and your transit pass, all available when you need them. Get the dumb phone experience without buying a second phone that you will put down as soon as you get tired of its limitations.

This is the digital detox you never have to quit.

WHAT IT IS

A gloriously retro phone experience in two colors. Black and white, one grid, every shade a dither pattern on a screen that never pretends to be anything else. Put the launcher widget on your home screen and each row opens into a quiet world with nothing in it pulling you back.

WHAT IS INSIDE

• Music. Add files or play from your library. Gapless, a real peak meter, an optional tactile wheel like your favorite mp3 player had.
• Podcasts. Search, subscribe, queue, download, sleep timer. Stream them or download them.
• Web. Addiction-proof browsing. One page at a time, no tabs. Block ads and scripts. 1bit images or none at all. No videos at all.
• News. Old school RSS reader. Only the feeds you picked, in publish order, plus a read-later shelf.
• Camera. A 1-bit viewfinder that develops into black and white film when you save to your camera roll.
• Maps. A drawn map, search, saved pins, route guidance. No frills.
• Phone and text. Classic dial pad. Your contacts, favorites, and a record of every call you made from here.
• Calendar and reminders. Your real calendars and lists.
• Notes and voice memos. Plain text in a folder over USB.
• Clock. Alarms, timer, stopwatch with Live Activities.
• Games. Solitaire, minesweeper, snake on a drawn keypad, brick breaker on the wheel.
• Widgets. Launcher, clock, today, and a great big shortcut button to any feature you use the most.

Switch any section off in settings. It stays off.

WHY IT FEELS DIFFERENT

Nothing here makes up reasons to pull you back. No algorithms trying to learn who you are. No notifications to tickle your dopamine. News ends. Music stops when the album ends. The browser will not autoplay video at you. Alerts stay off until you turn them on.

Pick a retro font. Pick a size. Day, night, or following the sun.

SETTING UP

The guide is in the app. Pop our widgets on the home screen, tuck everything else away, black wallpaper, grayscale with a triple-click to bring color back. Ten minutes.

YOUR DATA

We don't like having our data harvested so we don't collect yours. No account. No server. No analytics. No third-party SDK. Sync uses your own iCloud if you want it.

WHAT YOU NEED

An iPhone running iOS 18 or later.

THE PRICE

Free for fourteen days, everything unlocked. Then one purchase, once. No subscription. Nothing else to buy.