Our smartphones are a constant distraction. They are also the source of dangers and conflict never experienced before but we now live in a time where certain aspects of smartphones are a necessity. A startup called “Wisephone” aims to solve the problem but it’s a drastic solution and certainly not one for everyone.

Wisephone by Techless is an overlay operating system that sits over the top of Android OS that is designed to simply a smartphone to the few basic essentials. It’s an operating system that without social media and allows users to become more present in the moments that matter. The moment we pick up out smartphone, the brain creates dopamine allowing us to feel rewarded and keeps us going back for more and more.

The purpose of Wisephone is to limit the reasons you need to pick up your phone and allow you to connect to people around you that really matter. The features available on Wisephone include, Maps, location tracking, messaging, photos, as well as the phone’s standard features such as alarm, clock, stop watch, timer, world clock calculator and weather.

As I said, this is a pretty drastic option for many but it could be great for a child’s first phone or you could load the software on to a secondary phone that you use on weekends. It is possible to factory reset a phone back to the standard Android software but it does take a couple of days to do, compared with the couple of hours it takes to set it up.

Wisephone is running a kickstarter campaign that will allow backers to access the software.

EFTM’s coverage of CES 2020 is supported by Samsung, Hisense, Sony, Intel, Swann, Uber, Vodafone, LG & Dell – full details of our commercial interests and disclosures are here