Dumb Co sells flip phones that sync to your smartphone, bridging the infinite connectivity of the iPhone and the unrealistic limitations of an early 2000s relic.

When Lydia Peabody saw her friend pull out a flip phone at a party last year, she burst out laughing. “I was like, ‘Girl, what are you doing with that thing? That has to be a joke!’” Peabody told TechCrunch. But it wasn’t just a prop — her friend was participating in Month Offline, a community challenge in which a small cohort of people exchange their smartphones for flip phones. Peabody couldn’t fathom giving up her smartphone, but her friend inspired her. A year later, her life looks different. She left her career as a licensed therapist to become the founding CMO of Dumb Co, the flip phone company that grew out of Month Offline. She’s happier. “I did Month Offline, and I was like, ‘Whoa, why am I suddenly not anxious? Am I feeling good?’” she said. “I didn’t even know that this is what I needed, and that spending this much time on my screen after work was causing me to feel so yucky.” Dumb Co sells flip phones that sync to your smartphone, rather than replace it, forging a happy medium between the infinite connectivity of the iPhone and the unrealistic limitations of an early 2000s relic. Funded by friends and family, the company is run by a small team in their 20s and early 30s. Like their peers, they’re dissatisfied with the fast pace of plugged-in, frictionless life. They grew up with iPads and Instagram but now crave something simpler. In the humble shell of a $20 TCL flip phone, Dumb Co loads its own software so that users can access apps like WhatsApp, Spotify, Apple Music, and Uber. You can even access iMessage through a third-party app (shh, don’t tell Apple). By packaging familiar comforts like music streaming, maps, and blue bubble texts in a flip phone, Dumb Co is creating something for people who want to reduce their screen time and be more present but struggle to fully disconnect in a world built for the smartphone. “We are trying to make something where you can leave your smartphone at home and literally just live your life and engage with other people,” Afreka Ebanks, Dumb Co’s communications director, told TechCrunch. “And when you want to be on your smartphone and you come back home, you can use it, because the feature for call forwarding and text forwarding can be turned off.” I spent over a month testing the device — which Dumb Co calls the Dumb Phone — buoyed by the knowledge that in case of emergency, I always had my iPhone on hand. I didn’t use the Dumb Phone that much at first, but as I carried it around to show my friends, I noticed that they weren’t confused by my flip phone — they were envious of it.