By: Martyn Boyd (Pre-Release Backer)
I’m old enough to remember the emergence of “mobile phones” as we call them in the UK (Cell phones across the Atlantic!) sometime in the mid to late 1980s. I distinctly recall the first time I saw one on the day my late father opened a shop and one of the suppliers had this huge box with an ariel and a handset. Completely impractical (he spent more time trying and failing to get a signal than using it!), yet fascinating and a shape of things to come. I was actually quite an early adopter of the first real wave of mobiles that could be carried around and finally reflected their name, sometime in late 1992. Call and receive only (no memory for numbers, no texting!) and purely analogue, powered by 6 non-rechargeable batteries!
A mere 18 months later with a smaller handset I was making calls from a rugby international at Twickenham to my wife (next to some rather bemused other fans) to tell her where my good friend Stan and I were sat and that she’d be able to see us when the Queen unveiled a new plaque right in front of us and sure enough, there we were on national TV. Quite the modern marvel.
Fast forward just over 30 years and many more purchases in between to the now much more advanced and evolved “smartphone”, the now ubiquitous and “essential” tool for us to navigate our everyday lives. From banking to parking the car, ordering a meal at a restaurant to keeping in touch and taking photos and videos then instantly sharing them with family, friends and complete strangers on social media platforms. The list is endless, as are, it seems, the possibilities.
Unfortunately, with that “convenience” and ability to do things on a small device few, if any of us could have foreseen (least of all me as I checked out that bulky, impractical ancestor in my dad’s shop) just a few decades ago, comes downsides we aren’t often ready to acknowledge and discuss. One small example – my first job was working in a bank for four years before I trained as a nurse. If I had told anybody in my first branch in 1982 that in less than 40 years, almost all banking would be conducted on a small device little larger than a credit card and most branches of my own and other similar banks would be closing and cash would account for so few transactions, they’d have laughed. This was a “job for life” I was told! Repeat that across retail and other industries and the impact has been unparalleled.
Another consequence has been the sheer amount of time the average person spends on their smartphone every single day, usually linked to just how often we reach for them to “check” for notifications and then get caught “doomscrolling” through social media and other apps. It's not unusual that the first thing we do in the morning and last thing at night is to “check our phone”. No wonder that smartphone addiction is a recognized and growing problem, particularly amongst young people, who end up chasing “likes” on apps and can get serious anxiety issues as a result. They have literally never known the “pre-smartphone age” and could barely contemplate life without one. A cursory internet search for “smartphone addiction” makes for sobering reading and highlights some very worrying stats and effects 1 . And to bring in a personal note, as a recently retired grandfather, seeking to spend more quality time with his family and seek other pursuits, that “temptation” to use increasingly wasted precious time on a smartphone is a real challenge!
So what’s the answer? Again being honest and tapping into personal experience, I have endeavoured to crack the “phone issue” by going primitive and down the “dumb phone" route. Unfortunately I have found these to be too limited in the sort of essential functionality that most people now need to “get by”, let alone prosper in the current social setting. There are some really innovative attempts to crack this need that are worthy of serious consideration, they have their limitations. Like the Lightphone, which I own and have tried to use, but sadly it’s small size and limited range of Apps – or “tools” as they are termed, is too restricted and currently doesn’t include WhatsApp, which is a dealbreaker for me as it is pretty much the primary means of communication here in the UK and amongst my family.
It was with this sense of frustration and then growing hope, relief and delight that I recently discovered the SLEKE. Phone, which I truly believe fills the gap between the smartphone and the dumb/feature phone. Co-founders Austin Boer and Brennan Jordan are very clear about their aims and their their mission statement “More life, less phone” caught my attention immediately.
They state on their website that SLEKE. “makes a smartphone which helps people to interact in the real world while eliminating what they find most distracting about their mobile devices. The phone includes communication and utility oriented features and excludes anything that is meant to pull us away from living our real lives.”
Whilst the project is in its infancy (currently relying on a dedicated group of beta testers who are providing essential feedback to the SLEKE. team who then refine releases with the aim of moving to full retail versions), it is very focussed and working on what I am convinced will appeal to a lot of people across various demographics.
Their App Store is necessarily locked and limited in content and has some understandable “no’s and never’s”, so you won’t find social media, games, multimedia or even a web browser. What it does have, is a growing number of community suggested, SLEKE.-approved apps that include all the “essentials” most people actually need rather than would “like”, but which end up wasting too much of their precious time on. Maps, a QR code reader, banking, music streaming, car parking and travel apps for example – tick, tick and tick again. The community can also suggest new apps not currently in the SLEKE. App Store and if they meet the criterion, they will be added.
The “no browser” solution is both innovative, functional and in my view, sheer genius. SLEKE. offer an “Answer Engine” instead – simply type a query and it offers a text-based answer. No links to click, but enough to give you the information you may need on the go. The implications are clear – here is a phone that is functional but useable and safe for youngsters who won’t click on dodgy links and/or be exposed to the less savoury side of the internet. It truly is a real answer for an incredibly untapped market. It is also very secure and private – another factor I feel is essential, so your data is not harvested by “Big Tech” to analyse your profile and feed you endless spooky adverts based on your useage. They are also currently relying on upscaled and reformatted Google Pixel phones for their custom Odyssey (Android based) operating system so helping reduce waste. Perfect!
The team are very open to feedback and working with their customers. I have personally had a fascinating video call with Austin and he is genuinely interested in hearing from people who share the SLEKE. vision and help the company grow in the right way. This is a common feature – regular calls with their users to further refine the product based on suggestions and feedback. As a result, there are further exciting, innovative plans in the pipeline for the company and how the team are looking to develop their phones and I am genuinely fully on board with them.
I am very hopeful indeed that SLEKE. offer a real answer for people like me and anyone else seeking freedom from smartphone overuse and even addiction and have identified a gap in the market that they deserve to be able to tap into and help users make the most of their lives without being a slave to technology that really can, as they are demonstrating, be a help and not a hindrance. I wish them every success and look forward to helping Austin, Brennan and the SLEKE. team enhance a growing number of lives.
1 https://www.addictioncenter.com/behavioral-addictions/phone-addiction/