While I'm aware of the various de-googled versions of Android, and various other Linux-based non-Android platforms, I'm afraid I can't offer any recommendations, because I have no experience with any of them - or of Android or IOS, either. I don't have a smartphone. Or a dumbphone.
The others contributing in this thread have mentioned some I wasn't familiar with. Anecdotally, running any non-mainstream phone OS means putting up with a lot of quirks, but perhaps they have had better experiences.
I've run into this with a number of businesses. I'm also with you that as far as I know, there's no way to text a "regular" landline.
The stupid part of this is that this problem is both solvable *and* detectable in advance. I've written integrations with the big communications providers, that you use to let your application/website send texts - there is a mostly-reliable way to query "can this number receive texts?" before you try to send a text, and they generally also give you the option to send a robot-voice message, so you can fall back to that.
Without being too much Old Man Yells At Cloud, I'm pretty much in agreement with others that say that these kinds of fails are the result of young / inexperienced designers or developers not considering anything outside of their personal experience - most of them have never used a phone that couldn't send and receive texts. They don't even contemplate the possibility of a user of their system not being in exactly the same circumstances as themselves. This kind of oversight should be caught by project management, but ... 🤷
#OldManYellsAtCloud #phone #landline #ancient #WebDev #designer #comms #SMS #API #management
Any experience with Cell2Jack? Keen to hear if this might work for older relatives.
Turn Your Smartphone into a Landline using Cell2Jack
📱 ➡️ ☎️
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDN_4Le5d8A
#VOIP #GoogleVoice #Cell2Jack #Telephone #Landline #SpencersAdventures
The Alabama Landline That Keeps Ringing
https://oxfordamerican.org/oa-now/the-alabama-landline-that-keeps-ringing
#HackerNews #Alabama #Landline #Keeps #Ringing #Story #Technology #Nostalgia #Communication
Juggling the idea of getting a #landline in 2025....
I just watched the Queensland floods special of #ABC #Landline and a few things stood out.
First, there were no perspectives from Aboriginal people or communities in western Queensland. I understand the show is primarily focused on farming, but you would think they could offer at least the same amount of airtime that they gave to the women rescuing her cats.
Second, half a million livestock are estimated to be drowned or starved as a consequence of the flooding, and there is an inevitability that future floods will occur. Should we be having a discussion about the ethics and viability of keeping livestock in western Queensland where flood and drought are so prevalent?
The old 4-1-1
Directory Assistance
Pre-Google help line
#Haiku #OneHaikuADay #WritersCollective #writingcommunity #BackToHaiku #411 #Directory #Assistance #DirectoryAssistance #Telephone #Phone #Operator #MayIHelpYou #Landline
April 11, 2025
Did anybody else wake up thinking that they’d find a #Crest (toothpaste) #landline phone at an estate sale today? No? Me either, but here they are!
I love a good #Landline story.
This is #ourABC at its best: a thoroughly-researched and well-edited piece on feral cat eradication on #KangarooIsland from Kerry Staight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukJY3fjWzyA
I know not many people bother with a #landline anymore, but if you're slightly technical the comfort of having a fixed phone that you don't lose in the sofa cushions, and only costs $30-40 a year is pretty nice.
Plus it has an API so you can do some fun stuff with it… if you get around to it.
Had a thought over the weekend that our #VoIP service has a separate E911 entry from the main account, and the address might not be sync'd.
Sure enough that's the case - if you have an E911 provider, you should prob check that. If I'd called 911 they would've been dispatched to the old place. Ugh. Fixed now.
This might be useful for other UK people on an FTTC broadband package who make zero use of the bundled landline telephone service.
My ISP (Aquiss) recently announced a forthcoming £3 pcm price bump due to the retail cost of the service from OpenReach.
In the same email they also pointed out that SoGEA is a thing, where you can have an FTTC broadband service without the associated landline service. Thus, you can save money by not paying for something you don't use.
As I've not had a phone plugged into the landline for a couple of years now, and never received any useful call on it for years before that, I leapt at the chance to reduce my bill.
In my case rather than going up by £3 pcm my bill will now go down by £8 pcm, so a saving of £11 pcm compared to what I would have paid after the price increase.
So, even if your ISP hasn't said anything about this it might be worth asking them about migrating to SoGEA instead of the usual FTTC with bundled landline.
There's more on the difference between SoGEA and normal FTTC service here: https://www.switchcraft.co.uk/broadband/types/what-is-sogea-broadband-everything-you-need-to-know/
Additionally, for anyone else on Aquiss, be aware that switching might involve changing IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. I'm still on addresses they lease from CityFibre, who are getting out of that business, so am being migrated to Aquiss's own pools as part of this change.
#Digital Voice switchover cut off 95-year-old's landline
My 95-year-old friend is in distress. His #landline has stopped working & he’s told by his provider #EE that he may need to accept a new phone number to get his service back
He lives alone & relies on his phone for human contact
It will be a challenge for him to let people know his new number and he risks being cut off from #medical #communications
I'm finding it increasingly difficult assisting people with using landline phones. At first it was folks forgetting the basics (like dialing the country code and area code), now it is people not understanding how to make a call at all.
I'm tempted to record education to demonstrate how to use a phone as well as basic phone etiquette (like leaving voicemail and what it should contain), but I don't know how to present it in a way that isn't intellectually insulting.
भारत में 10 अंकों के होंगे लैंडलाइन नंबर, TRAI ने लिया बड़ा फैसला
https://www.change.org/p/save-our-landlines-stop-forced-digital-switchovers-keep-heather-safe
The digital switchover isn't just an issue for older people. Copper pair landlines are (pretty much) guaranteed to work if there's a (local) power cut. This isn't true of the Internet, or Internet connected devices. And how reliable are mobile phone signals? We will all be at risk.
