Vote with your wallet
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The Light Phone
There are not very many companies that I would enthusiastically like to support. One, for now, is Light. Unlike their competitors they don't advertise their anti-social media device on social media. They *do* have an Instagram account but they don't pay to slip ads between Instagram stories. I'm skeptical of faceless distraction-free-centered devices that would use the tools of the attention economy to sell me an antidote. Light promotes by word-of-mouth from their users, reviews, content creator advocates, interviews on podcasts, and the like.
They offer a carbon offset on their devices. They are vocal in their opposition to planned obsolescence, so in their 10 years of operation they've only released three very different phones with thoughtful use cases in mind. Adding to that the one I use, The Light Phone II, has been receiving support since 2020 and they have no plans to end-of-life the device anytime soon. They are openly opposed to Meta's privacy practices and have been very thoughtful of incorporating apps like navigation and podcasts which on most devices would collect loads of data. Their privacy policies are very easy to read. By the minimalist nature of their devices security risks are low. Save for the fact that SMS and voice are insecure on every device.
My biggest challenge at the start of using my Light Phone II was the thought that I would be replacing my iPhone. Like a lot of my Big Tech divestment some of it is just about curbing how of my time, money, and energy I give to it. My iPhone 12 Mini sits in a drawer until it needs to come out.
Note I have not really reviewed the phone itself. There are a lot of reviews out there by people who are well practiced at that kind of writing. I'm more interested in the company behind it. This is like supporting the proverbial local business. They are a small team, independently owned, things cost a little more, they move a little slower, the selection isn't as big but dammit I hate having to go to the big box store just because I have to. I'm tired of nihilistically giving my money a large company that has nothing but contempt for me. I worked hard for my money and they haven't proved that they're worth it. The co-founder of Light on the other hand has directly responded to questions and issues for me on their subreddit and email. I hope this isn't their "don't be evil" era and it's really just who they are. I hope, instead of Light becoming massive there are just more companies like them.
My one gripe is that they don't have an SDK. Their set of apps are highly intentional and they are very careful to not rush a feature to the phone that breaks with their philosophy. I love the curatorial approach but right now they lack a dialogue with the public that Apple and Google do not. iOS and Android have app stores that anyone can contribute to and expand their platform's potential. The only way Light moves its potential is really through financial support. That needs to change. I don't think a free-for-all development kit is the answer but they need a good solution that reflects Light. I think until they do there is a moral question around Light OS benefiting from an open source project and disallowing a community of devs from contributing to Light's success. To me it's an important reminder that they are not anti-corporate, they are counter-corporate. And if they decide that Light OS must remain a walled garden then I'll need to call it quits. To their credit, the founders have recognized this as a bottleneck and they want to find a good answer. So I’m confident that they will arrive at the best answer for their company. I’ll just have to see if that aligns with what I’m willing to support.