The digital detox vibe is real, and one company may have the answer in the form of a gadget that turns an Apple Watch into a phone. Sort of.

Smartphones may be what most people are looking for in their daily lives, but in recent years we’ve heard that some people have gone in the opposite direction. Not towards a big screen, but towards something smaller. Much smaller.

That’s the world associated with the “digital detox,” a phrase that suggests you might want to ditch the doomscrolling, void-filling technology associated with modern phones, and return to a simpler time that encouraged you to get outside, and spend time away from a screen. Whatever that may be.

That’s partly why older phone styles are becoming popular again, with devices like reinventions of classic Nokia phones popping up with a focus on minimalist features. A smaller screen, a T9 keypad, a low-end camera and a complete lack of apps.
This is the domain of the major digital detox mobile, but there are other options.

In recent months, the Light Phone has emerged as an alternative: a phone with relatively good specifications, but a black-and-white screen that prevents you from staring at the screen endlessly.

However, one company has a clever idea for a dumb phone concept, taking a gadget that many already own and giving it a new look. as a phone.

It’s called the “TinyPod” and it’s an $80 case for the Apple Watch that looks a lot like the original iPod, complete with a click wheel on the bottom that uses the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown as a scroll wheel.

The appearance is of a classic iPod made small, while the Apple Watch is at the heart, which is smart because it is an Apple Watch with a mobile phone. can much of what a phone can do, albeit on a smaller screen. It can make calls and send messages, albeit the latter is a bit fiddly. It can play music on Bluetooth earphones, and it can give you a glimpse of the news, although it can’t read a full article.

In many ways, the Apple Watch can function like a tiny phone, which is what makes the TinyPod so appealing: snap an Apple Watch into place and it’s not far from a tiny dumb phone. There’s no camera, but since the camera is typically one of the least impressive parts of any digital detox dumb phone feature phone, then maybe it doesn’t matter.

Of course you want the Apple Watch with cellular for calling and messaging support, but you also need an eSIM-ready operator. In Australia, that’s all the big players and a handful of smaller ones, but not every telco has the support.

The TinyPod does have one thing going for it: at $80, it’s an inexpensive way to make a phone smaller when you want or need to.

Don’t want to switch to a dumb phone, but just want to go iPhone-free for a weekend? Snap the Watch in and people can still reach you. It’s definitely smart, and works with a range of models, from the tiny Apple Watch SE to the extra-large Apple Watch Ultra and Ultra 2.

TinyPod will also have a cheaper model for $30 that ditches the click wheel altogether, exposing the Digital Crown, which acts more like a skin than a case. It’s a similar concept, but even cheaper.

Whether the TinyPod will make it to local Australian distributors remains to be seen, but it’s certainly one of the most eye-catching takes on a digitally detoxing dumbphone we’ve seen yet. And one to keep an eye on.