Everyone knows the two top mobile operating systems. It’s Apple’s iOS, and Google’s Android.
But what about the third mobile operating system. What is that?
The answer might surprise you: KaiOS.
It might be far behind the iPhone and Android, but it’s on 80 million phones and counting, which is no small number.
And get this: it’s not billed as a smartphone platform!
Are we in wacky land or what?
Smart feature phones?
KaiOS is billed as a “light operating system” for “smart feature phones”.
My head already hurts. Smart feature phones? What are we even talking about?
Okay, let’s take a look at the phones that use this operating system. They certainly present as feature (non-smart) phones.
There is the JioPhone (in India):
There’s the Doro 7060 (in Europe):
In the US, there’s the Alcatel Cingular Flip:
And of course there’s the Nokia 8810, a reboot of that phone from the Matrix.
Apps?
Okay, so these phones have actual buttons, with no touch screens.
They don’t do multitasking, but they do 4G…
…and they have apps.
KaiOS is designed as a web platform, kind of like how a Chromebook has a web-based operating system.
With this in mind, it means that apps with a web presence can be ported to the operating system.
Some of the apps that are currently available in KaiOS phones are:
- YouTube
- Google Maps
- Google Assistant
Hell, that’s pretty much the entire internet for most people.
Google Assistant is pretty interesting. Most people don’t really like to T9 these days (though I’m a wizard at it if I do say so myself), so a voice assistant that allows people to talk to their phones instead of typing seems like a handy feature.
What really is a smartphone?
But all of this brings up an uncomfortable question: Are we looking at a smartphone or not?
If the question feels academic to you, then maybe a better question to ask is: does this kind of phone provide the kind of distraction, addiction, and compulsion that smartphones have been proven to provide?
On one hand, just the existence of the internet on a phone is enough to give me pause. I don’t have a data plan, and specifically don’t want one.
But on the other hand, with such a small screen and such a clunky interface, is it even possible for these phones to pose a problem? Can you really picture couples having an argument because one of them is always on their JioPhone?
Do apps make a smartphone? Does a touchscreen make a smartphone? Does multitasking make a smartphone?
What this does tell me is that the line between smartphone and non-smartphone is getting more and more blurred. Which proves to be even more of a challenge than the difficulty of buying a new phone that isn’t a smartphone.
When any dichotomy becomes exposed as being faulty, it forces ourselves to ask what’s really important.
I know I didn’t start this site because I prefer buttons to touchscreens. I care more about our relationship to tech—and how it affects our relationship to each other—than any specific piece of tech.
Might it to be fun to be like Neo? I know you’re out there.
