Escaping the Digital Treadmill: How to Daily Drive a Flip phone in 2025 - TCL Flip 2

I finally did it. After years of feeling like my phone owned me instead of the other way around, I purchased a TCL Flip 2 – an Android-powered flip phone with no touchscreen. Yeah, a dumbphone-ish device in 2025. And I regret nothing.

Why I Made the Switch

My anxiety was increasing from being TOO connected. Every notification, every app icon, every mindless scroll through social media was taking its toll. I'd pick up my phone to check the weather and find myself 30 minutes later still staring at the screen, having accomplished nothing but raising my cortisol levels.

But I wasn't ready to go full 1990s Nokia. I still wanted certain modern conveniences: Music, podcasts, and maps were non-negotiable. I needed a middle ground – something that would let me disconnect without completely dropping off the digital map.

Disclaimers

• I am a software engineer, and a linux user (Arch, btw), so the terminal is a safe space for me.

• I spent at least 20 hours setting up this phone. Worth it, but it was work. Hopefully this guide will help others avoid my mistakes.

• This switch is not convenient. I still have a smartphone and I do use it EVERYDAY. I use my smartphone for recipes, smart home devices, and checking for any work related critical messages. It lives in a corner of my kitchen, and never comes away from that spot. I still feel that is a mighty accomplishment.

Life After the Switch

It's only been a week, but the difference is definitely noticeable.

Waking up to no notifications is genuinely life-changing. My mornings are calmer, more intentional. I check messages when I'm ready, not when my phone decides to demand my attention.

Using my phone for legitimate actions used to be a minefield of distractions. Opening my phone to call someone often resulted in 20 minutes of social media scrolling before I remembered my original purpose. Now, when I flip open my phone, I do what I need to do and close it. Task completed, life continues.

The separation between different parts of my life has improved dramatically. I still use email at work, but it doesn't intrude into my personal time. My digital boundaries are physical now – opening and closing the phone creates a deliberate action that makes me more conscious of how and when I'm using technology.

And then there's the look on people's faces when I pull out a flip phone. Confusion, amusement, curiosity – and almost always, a conversation starter. "Is that... a flip phone?" Yes, yes it is. And it's made my life better.

Is This For You?

This setup isn't for everyone. It requires technical know-how, patience, and a willingness to occasionally be inconvenienced for the greater good of your mental health. But if you're feeling owned by your smartphone, if you're tired of the endless scroll, if you want technology to serve you rather than command you – it might be worth considering.

You don't have to go as extreme as I did. Maybe it's just removing social media apps, or setting up focus modes. The point isn't the specific solution – it's recognizing when technology has crossed the line from helpful to harmful, and doing something about it.

As for me, I'll be over here, flipping my phone closed with a satisfying snap after each use, and enjoying the quiet that follows.

The Hardware

I bought the TCL Flip2 on Amazon for a whopping $30. It is unlocked, runs Android 11, and has a decent-ish build quality.
The phone has an ARM processor, Bluetooth, and a camera. For the price I think it is a steal, but I'm a bit biased.

The Technical Journey: "How to ruin a phone"

After some research, I settled on the TCL Flip 2. It runs Android, but with a physical keypad and a non-touch display. Perfect starting point, but I needed to make some modifications. Probably doesn't need to be said, but do this at your own risk.

1. Root the phone

I rooted the device and installed a custom ROM/Magisk. This gave me the superuser access I needed to make the phone usable. I used neutronscott's repository and ROM, which are specifically designed for this phone.
Tip: If you are new to the terminal, you can paste with CTRL+SHIFT+V

• Follow the instructions in the installation section here: Neutronscott Github

• I flashed this image with no issues.

• You should also enable adb access by dialing *#*#DEBUG#*#* or (*#*#33284#*#*) into the phone's dialer.

• With the phone plugged into the computer, you should be able to type adb shell into the terminal and connect to the device. Type exit to disconnect and go back.

• In this guide I will assume that you are disconnected from adb shell, and I will include adb shell in all commands. If you are connected you can drop adb shell from the commands. If you get an error /system/bin/sh: adb: inaccessible or not found, then you are still connected.

2. Change the screen Resolution

Next, I had to change the screen resolution to make apps usable on the smaller display. After we get the store installed, you can experiment more with an app.

• Run this command in your terminal: adb shell wm density 120

3. Install some needed apps from the terminal

We need some apps to get us going. The store is the biggest one, but the others are really handy and easy to install from here.
Download the following:

• Aurora Store - An app store that allows us to download more android apps with minimal effort
• Button Mapper - Allows us to use the keys to open apps and do other things
• Material Files - A files explorer that looks great. If you decide to use Magisk to load files, this will make it a lot easier. The default files explorer doesn't recognize zip files.

Install the apps by typing adb install-multiple *.apk into the terminal and pressing enter.

4. Install scrcpy for screen forwarding

Navigating some apps is literally impossible until we get a virtual mouse set up. Even with the mouse, some things are very difficult. Scrcpy is a utility that forwards the phone screen to our computer so we can use touch features.

• Follow the instructions here to install
• run scrcpy in your terminal
• you should now see you phone screen on your computer!
• use CTRL+C in the terminal window to stop sharing the screen
• right-clicking will emulate the back button press on the phone
• typing numbers is interesting - it is sometimes easier to just type them on the phone by holding each dial until the number appears

5. Set up a launcher

The default phone launcher doesn't show any custom apps that we install, so we need to give ourselves a facelift. I tried Nova Launcher, List Launcher, Lean Launcher, and none of them worked out for me. I found BeforeLauncher and fell in love. It is minimal, smooth and actually feels very slick. If any of you had a Zune in the past, the UI feels very Zune-like to me, and that just makes me happy.

• Dial *#*#217703#*#* to open a launcher with all apps
• Open the Aurora Store app
• You can be anonymous, or log in with google. I started anonymous and didn't have issues.
• Use the search to find Before Launcher and install - you have to press install, then wait for the download, press install again, press install on the next dialog, then wait until the button changes to open.
• Press the end button on the phone, you may have to press it a second time for the dialog to show asking which launcher you would like.
• Select Before launcher.
• The next time you press the end button, the dialog will show again and you can select "Always" to use Before launcher.

Now you can use the left key to see notifications, and the right key to see all of your apps!

6. Install MacroDroid and setup the virtual mouse

MacroDroid is a little heavy for this, but I think it is the easiest way to change system settings. We need a virtual mouse that can be turned on and off. The flip2 has a virtual mouse made for using in the browser. It works pretty well and I didn't have any luck installing the other virtual mouses from places like apps2flip. We can toggle it by running a shell command (optional).
Turn on: adb shell settings put system keyboard_pointer_enable 1
Turn off: adb shell settings put system keyboard_pointer_enable 0

Now we will use MacroDroid to toggle the mouse in a shortcut. Later we will map it to a button.

MacroDroid

• Install MacroDroid from the Aurora Store and open it. If asked for super user permissions, grant them.
• Create a macro - I called Mine "Toggle Pointer"
• Set the trigger to Shortcut Launched
• In actions, Add an "If clause" in the "Conditions/Loops"
• Add a condition -> Device State -> System Setting -> Setting Key = keyboard_pointer_enable -> Value = 0
• Select the new condition and follow:

Add child Action
Device Settings
System Setting
Setting Key = keyboard_pointer_enable
Value = 1
OK

• Select the condition again and press 'Add else/if clause', then repeat the step above for the else clause, except change the value to 0 instead of 1.

Your Macro should like like this:

Button Mapper

I used the Button Mapper app to map double tapping the Top Left "Soft Key" to the new macro. As a rule, I don't map any button as a single click, to avoid interfering with default functionality.

• Open Button Mapper and select Add Buttons
• Click the plus icon, press the top left key, and then use scrcpy to accept the selection.
• Open the new button, toggle Customize, and add to double tap: Shortcuts -> MacroDroid Shortcut -> Toggle Pointer
• Close Button Mapper and try double tapping the top left key. You should be able to move a virtual cursor around with the d-pad and click things now!

This mouse has some limitations, but it enabled me to use all of the apps I wanted. It doesn't really have scrolling, so you will get used to toggling it on and off to navigate apps.

Additionally, there are lots of hidden commands in the shortcuts to map to, I used these to map double tapping the star key to go to bluetooth, and double tapping the right soft key to open the default notifications.

7. Install some quality of life apps!

Now the reason we did all this! We can finally get some functionality going. We can use the aurora store to install all of these.

Podcasts: AntennaPod

I love this app. I had never used it before but it was recommended on a reddit thread somewhere. It is minimal, open source, has a fantastic UI and just gets out of the way. I will probably switch to this app on all of my devices.

Music: Apple Music

Apple music was the winner here. I tried to get Spotify working but I just couldn't get past the login stage. I was stuck on a "Verify you are human" page and couldn't move any further. Apple Music works good enough for me.

Maps: Waze

The waze app is simple and just gets the job done! Google maps requires google services enabled on the phone, and even though I found out how to do that, the actual app wouldn't really work. I have successfully navigated via audio instructions with waze, while also playing music from Apple Music over bluetooth!

Bonus - iMessage: BlueBubbles

BlueBubbles is a brilliant application that requires a lot of setup. If you have a Mac computer linked to you icloud, you can host a BlueBubbles server that will receive and send iMessages. Then, you can download the BlueBubbles app to use iMessage from you non-apple devices. The biggest caveat is that deactivating your iPhone can unlink your phone number from iMessage, and your iMessages will come from your icloud email address. BlueBubbles works great on the Flip2 though, and I use it everyday!

To be continued:

Android Auto

I wasn't able to get a working version of Android Auto (Carplay equivalent). I've gotten close, but am stuck now on a screen that states "Android Auto can't run on this device". I am unsure if this is a hardware limitation, but at this time I'm going to say that Android Auto is not possible on the Flip2.

Setting up microG (Google services)

Some applications require Google services. Installing microG gave me access to Google services without the full Google ecosystem. I needed this for notifications with BlueBubbles, and while attempting to make Android Auto work.
The detailed installation is a little too advanced for this post, but the general steps I used are:

• Install microG v3.2 (Services and Companion) from the official download page
• Install FakeGapps apk release 6.6
• Install LSPosed Magisk Module
• Reboot and then dial *#*#LSPOSED#*#*, enable FakeGapps in LSPosed
• Reboot and check the microG app to make sure all the checks are passed. Enable needed services here.
• Install "microG Installer Revived" Magisk module and reboot

Conclusion:

I hope this information helped you make either the best or worst decision of your life. Please feel free to comment or send me a message if you have issues, see a mistake, or have Android Auto working on the Flip 2!

Many thanks to everyone that documented all of this information and the community around these phones:
microgG Installer Revived - https://github.com/nift4
Magisk - https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk
LSPosed - https://github.com/LSPosed/LSPosed
neutronscott - https://github.com/neutronscott/flip2/
microG - https://microg.org/
whew-inc (FakeGapps fork) - https://github.com/whew-inc/FakeGApps
And many more..

Comments

[Kosher Boy]

Loved this article! Thanks.

I personally use this phone with LiteGapps. It slows down the phone a lot but it's worth it.

You my find this site jtechforums.org/invites/a6JXxdKiQK useful.

If you get anywhere with android auto please share here jtechforums.org/t/android-auto-on-.... It's something I wanted to have on my TCL Flip 2 for a while already.

PS Why don't you use NeutronScott's Magisk module as your virtual mouse?