Envelope - temporarily transform your phone into a simpler, calmer device
A set of envelopes which temporarily transform your phone into a simpler, calmer device, helping you to take a break away from your digital world.
Many people feel that they spend too much time on their phones and struggle to find a balance with technology.
We have designed a series of special paper envelopes which completely transform the functionality of your smartphone for the time it is sealed inside, allowing you to enjoy fewer distractions for a little while.
One envelope turns your phone into a very basic device which can only make and receive calls, while the other turns your phone into a photo and video camera with no screen, helping you to focus on what’s in front of you.
Printed buttons which subtly light up allow you to dial and take photographs, creating a calm but magical “Envelope User Interface”.
We were inspired by a recent trend where people purchase a second, simpler phone for holidays and weekends, as a way of limiting their access to technology. We wanted to create a more accessible version of this, which would enable people to try a day without a phone without committing to purchasing a new device.
Paper Phone is an experimental open source Android app which is available to try right now, all of the code is available on Github for people to play with and hopefully adapt and evolve!
Find out more on our site: specialprojects.studio/project/envelope/
Find out more on Experiments with Google: experiments.withgoogle.com/envelope
Download the Android app (Currently we only support the Google Pixel 3a.
): play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.specialprojects.experiments.envelopecall
Get the code on GitHub
github.com/specialprojects-experiments/envelope