Ask HN: I want a modern 2-way pager with clamshell keyboard. Does this exist?

21 points by 0des 3 years ago | 13 comments

No calls, no voicemail, no email, no bluetooth, no apps, no touch. I only want to send/receive SMS. I envision something like 2-way pagers used to work. Radio network or phone network is not as much of a big deal to me, as long as I can interface with SMS.

What are my options? All of the pager service sites I found have broken pages and contacts, and their hardware costs 1996 money with AA battery slots.

By "modern" I mean things like this:

- encrypted transit, when using a gateway to send from radio to SMS.

- rechargeable via USB or solar, not AA battery swapping. AA is fine if it can be charged in device.

- microsd or some type of removable storage for contacts, maybe message storage

- 6 line screen instead of 2 or 3

- LED backlight or Indiglo type illumination of characters

- something e-paper like would be cool from a practicality perspective, but this would likely hurt the price.

- some form of water/dust/lint resistance would be a big plus.

jrexilius 3 years ago |

I'm actually building something like this this year. I will likely be open sourcing it so you can build your own as well. But it's worth spelling out _why_ you want that limited functionality set (i.e. threat model, if that's your driver). There are scenarios where you can decouple your physical location and still Tx/Rx text messages, but with some limitations and caveats. But if you are fine with carrier tracking (and everyone else they sell that data to), it may be pretty simple to build yourself today. Ping me if you'd like to keep up with the project or want a data dump of my research thus far.

0des 3 years ago | |

Thank you, I found your contact info and will reach out soon.

I came up with some ideas to put together something resembling option 2. My main focus is not having the ability to accept a phone call or voicemail, or rich media; privacy is a plus, but to be honest that was not my motivation. The desire for modern customary encryption mentioned in the post above was because iirc the old pager networks were more easily snooped than modern SMS. As long as the experience is compatible with an on par with SMS, I'm happy.

If I had a magic wand: ideally, this would operate just like a dumb phone, but without the ability to make calls, take pictures, browse the net, anything of that sort. I just want to activate the display, see a list of SMS messages or contacts, and respond to them. Wifi interfaces and all that would diminish the experience for me.

I'm thinking if I wanted to put this together for fun, it'd be most likely to happen in a pocket size (hopefully without JNCO jeans) by using a small raspberry pi, small e-ink module, some type of mobile radio like an LTE shield w/ sim if that exists, and maybe for the first iteration a chopped up tiny keyboard. Slap it all together between a few layers of acrylic and it could work.

Alas, currently blocked and limited to pen and paper by the lack of raspberry pi stock available.

jrexilius 3 years ago | | |

One issue to note is carrier. ATT is now blocking devices that are not on their "approved" list. You may need to go with an alt carrier like Hologram or TMobile: https://www.hologram.io/products/iot-sim-card

vgeek 3 years ago |

Unihertz Titan Pocket/Slim are bar phones with physical keyboards and Android. They don't match your criteria that closely, but they are the most distinct offerings that I've seen in the past few years.

gotorazor 3 years ago |

> No calls, no voicemail, no email, no > apps, no touch. Rechargeable is a plus. I > envision something like 2-way pagers used > to work. Radio network or phone network > is not as much of a big deal to me.

So what is this device suppose to do if it doesn't connect to any wireless networks? Just take text notes?

Or, do you mean that you do want ONLY texting? But then you need all your friends to have one of these devices to text with you as well.

Texting phones & Blackberries, and only later, generic smartphones, replaced for 99% of all industies, pagers. Pagers are still a thing only for industies that never bothered changing or had some esoteric requirements (pagers are suppose to use a lower frequency that passes thru thick walls better.)

They still sell basic texting phones. SMS only

0des 3 years ago | |

What texting-only phones are you able to find? I'm having a hard time forming a potent search query for those. I keep getting support threads for people who have phones that can text but have a broken calling feature.

2-way pagers worked for SMS, that's essentially what I'm looking for, but on modern hardware, meaning I'd rather it be rechargeable through a port than have a AA battery slot, maybe a microsd slot for my contacts and messages.

The existing 2-way pagers work over conventional networks as well as radio networks that relay SMS and email through a gateway, which is why I specified that I was not concerned which method, I just prefer that it does SMS, perhaps natively.

The recipient, as with 2-ways, can use any method or hardware of SMS to send/reply.

Gordonjcp 3 years ago | | |

Why don't you just get a candybar Nokia and be done with it?

c4ptnjack 3 years ago |

They still use pagers in the medical industry if that helps your search. I support a service that uses them for communicating with patients and doctors on-site from nurse stations and for relaying alerts. They're often issued as needed for temporary use.

0des 3 years ago | |

If you don't mind me asking, what models are these pagers and what service is it through? I looked for a few plans and only found a single company that seemed to remain active. They offered prepaid plans for up to two years.

msh 3 years ago |

Why not get a phone with long battery life, like some of the cheap androids from companies like unihertz or a Nokia with keios. Then forward automatically all calls to your voicemail that just have a message saying this number don't take calls.

Then use sms or any messenger of your choice.

laksdjf 3 years ago |

not clamshell, satellite texting device:

https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Protection-Globalstar-Subsc...

maybe you need to build your own device from a 4g module, arduino, etc.

0des 3 years ago | |

Thank you. The stage I'm at right now is something in this realm. I'm seeing people who are able to send/recv SMS via raspberry pi zero + cell radio, so I'm currently looking at my options.