How to turn your cell phone into an mp3 player without notifications or distractions

Let’s tell you how to turn your cell phone into an MP3 playerso you can dedicate it solely to playing music without any other distractions. You are going to do this so much with an old cell phone to which you want to give a new life as with a new one when you want to use it only to listen to music.

Our mobile phone is the control center of our digital life, and at all times we receive notifications, notices, updates, and the eternal temptation to use it to write messages or browse social networks. But what happens when you want to isolate yourself from the world and have your phone only serve to listen to music and podcasts?

In these cases, you may be tempted to simply buy a new device, a media player that is not so connected to everything and only serves that purpose. But before spending money, you should try doing this on your current mobile to see if it is enough.

Let’s tell you two ways to limit your mobile to listen to music. One is going to be less aggressive, that of limiting all notifications and interruptions that could take you out of your musical bubble. And the second will be more aggressive, to directly limit your mobile.

First decide where you will listen to the music

The first choice you have is to decide where you are going to listen to your music. And here you will have many options, both music streaming services and other native alternatives to have greater control over the musical content you have.

Here we leave you a list of alternatives which you can opt for:

• streaming service: Spotify and Apple Music are the most popular music streaming services, with other alternatives like Tidal quite close behind. If you don’t want algorithms, you can opt for Qobuz, which has better music quality, without music inserted as an advertisement, and a clean experience that is like entering a record store, without sacrificing the ability to have playlists.
• YouTube-based streaming: You also have available free alternatives to Spotifymany of which they use YouTube or other pages as a source. Come on, they create a streaming service with albums and everything, and use YouTube to extract the music from their videos.
• Create your own Spotify: You also have applications for create your own Spotify. They usually do this by having an application on the computer to turn it into a server, and then be able to play the music over the Internet on other devices. You will need to have your main computer on, although many will allow you to download music. The most popular option is set up your own Spotify with Plexbut there are other interesting alternatives.
• Have your music on your mobile and use a player: And then you have the more artisanal method. If you have digitized your music to convert your CDs into mp3, purchased digital music directly, or used any other method to build your own music library, you can simply put it in a folder in your phone’s memory and then use a music player. With alternatives like AIMP, Retro Music Player or Pulsar you can have everything: integration with lyrics, covers, tag editor, and everything you need.

And finally, you must think If you will listen to the music having an internet connection or not. In the event that you are not going to have a connection, make sure that if you use a service that takes music from the Internet such as Spotify or the alternatives, you download the albums that you are going to want to listen to directly on your mobile.

Set a focus mode

The least aggressive way to limit your phone to focus on the music listening experience is set up a focus mode. With this, what we are going to do is prevent notifications from appearing or that no application or phone call can bother us while we have our mode active for when we listen to music.

If you want to create a concentration mode on Android, you have to go to your mobile settings. Inside, click on the section Modes. Inside here, click on the option Create your own way to make a custom one. On iOS, the option is called Concentration modes.

In both cases, you will have to give it a name and an icon. This is up to you, but I suggest it be something recognizable, such as a reference to listening to music and an icon like headphones.

Each operating system has its options, but they are quite unified. The most important thing is that make two specific changes on Android or iOS when you are creating this mode:

• Don’t create a schedule: This is so that the mode is activated automatically at certain times. In this case, I recommend not setting a schedule and using it manually, activating it only when you are going to use it.
• Turn off notifications: Disable the option Allow all notificationsand don’t allow any app to send you notifications. Perhaps, you can set an exception such as very close family so that if they call you the call will ring, but what are notifications you can deactivate them all, so that you do not receive any notice, and thus you can escape and not look at what is happening.
• Make very few exceptions: On both Android and iOS you will be able to set an application as an exception so that its notifications appear. You may want to put something like emails, but always try to remove messaging and social media apps, and this way you will avoid the main distractions.

There are apps that make your screens minimalist

But of course, with all the changes we have made we have altered the behavior of the mobile, but we still have home screens full of app icons and distractions. Fortunately, There are applications to alter your home screen and make it have much fewer distractions.

The idea is that the home screen changes its interface, and instead of being a desktop with icons it is a list of functions such as messages, photos, etc. You will be able to customize everything. These are the most popular applications to get it:

• Dumbify for Android. The most popular of all and that made us all know that you can make your smartphone dumb, and that there are no apps on the home screen. You have it for free on Google Play for Android.
• Dumbify for iOS: The original, the one that made everyone pay attention to these apps. On iOS it is paid and costs 5.99 euros. This in the App Store.
• Niagara Launcher. A popular minimalist launcher where you can configure your Android to run any app from a minimalist interface. Is available on Google Play.
• Minimalist Phone. Inspired by Dumbify, it allows you to restrict access to a handful of apps by creating a 100% minimalist home screen. It works quite well for free for a week, although you have to avoid the subscription notices. you have it in the App Store.
• Indistract Minimalist Launcher. Another minimalist launcher that reduces the functions of the phone to focus attention on the essentials. It is available for free on Google Play; with in-app purchases.

You can also be more radical

It is obvious that you are not going to do it with your everyday cell phone, but maybe you can buy an old cell phone or use one that you have at home, uninstall all apps and use it only to listen to music. You won’t need as many complications, and since you have uninstalled everything it will use much less battery.

The positive part is that if you insert a SIM, you can maintain basic functions such as receiving calls in case there is an emergency while you are away, so it is still a quite interesting alternative.

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