[franciscop]

What do you do when you need it? Banking or CC app for mandatory 2FA? gvmt Covid mandatory app to travel anywhere? QR code for restaurants? Places that require an app in general?

This is ofc locale-dependent, but if before the pandemic you could barely live without a smartphone, today is just impossible (at least in the 2 countries I visit often).

[dcz_self]

> Banking or CC app for mandatory 2FA?

Switched banks.

> gvmt Covid mandatory app to travel anywhere?

There wasn't one, thank $DEITY (Germany).

> QR code for restaurants?

Never encountered one without a menu yet, but I'd just go to another one.

> Places that require an app in general?

Never encountered those, either. There was one on my offline backpacking trip which required digital payment. It was sad, but I had to forfeit.

[cobbaut]

Thanks, and indeed.

Some places do require an app and while there are alternatives, there may not be another choice in the future. But not today, most of my elderly neighbours also don't own a smartphone and yet they survive in this city (Antwerp).

Life without a smartphone is possible, and imho calmer and more relaxed.

[JohnFen]

> Banking or CC app for mandatory 2FA?

The easiest way to avoid this is by going physically to your bank branch.

> gvmt Covid mandatory app to travel anywhere?

Don't live in a country that does this, so I don't know.

> QR code for restaurants?

I ask for a menu.

> Places that require an app in general?

Haven't seen that happen yet. There are some parking lots that require an app to park in them, but I just park elsewhere. The laundry room in my apartment complex requires an app to pay, so I just go to the laundromat down the street instead.

I do have a smartphone, although I'll switch to the dumbest phone I can find when this one dies. I do not use any apps for doing any commerce or the like, though. It's far too risky for my taste.

[rex_gallorum2]

Banks tend to have some back up, such as a TAN generator. I have used those for Euro bank accounts that require 2FA. US bank accounts are usually fine with a phone number, which can be a dumb phone. There were no real covid restrictions where I live, and no app, so that was not a problem (but that is definitely something people should push back against, as it's horrifying). I would never, ever eat in a restaurant that required you to use a QR code. They can simply go to hell. It's mostly trendy places that do that, anyway, and I prefer hole-in- the-wall restaurants anyway. I understand this stuff is a lot more advanced in some countries, but even in the US it's pretty easy to get by without any of it.

[a_nop]

Aside, one of the best hacks for networking without a smartphone is a small notepad and a pen in your pocket. Write things down for yourself and others e.g. phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, reminders.

[BoxOfRain]

To be fair even the surveillance-obsessed UK offered a paper alternative to the vaccine passport scheme, although Partygate completely crippled the government's political capital for keeping restrictions around anyway not long after if I remember correctly.