tinyphone for Mac

The app runs on your Mac and sets up the iPhone over a USB cable. Free for one phone, no account needed.

Not out yet

The app is built and working on real hardware. Two things are left: the signed, notarized build, and a full run on iOS 27, which Apple ships this month and which changes how app lists are enforced. We'd rather ship it a week late than ship something that erases your phone and doesn't hold.

Leave your email and you'll get the download the day it's signed. Nothing else, ever.

Email me when it's out

What you need

• A Mac with recent macOS and Apple Configurator installed (free, from the Mac App Store)
• A USB cable and the iPhone you want to set up (iOS 18 or newer, so iPhone XS and later)
• About fifteen minutes, once per phone

What setup does

• Backs the phone up, then erases it once. That is Apple's requirement for real supervision, and the reason the result holds
• Sets it up with the apps you chose; the rest are gone, with no store to reinstall from
• Leaves the key on your Mac. Changing anything later takes seconds over the cable
• Everything is undoable: plug in, restore, and it's a normal iPhone again

The honest limits are written out in full on what tinyphone can and cannot do, and the free guide covers every other method too: how to turn your iPhone into a dumb phone.