Life is a game. It is the first line of Semo’s intro, and the Semo Truth Engine is a game played by all the users. Much of that game is played on a phone, the most used object of our time. So it matters who sets the rules on it.
On most phones, the rules are set elsewhere. Feeds choose what you see next. Notifications are engineered to create urgency. Default settings benefit the platform over you. Your attention becomes a move in someone else’s game. SemoOS is Semo’s answer to that, at the level where those rules are written: the operating system.
An operating system of your own
An independent, distraction-free operating system for the Semo Phone.
SemoOS is designed to remove the mechanisms built to maximise screen time: no algorithmic feeds, no manipulative notification defaults and no tracking-based personalisation. In their place, it is meant to offer a simple interface, entirely different from what most people are used to.
Semo’s phone plan describes SemoOS as an alternative to Android and other smartphone software. The plan is to build it mainly on Android’s open-source base, for full compatibility with Android apps. On that base, SemoOS is meant to be a software layer built around your attention, not against it. Every feature of a modern smartphone stays. The distraction does not.
Android 17 first, SemoOS by milestone
Semo Phone runs Android 17 by default. SemoOS launches in beta at 100.000 sales and is guaranteed from 1.000.000 sales.
This order means Semo Phone is a full smartphone from the start. Calls, messages, navigation and apps work as people expect. The e-ink screen does its calming work whatever software runs on it: no backlight, no blue light, no bright glow behind an endless feed.
The operating system then follows the people who choose the phone. Semo’s phone plan links the two: profit from phone sales can finance Semo’s own software. The milestones make that link visible to anyone. In the language of the game, the players unlock the next level together.
The gateway
Built to bring messaging, information, Semo Shopping, Semo Vote and the wider Semo ecosystem together without competing for your attention.
SemoOS is designed as the gateway to the wider Semo ecosystem. Six functions carry it: scanning, voting, value comparison, wallet, messaging and news.
Scanning is meant to bring the Semo Truth Engine into your hand. The aim is that you can scan or search any product, service, place or other economic activity, and see its social, environmental and performance impacts. Semo Shopping does this for products today, in the App Store and on Google Play. SemoOS is meant to keep it a tap away.
Value comparison is the step from seeing to choosing. The aim is that you compare, choose, automate and keep track with wish lists and shopping lists, measured against what you have said matters to you.
Voting is where value is decided. We decide value together. Semo Vote makes collective decision-making part of everyday life. On SemoOS, it is designed to sit beside the scanner, so the question of what should count is never far from the things being counted.
The wallet is meant to hold Semo rewards. In Semo’s design, rewards can only be spent at their true price. The aim is to keep them on the same device as the scanner and the vote, so that what you learn, what you decide and what you value stay connected.
Messaging and news are the everyday part. The SemoOS plan includes a default messaging and news app that brings common apps together across platforms, for one personalised experience without distraction.
What control means on a phone
Control on a phone is concrete. It means you decide when to pick it up, not a badge or a buzz. It means what comes next is not chosen by a feed tuned for engagement. It means your data is not used to keep you on the screen longer. That is what SemoOS is designed for. The phone keeps its full capability. Nothing is taken away. The aim is to remove only the manipulation.
Control matters even more with a first phone. Semo’s phone site (opens in a new tab) speaks to parents who want their children to have a phone that works, without the mechanisms designed to condition behaviour. For them, control means a device whose rules are not set against the person using it.
Personalisation turns around as well. On most phones, personalisation is something done to you. In Semo, you personalise what matters to you. Personal customisation is designed to change only your own view, never the facts.
This is the same principle on both sides of Semo. In the Semo Truth Engine, anyone can contribute and verify data, and the community is designed to decide together how much each aspect counts. On Semo Phone, the tools are there when you want them and your attention stays yours. In both, the aim is that you play by rules you can see.