Transforming the Trade-Off: Unplugged’s Best Year Yet

This past year has been nothing short of transformative for Unplugged. Guided by a renewed vision for what our relationship with technology should be, our engineering and design teams doubled down on a singular goal: deliver a complete, integrated stack that upholds unparalleled privacy and security while simultaneously providing a smooth, reliable, and highly responsive smartphone experience.

The result? A series of major advancements that have established UP Phone as a truly viable, no-compromise alternative to Big Tech smartphones.

All-New Look and Experience

The UP Phone experience has been rebuilt from the ground up with a bold new interface that delivers fresh iconography, dynamic app design, smarter navigation, and simplified setup. The result is a phone that feels natural to use, fast to master, and easy to trust—helping customers stay focused, move quickly, and get more done without distraction or data leakage.

Radical Transparency and Seamless Privacy Controls  

Privacy and security is Unplugged’s North Star, so it’s important that privacy controls are front and center and easy to manage.  

One of the most exciting additions of the year was the new Firewall window that allows customers to monitor Firewall activity in real time with visibility into how many third-party tracker attempts have been blocked, and the apps behind them.

Additionally, a new streamlined dashboard was added to displays key stats and settings at a glance, allowing customers to adjust features, monitor Firewall and VPN status, check the phone’s last unlock time, and track screen time—all through intuitive controls designed for quick, effortless access.

Expanded App Center

The redesigned App Center makes discovering and installing apps faster and simpler than ever. Uncensored, unbiased, and untracked, it also includes support for new apps—allowing the freedom to access any app without the restrictions and ranking manipulation imposed by major app store ecosystems.

A Smarter, No-Stress Setup 

A great smartphone experience starts with a great setup. That’s why we created the UP Switch app—to make migrating from iPhone or Android simple, fast, and stress-free.

UP Switch comes preinstalled on UP Phone and securely transfers contacts and passwords over your customers’ Wi-Fi network. Photos can be moved easily from iPhone using UP Uploader, which uploads libraries to Unplugged’s encrypted cloud—where only the phone’s owner holds the keys. And for those who prefer keeping everything offline, UP Phone also supports up to 1 TB of SD card storage.

Personalized Support from Real People

Our customers come first—always. That’s why we believe real people deserve real support. We’ve grown our U.S.-based customer support team to provide thoughtful, one-on-one help at every stage, whether someone is setting up their phone for the first time, troubleshooting an issue, or simply learning how to get the most out of their device. When customers reach out, they’re met by a human who listens, understands, and stays with them until it’s solved.

Secure Password Management 

Managing digital security shouldn’t require juggling multiple apps—or sacrificing ease of use. The newly added  Passwords app securely stores passwords, credit cards, online identities, and two-factor authentication codes in one place, with a straightforward import process that lets users migrate data from an iOS or Android device in just a few guided steps.

The Passwords app reflects a thoughtful balance between protection and usability—making strong security the default, not an obstacle, and giving users greater confidence and control over their digital lives.

Type or Talk

Typing and dictation are among the most frequent—and most sensitive—ways people interact with their phones. That’s why we upgraded to a faster, more responsive on-device keyboard that improves both usability and privacy.

The new keyboard supports dozens of languages and features a refreshed, ergonomic design for a smoother, more comfortable experience. It also includes on-device private dictation with fast speech-to-text—keeping audio local and out of the cloud.

By keeping core input tools on the device, the keyboard reinforces a simple but powerful principle: the most personal interactions should remain personal. The result is a typing and dictation experience that’s faster, more comfortable, and fundamentally more trustworthy.

A Smarter Camera System

A phone that is your daily companion needs to capture life’s moments beautifully. We released a brand-new camera interface to maximize the powerful rear triple-camera system, taking advantage of UP Phone’s top-flight sensor technology resulting in better photos.

The camera app has also been updated with built-in QR code recognition. The new QR code detector is simple and elegant with quick sharing and copy/paste. It supports both static and dynamic QR code technology and ultra-fast page loading in the default Brave browser or browser of your choice. 

Open Source with Nothing to Hide

This year, Unplugged made major progress delivering a fully open version of Android—built on AOSP and free from Google Mobile Services, tracking, analytics, and surveillance.

In our latest release, we open-sourced several core components, including UP Phone’s Firewall, UP Photos (a fork of Ente), and UP Antivirus, along with key system layers such as the Linux kernel, Android framework, runtime, native libraries, system services, and core daemons. Hardware integration follows Android’s open Hardware Abstraction Layer specifications, ensuring transparency from software to silicon.

All UnpluggedOS components are released under trusted open-source licenses like Apache 2.0 and GPL, enabling public review and contribution. This commitment goes beyond code—it’s about accountability. By pairing privacy-first hardware with transparent, verifiable software, Unplugged is setting a new standard for trust in mobile technology.

Global Expansion

Another key milestone in Unplugged’s evolution this year was our global expansion into Canada, the UK, and Europe—starting with France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

 
The arrival of UP Phone in these countries doesn’t just mark a new mobile phone option—it’s part of a global movement where rights-centered tech and digital autonomy can be strengthened not just by law, but by the hardware, the operating system and the tech stack itself. It’s a tool for navigating an ecosystem where digital rights and state control are meeting head-on. Regardless of the actions of the State, we must actively defend the right to privacy with every tool we have, everywhere we can. 

Tested in the Real World and Proven Where It Counts

As we’ve stayed heads down on all the updates and improvements this year, we’ve also stopped for some reality checks to ensure we’re delivering what we’re promising. So earlier this year we put UP Phone to the test with cybersecurity firm  Raxis, and the results were staggering. 

Within a one-hour testing window, Raxis monitored data activity across UP Phone, iPhone and Samsung Galaxy while engaging with 33 widely used apps like Snapchat, Expedia, Spotify, Pinterest, The Weather Channel, and Nike. The test results speak for themselves:

These results aren’t marketing claims—they’re measurable proof. The independent testing confirmed what UP Phone was built to do from day one: stop third-party tracking at the source. In an ecosystem where “privacy” often comes with fine print, UP Phone delivers something rare—verifiable protection you can see in the data. For customers, that means confidence that their phone is doing what it promises, quietly and consistently, without compromise.

Freedom Doesn’t Stop Here

2025 marked a pivotal year of growth, but we're only getting started. Much more is coming in 2026, including deeper platform capabilities and our planned shift toward U.S.-based manufacturing.

We’re grateful to be on this journey with our customers as we move into a new year focused on one clear mission: breaking free from the tracking and surveillance that define Big Tech smartphones, and giving people the freedom to live their digital lives with confidence, transparency, and control. 

Experience digital freedom. Get your UP Phone today at www.unplugged.com as part of our Christmas sale.