Burner phones aren’t just for nefarious intentions, like you see on TV. They can actually be a handy tool for people who get distracted easily (because we all know how easy it is to turn off “Focus” mode).
Emmy-winning talk show host Conan O’Brien even uses one. He admitted on an April 2025 episode of his podcast ”Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend” that he has a flip phone for calling friends. “You have the security of knowing, ‘I can call these key people and find out what’s going on,’” O’Brien said about his phone, per CNET. “I really like not being tempted to look at the texts, not being tempted to look at the emails.”
Even tech experts have been noticing a return to low-tech burner phones lately.
“What we now call a ‘burner phone’ used to just be a phone,” Steven Athwal, CEO and founder of The Big Phone Store, the fastest-growing U.K. refurbished tech retailer, told HuffPost. “You had your Nokia 3310, sent a few texts, made a few calls, played Snake, and that was it. … It was the norm before smartphones.”
Now, the phones are coming back in a big way. Rocky Cole, co-founder of iVerify and former mobile security analyst at NSA, said, “We’re seeing more people turn to burner phones or secondary devices, especially for travel or when they want a little more privacy.”
