Is there a way to completely disable the dialer including emergency calls to make an old phone a "tablet"?

Question

I have a Galaxy Nexus (running 4.2.2 if it matters but I'd presume the rules would apply to most Android OS' in general, it isn't currently rooted but I can root it if necessary) that I've recently replaced with a newer phone.

Now I'd like to give my 5 year old my Gnex as a basic "game/kids app device" that he can mess around with since he was used to playing a few kid games before on it. I still want WIFI access so airplane mode is out.

However, I'd like to be able to completely remove the PHONE functionality from the phone. The phone has no service, but can still make Emergency calls and I'm concerned about him possibly doing so before I can explain to 911 that it was an accidental call.

So, is there a way to completely disable:

• the phone dialer
• the ability to place emergency calls
• the contacts/address book

Bottom line: If you think in Apple terms, I'd like an "iPhone" to become an "IPod Touch", but for my Android.

Answer 1

If you root the phone, go into Manage Apps and you can disable the dialer, it will remove it from the home page. Contacts can also be disabled. There are also numerous ways to put the phone in Airplane mode so it's persistent after restart.

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NOTE: disabling dialer does not disable the emergency dialer, but airplane mode does.

Answer 2

On rooted devices, you can disable the following packages to disable all telephony features:

• Phone
• Dialer
• TelephonyProvider
• Contacts
• Contacts Storage
• ContactsProvider

Depending on the device manufacturer and OS version, some of these apps might not exist, or be named differently.

Answer 3

Does it have a removable SIM card? If so, remove the SIM and it won't have any network connectivity except for Wi-Fi. That's what I've done to turn my old iPhones into iPods for my kids.

Answer 4

You have not mention that you are rooted or not? If you are rooted then use titanium backup app to freeze three apk's

I hope Samsung has smae named apk as for my s2. SecPhome.Apk TelephonyProvider.apk Contacts.apk

After freeze them your calling and emergency call will be block down, you can use data connection without any problem from here.

If you are not rooted then first pull them using adb for backup and then delete them for make it safe.

Answer 5

You can install a parental control app like Kids Place that limits the apps that the kid can launch. If it set as the default launcher the kid will only be able to access the apps that are defined within the app while full access is protected by a password.

Answer 6

There's definitely not an "official" way to disable emergency calls - if my understanding is correct, that would actually be illegal.

Unofficially, I think the closest you can get is disabling the dialer. I haven't tested it, but even if removing the dialer doesn't disable the emergency calls functionality, it might cause any attempt to call to crash...

If you wish to go that route, you must be rooted. You open up your favorite file manager, navigate to /system/app, and rename dialer.apk (or similar, since you're on Nexus flavored AOSP it should be dialer) to something like dialer.apk.bak. Don't delete it - it's always a good idea to have a backup.

EDIT: Contacts would be the same process, removing contacts.apk

EDIT 2: Evidently it might be TelephonyProvider.apk. Pretty sure I've seen dialer too though. Most file explorers will show a phone icon, like below:

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Answer 7

You could replace the radio firmware with one from a drastically phone. Having what would essentially be a "broken" firmware for the radio would prevent any cellular communications in or out of the phone. This link is an example of changing a Nexus's radio firmware (baseband) to another GOOD firmware, but the same process would apply to using a baseband that does not match your phone or your phone's cellular radio chip.