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https://9to5google.com/2019/09/11/google-scrapped-touchless-chrome-android-feature-phones/
For the past six months, we've been tracking Google's progress on introducing feature phones as a new form factor for both Android and the Chrome browser. Now it seems plans may have changed, as Google seems to be removing all of the code for Chrome's Android-based touchless mode.
Early this year, we discovered that Google was working on a version of Chrome that was designed to be used by feature phones without a touchscreen, a form factor that still sees significant usage in emerging markets. This "touchless" Chrome even included a bonus standalone version of the Dino Runner mini-game reworked for the new screen size.
This morning, reader Kawshik tipped us off to a new work-in-progress commit with the straightforward title, "Remove touchless* with the exception of Blink code." In the code change, we see Google removing all references to touchless Chrome and deleting the hundreds of files within the "touchless" folder.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Friday September 13 2019, @03:52PM
There are some BYOP prepaid talk/text plans you can game into costing less than $10 a year if you don't use them much. If you go up to $30 a year you can get a MVNO that will work with most Verizon phones (and unfortunately Verizon towers currently have the best US coverage AFAIK). There are similar options for AT&T phones, and just generally unlocked GSMs. The more you talk the more it costs, obviously, but if you don't lock yourself into a contract when purchasing a phone you can probably find a prepaid MVNO that will give you a cheap talk/text option.