Open Lounge Phone

Pick up. Press a key. Someone you chose answers. A real phone with keys and a handset, for the people you choose: open source down to the circuit board.

Try it now What it can be Boards and cases GitHub Donate

Why it exists

There was a time when calling someone meant a landline or a payphone. Then phones moved into our pockets and the landline faded: who wants to pay for one more phone to check?

Something went with it. A phone that lives in one place. Calling a home, not a pocket. Knowing that whoever picks up is there because they want to talk, not because a buzz interrupted them.

Open Lounge Phone brings that back on purpose: real keys, a handset that stays put, and it rings only for the people you’ve said yes to, answered at your leisure.

Your calls, on your terms. We live in an age where you can run your own communications. It works over any internet connection: your own server, a friend’s, or the free public hub, all talking to each other as equals. It even runs with no internet at all, on a server inside your home, school or building, so calls never leave the premises (run it offline). Nobody owns the network but the people on it.

The first phone: for kids now, for hacking later

Locked down while they're young

It calls, and is called by, only the people you approve. It has no number and no address, so nobody can find it. Quiet hours send callers to voicemail, it never records your child, and you see every call it made or missed.

Friends on the line

Kids call grandma, and their friends once both families’ grown-ups say yes, even when the other family is on a different server. One key per person, names on the screen.

Theirs to hack when they're ready

Swap the keycaps, print a new case, read the firmware, change it. The rules live on your server, not in the phone, so changed firmware still reaches only the people you approved there.

Kids’ phones on the market are closed boxes with a fixed feature list. This one is a first phone and a first electronics project in one, and it isn’t only for kids: what it can be.

One board, many phones

The same small open ESP32 board, in whatever body suits the room. Board v0.1 runs on Wi-Fi. Board v0.2 adds Ethernet and PoE, so one network cable runs it (designed, not built yet).

The printed prototype box with twelve keycaps, the hook key at the left and the e-paper display between the rows — **Desk box** · 3D printed

A laser-cut acrylic desk phone with a handset lying in a hinged cradle — **Flat-cut** · one sheet of laser-cut acrylic

A wall phone faceplate with a forked switchhook on a pivot over the hook key — **Wall phone** · a real switchhook

A rounded cushion-like printed case with a bed for the handset beside the keys — **Cushion** · a bed for the handset

A green v0.1 dev board with twelve clear keycaps, an e-paper display and a white handset plugged in — **Board v0.1** · Wi-Fi · built and working

Board v0.2 with the RJ45 jack at its right edge — **Board v0.2** · Ethernet + PoE · in design

Twelve hot-swap mechanical keys, a small e-paper screen, a jack for any classic handset, a ringer and one light. No microphone on the board: the only one is in the handset. Boards and cases has the details, files and costs (about $23 in parts per phone).

Where it fits

Families with kidsA first phone that only reaches the people you approve.

Grandparents and eldersOne press to call family, and a daily check-in.

Care homesFamily on the keys in every room, and a daily check-in.

Schools and classroomsA phone in every classroom, and calls to a partner class anywhere.

Hospitals and clinicsA bedside phone patients use as themselves, then it forgets them.

Cafés, lounges and hotelsA booth phone anyone uses as themselves.

Offices and front desksExtensions, ring groups and a lobby phone.

Shared housesA house phone, an intercom between rooms, a dinner bell.

Makers and tinkerersOpen board, open firmware, hot-swap keys.

How it works

Everything runs on connections. Nobody reaches you until you’ve accepted their knock, and there’s no phone number to spam and no bridge to the phone network, ever. You choose who can reach you, when you’re taking calls, and whether your connections see that you’re around.

Calls go straight between the two people: the audio never passes through the server.
Voicemail everywhere, with a greeting and a transcript.
Rooms and party lines, 3-way calls, hold and transfer.
Lounge phones anyone takes over as themselves, and that forget them afterwards.
Passkeys, no passwords or email; your own address, name@server.
Any old phone or tablet can be the phone: open /device/ and add it to the home screen.
Your server or ours: your own Cloudflare account, a Node server with SQLite, or the free hub.

Software: AGPL-3.0-or-later. Hardware: CERN-OHL-S-2.0. No accounts with us, no tracking, no ads.

A free public hub

Social media is dead, but being social isn’t. The hub gives you an address your friends and family can reach you on, with you deciding who gets through and when. You don’t need the hardware: the phone runs in any browser too.

The hub is free and funded by donations. Most calls go straight between the two people, so it costs little to run. Sign up at hub.openloungephone.app.

$0 of the $150 monthly goal for October 2026

$150 a month keeps the hub running for ~7,250 people.
September 2026: $150 raised, goal met.

Sponsor on GitHub

How the hub is funded · Privacy

Try it nowJoin the hub, run your own server, or open an invite: all of it works on your computer.

Boards and casesThe open board, its next revision with PoE, and the cases.

Labs firmwareIntercom, doorbell, check-in, macro pad: the board as more than a phone.

About the projectWhy it exists, principles, and status.

Proudly supported by unsubscribe.llc · Sponsor the project