Connie, is work paying for it, or do you have to find a carrier and sign up?

If you're signing up and paying for it yourself, given what you describe your needs as, I recommend a no-contract basic carrier like Cricket Wireless, because their rates are very low.

Yeah, it's not work essential, just work handy--we had an actual fire event today, and the announcement that it was safe to come back in went to Slack--so I'll be paying. I've been on TracFone for years, I should check them, too.

I have a Moto G4 Play, which I've found to be a really great phone and it is also very cheap. I'm on TracFone since I don't use up a lot of minutes of cellular data. Other family members are on Republic Wireless which is $20 a month (no contract) for unlimited text/talk and 1GB of cellular data.

Course, it's now G5 and not quite as cheap, but still cheap for a really capable phone.

I was super happy with whatever the cheapest android smartphone was when I first got a smartphone, so I wouldn't worry too much about it -- I think they are all fine! And then you'll have a sense of what you do and don't care about for the next time.

On the phone itself, I agree with Jesse -- when I got my first smartphone, it was the cheapest Android smartphone (Moto G, maybe?), and I was really happy with it. I would have kept it longer if I hadn't dropped it on the tiled kitchen floor and shattered the screen.

So, related to that, get a case for your phone.

I've had my current phone for at least five years. With the way technology advances, it's practically a rock that beeps.

I'm on Tracfone. I have the LG Treasure. New phone plus a year's service, wayyyyyyy more minutes than I use, 1.5 gig of data, of which I have used .5 since getting the thing in June, $200. It's working for me. Work gives me an allowance, and I don't claim it every month because this phone is so economical.

You absolutely cannot go wrong with the budget Motorola phones. They are my go-to recommendation for essentially everybody; they work better and with more stability than almost every other Android phone out there, frankly, including ones that are twice or three times as expensive. They do still sell the Moto G4 and it is great. The G5 is slightly more great for very slightly more money; you can get it for $199 direct from Motorola (or several other places) right now. The Moto E4 is their budget phone and is also quite great; you can get it for $129 directly from Motorola (or $99 from Amazon if you don't mind amazon ads and you have Amazon prime). It is smaller, but has a lower-quality screen; still, probably good enough for your needs!

They are all unlocked and will work with any of the budget carriers mentioned above, including tracfone.

I LOVE my G5, the battery is amazing. 2 days without charging, if I don't spend all day on twitter...