I installed this in the morning to give it a test drive, and after several hours, I learned the following: it's great when I reach for the phone as a distraction; it's a big annoyance otherwise.
E.g. each time I want to change the currently playing song, what was muscle memory gets scrambled by the interruption. Or, when I'm taking a lot of photos (like on my daughter's kindergarten event today), I tend to keep the screen off in between, and rely on being able to turn it on and shoot a photo in less than two seconds, total. Guess how that got screwed up by this app.
The app itself is great, and I'm still a believer in the concept of managing executive function issues by throwing obstacles in front of bad habits and known focus black holes. However, this experience made me discover the third class of phone activity, next to "distraction" and "work" - quick, intermittent, on-the-fly use, the kind you ideally don't think much about. This class does not distract you... unless someone adds friction to it.
I just saw the app has "every N unlocks" option, I'll try it out and see if this helps with the "third class".
I already have an app that does this on Android (One Sec is the app) and it only inserts a "mindfulness break" for specific apps (e.g. Chrome and social media), and I came to the same conclusion you did.
It's grind when I just mindlessly tap to open the browser to search for something random. Lots of times, though, the browser opens when I want to do something quickly, e.g. I get an email and I need to open something in the browser, and it becomes a big annoyance. After a while I just started subconsciously ignoring it, which I think defeats the purpose.
It's a tough problem to solve - I want it to prevent me from doing "mindless scrolling", but not when I have an actual task to accomplish.
Having work and leisure mixed on a device or service is a pain.
I had tried to block Reddit but then I needed it when researching some programming stuff. Most conversations happen on Reddit these days so if you need to look something up for work to see what others are doing, chances are Google will give you Reddit links first especially if what you are searching for is relatively recent.
What I found is that I developed a muscle memory for just ignoring the block and overriding it.
Instead of allowing myself an override that so I could dismiss the block I had to just hard block all of Reddit by setting an PIN I immediately forgot and if I really need something I’ll use ChatGPT to summarize.
> I had tried to block Reddit but then I needed it when researching some programming stuff
I used to have this problem. But now I just use Claude to research any coding or similar stuff that I would have used reddit for. The quality is at least as good as reddit discussions. Now I've totally blocked reddit using NextDNS on my phone and laptop, and configured Kagi to not return any reddit search results.
Thanks for giving it a test drive!
I'm thinking also about adding an option to have like 50% chance of a popup or a 75% chance, so it's less predictable. I first made it as every 2nd, 3d and so on, but maybe adding a randomness to it will be better? WDYT?
For my use case, randomness would make it even worse. For muscle memory, consistency is key. I don't know what the solution is - ideally, the app would not interrupt such quick actions like unlocking to take a photo or switch the song, but in practice, it can't exactly guess what I'm going to do before I do it. I was thinking about maybe "unlock and don't show the popup for the next 5 minutes", but then I already know that one of these days, I'll activate it for "one quick check of Instagram" (or HN), defeating the purpose of the application.
Sorry I can't be more helpful. I've been mulling this problem (selective blocking in dual-purpose apps/sites) in my mind for a long time now, but I haven't found any solution so far.
Here's maybe a solution: don't trigger the app if the phone is unlocked via a hardware shortcut.
At least in my last 2 phones, I got them configured such that a double press on the power button wakes the camera app immediately (great for quick photos), while the rest of the system is still locked (need the unlock pin when trying to navigate away from the camera app)
So in that situation the app could choose not to interrupt.
+1 I rely on this hardware shortcut heavily when trying to catch photos of the kids in fleeting moments.
Edit: just tested this and the nudge does not appear to interrupt the camera quick access
On my phone (Pixel 5) I don't need to unlock to take a picture (double click on power button) or switch to the next song (slide menu down, click Next).
Not sure if it helps. Have not tried the app yet.
Edit: sorry, didn't see the almost identical answer
As mentioned elsewhere, I have double-click on power button bound to toggle the flashlight, as I find it way more useful day to day, plus quick launch of camera becomes redundant after you launch the app.
As for songs, I specifically mentioned picking a next song. As in, picking from a list, possibly navigating or doing a search first. Next/prev is both trivial and something I rarely use anyway.
You also can try setting nudge Cooldown. It will prevent nudge from popping up during Cooldown period. For now it's 3 minutes max, but I can easily add more options in next release.
So responding to you and the parent post both...
I have my own thought and also one in response to the "taking a photo" type tasks.
I'd like a drop down of some tasks I predefined, so I can answer with one of those.
Things like "answering a message" that I can choose instead of entering one. There is occasionally one message with 3 choices, I think, about how this aligns with my goals. So something like that but user defined.
Second thing, maybe a couple of those options could be tied to app launch so clicking it takes you to the common task. For example, "Taking a photo" could drop me right back into the camera app.
Great app, I've been using it all day and just doing so is insightful. And glad this comment chain led me to the "cooldown" function.
How about a pause mode?
I use Android's Bedtime mode a lot, and it has a helpful feature that let's you quickly "Pause for 30 minutes" or "Turn off for now" from a notification [1].
I don't think the app needs notifications as such, but it could have quick access to a pause button.
[1] https://img.gadgethacks.com/img/original/21/75/6372310031848...
I actually saw that exact feature on the app in a notification, with "pause for 30 minutes" and "turn off for now".
Ah perhaps the app is using bedtime mode for its functionality? Didn't get a chance to try it myself yet, but great that pausing is already implemented.
Just add a whitelist for apps that aren't for distraction so users can decide what they need.
Maybe make suggestions based on screentime if possible.
Can you track how long since the last unlock? I think adding a TTL of say 5 minutes to not be asked again after answering would probably eliminate the majority of annoyances.
Yes. App already has a setting call Cooldown. It allows to have time after phone lock during which the app won't pop-up again. Not sure if that's what you are suggesting, and it's max time right now is 3 minutes.
Yup that's what I meant. Great! I would set the default to 5 minutes and allow up to maybe 30m.
I wonder if being location based would be helpful? I'm not actually a heavy phone user, but I would guess that people are mainly using it as a distraction when they're at home or work, and less likely if they're out and about? (Though honestly, for me, the main thing I use my phone for at home / work is two-factor-authentication, and there it'd probably be annoying.)
Maybe the app should kick in only if you start using one of the "bad" apps, like a browser or a social network app? Being in the way when I want to snap a quick photo doesn't sound nice.
What I did (helped me eventually delete them) was offload the "bad" apps on my phone so, if I wanted to access them, I'd have to wait for them to re-download. This is an iOS feature where the pointer to the app and the local data remains, but the app bundle itself is deleted. I think it's primary use case is to manage scarce disk space.
It forced me to reckon with the fact that tapping on these apps is often a system 1 instinct. The forced delay to reinstall the app is an escape hatch into system 2 thinking, a mode in which I normally realize I don't even want to use the app, I'm just bored. And then I'd pick up a book or use my newspaper-reader-app (i.e. a more intent/system 2-driven choice).
Off-loading apps or even just removing them from the home screen is really helpful. It gives your system 2 brain an opportunity to mutate your environment to make system 1 processes lead to more fruitful outcomes.
For the same reason, I clear my browser history every month or so and avoid bookmarking certain sites like hn or reddit.
I would love to remove the email app for iPhone for that reason but it’s a standard app for iPhone
Maybe I should just delete my accounts and access them through browser instead
For this use case, I use "IChooseTo" https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appsofuse....
This looks like it's based on a timer, and prevents you from using the app if you use it for, say, too long. Is that right? I have legitimate longform uses of my browser app as well as bad ones.
I use iOS's built in Screen Time settings. For "bad" apps (Reddit, TikTok, etc) and "bad" websites ("hackernews", etc) I set a daily time limit of, let's say, 15 minutes.
I configure a random password for Screen Time so that it's a real hassle to circumvent the daily limit when I get over it.
This is solved by having dedicated devices for camera and music player! (At least for these two examples, which are also my top non-distraction / non-social phone usage.)
I don't have those yet but I wish I did! I was just thinking back to how cool the iPod was back in the day. (The one before touchscreens!)
(I was also thinking how cool it would be if it had the iPod's UI but Rockbox's (and every other mp3 player in human history) support for just putting folders full of files on it... but I guess I'll keep dreaming!)
That is a solution, but not an ideal one for many (most?). One of the great innovations of the smartphone is that I have all 3 devices in one small form factor, so I don't need to carry/travel with the bulk of many.
I actually went full old-school and got an portable cd-player.
This has the side effect of me listening to music more intentionally and not wasting time selecting tracks and skipping around. Listening to a full album is great, something I rarely did before. And physically owning music feels great.
Sure, it is less practical for traveling but it mostly sits on my desk to help me get through work. And CD's having a fixed run length helps me to take breaks so my tinnitus does not get worse.
That's fair. I miss MP3 players and even feature phones - all of them could be operated without looking at them!
Alas, ever since Apple showed it's Courage™ by ditching the audio jack, Bluetooth headphones became ubiquitous (doubly so thanks to AirPods and alternatives). They're nice and all, but they also have mikes, so you want to use them for calling and voice messaging too, and then you can also put notifications on them, ... with Bluetooth device switching being what it is, this complements and reinforces smartphone's role as single device for everything.
EDIT: I wonder if it's possible to have some kind of mixer wearable that would accept wireless audio streams (both in "music" and "headset" modes) from multiple devices, mix them together, and route to a single set of wireless headphones. That would solve a lot of the issues I have with wireless audio in practice.
Better solution: add in increasing delay before opening a time waster, increasing 1 second between each open over the course of the day. Openning Reddit for the 15th time today? 15 second wait (or longer).
This sounds like a good case for an allowlist for certain applications - Camera, Spotify, Notes, etc.
Re: The photos case: I have the camera app bound to a double click of my power button. I find it to be incredibly useful to have a way to immediately open my camera and Intenty doesn't override that flow.
Hah, I used to do that too, however I changed it so double-press of the side button toggles the flashlight instead. I find this to have much better ROI.
For camera, turning the screen off while camera app is open means I can just press the power button and slide up, and I'm back in camera app (unless Intenty interferes).
For flashlight, having a quick key (that works even when the phone is locked) is a qualitative change - I use the phone flashlight much more often, now that I can casually turn it on and off with zero effort, like a traditional torch. There are actually two major use cases I have for that daily:
- In autumn/winter, by the time I pick my kids up from the kindergarten, it's already dark. There's a stretch of pavement that's pitch dark, so I just casually light it up as we walk over it.
(That was the driver behind me changing the button mapping from camera to flashlight; having done that, I now instinctively turn the flashlight on and off as I walk, lighting up dark spots.)
- Have you ever tried to read something from a phone while walking at night? It's a big problem - the screen pretty much blinds you, unless you turn the brightness down to minimum. You can't read and monitor ground under your feet at the same time. However, if you also turn on the flashlight, the brightness of the screen and the light reflecting off the ground are similar, so reading becomes comfortable and you regain awareness of terrain.
I figured out that trick long ago, first with Kindle (Paperwhite) - I'd put my phone against the back of the Kindle, turn the backlight on the reader, and the flashlight on the phone. But it works even better for reading from the phone itself.
it's a hard problem. I often open the phone to do something legit but then get distracted by a notificiation or unread count.
maybe a better solution would be "why?" when you switch or launch apps. Then being able to select apps that don't cause the prompt like camera and bank apps
This is my problem in a work context. I know I'm distractable, yet for security reasons I have to have a distraction device which I have to pick up and use for signing into certain applications.
Screenzen (android) does exactly this and I navigated through all the use cases you mentioned successfully.
This is where an OS-based agent would help. If it semantically understood the tasks we're trying to accomplish, it could filter the cases we care about.
I'm even more excited about browser or OS agents being able to unilaterally scrub the web of all advertisements, spam, polarized toxicity, etc. Forget adblock - I can effectively block all the bad things Google, Meta, Twitter, etc. do and their army of PMs won't be able to stop me.
This tech is going to rip the advertiser and algorithmic madness out of the internet and make it serve me and only me.
neither Apple or Google will ever develop this given that their core Business depends on users using their phones often
Separate devices for work and personal might help manage these use cases.
Tools that help with managing digital health and screen use can help you slow down access to any problematic apps a bit more than others.
Last year I laser-cut a replica of my phone out of wood. I looked at it, said the words "this is my phone", and put it in my pocket, where I normally carried my phone. You wouldn't believe how many times I mindlessly pulled out this piece of wood from my pocket, intending to check messages, or whatever. When I placed it on the table while having dinner with a friend, my inner eye was looking at it, thinking maybe there is a new message. It was absolutely absurd and scary. You can try this out yourself.
Manufacture these with some slick styling and a nice website and I'd probably buy one for $99 lol. Give it a name like "B R I C K" and a slick logo.
Someone already did. I'm trying to remember the name of it.
Great! Apps like these are sorely needed. My feedback would be, apart from what others are saying about sub vs one-time purchase, to look at what Leechblock firefox extension is doing.
The key point is to make it harder (but not impossible) for me to use the phone. A "Do you need this?" is a great start, but since I can easily sneak by, I will soon do that. Even if I click "1 minute" to get a reminder, that should not be a simple notification, but back to the large big screen covering things.
What LB does is genius. You can enable a barrier so that if you reeeeeeally need to, you can get around, but it's annoying and time consuming, and thus the quick loop of "pick up phone and get stuck" is broken. The barrier in LB can be to type a (long) passphrase, or my favorite: a 64-char random string which cannot be copy-pasted. You need to manually look at 2-3 chars at a time and replicate the whole thing. Very effective.
But again, also the snap back to reality thing. If I keep using it, throw up a big overlay with a good question "Is your attention well spent?" for example. Make me wait before I can continue.
Advanced reminders are going to be a thing for the next big release. I agree that one problem is to pass the unlock, but staying on track with your intention is a different story. One periodical notification with static text can in theory fix that, but the chances are low in comparison to the full-screen pop-up. I intentionally focused on the unlock procedure first. For now, you can combine it with other apps like minimalistic launchers and apps that pop up after the app opens. But eventually, improving the reminder experience can make the solution more complete, I agree.
About typing "captcha" or random characters. I think it's just a different type of nudge. Another can be a small mini-game to play like catching a moving object. I'm going to consider adding different types of nudges to the app. Thanks for the suggestion.
One thing to consider, maybe open the app up for interaction with Tasker (being able to send events and provide actions to execute) - this will allow people to implement advanced logic on their own. If you expose user answering or skipping the screen as event, and ability to bring the screen back up as action, users[0] would be able to easily add features like "bring up Intenty screen when user attempts to open specific app or apps during work hours", or "make skipping require solving an ordinary differential equation shown rot13-encoded, and write down the answer in Klingon", or whatnot. That could be a good testbed for ideas to later incorporate into the app itself.
--
[0] - Those that also use Tasker. I'd wager that for your target audience, the proportion of such users is much higher than in average case.
Just thinking about this, there might be room for a home launcher that helps manage attention this way. Probably more work than you are thinking of doing though.
I tried LeechBlock for a while and had that 64-char random string passphrase thing on. Turns out I became really quick at typing those 64 characters to get my dopamine fix.
You can make it up to 128 characters. That's impressive that you are able to type a random string of nonsense so fast.
My hack was to take a picture on my phone, have Apple's image recognition copy the string to my iCloud clipboard, and I'd paste it on my mac.
It's too easy to defeat the purpose of these things if you're even slightly driven.
> It's too easy to defeat the purpose of these things if you're even slightly driven.
Things like the OP and LeechBlock are tools for people who have already mostly conquered their addiction, to help keep them from relapsing. On their own, they're not sufficient to turn an addict into a non-addict.
May I ask you why you did install it in the first place, if you then hack your way around it?
Maybe the goal was to motivate you to find a hack anyway :)
Because I am not always driven to type 128 random characters or even use my phone camera, so it does successfully stop me from procrastinating much of the time.
The same thing will happen with this app. The user will select any answer to just do what they wanted to do.
Might I recommend charging? You get X for free, and then you pay a fee that grows.
And the fee gets deposited into a high-yield savings account of your choice, so you're paying yourself (it reminds me of those sites that allow you to make a "bet" to your friends that you'll (stop smoking/exercise more/lose weight/whatever) and if you don't do it then you have to pay your friends
> The key point is to make it harder (but not impossible) for me to use the phone.
All apps, and actually the phone manfacturers themselves make phones harder to use through user hostile patterns. Mandatory updates, re-logon, TOC confirmations, cookies, self promotions in the face, adverts, warnings, spray of notifications on marginal things, answering questions to important (or not) questions, selecting important (or not) huge amount of settings, suggestions (actually another self promotion mostly), update informations, etc. all make the phones as difficult to use as much those helps, or even more. For insane amount of money. Problem relocation machines they are.
I think you’ve nailed some really key points about breaking the "quick loop" of mindless phone use
Needs an option for “my employer turned on shitty Microsoft ten-billion-factor auth settings”.
To login to my work Microsoft account requires a passcode and then three face scans.
I had an employer want that too, but we protested. Basically making that the case that they'd need to provide us with phones so that we don't have to install invasive apps on our personal devices. We ended up getting tiny hardware tokens that go on a key ring and couldn't access GPS, cameras, microphones, sensor data, network, etc even if it wanted to.
This has always boggled my mind - If you don't trust me to pick a decent password and maintain my own machine, why in God's name would you trust me to write code or deploy/maintain company infrastructure?
1. Even if they trust you, they might not be willing to extend that trust to non-technical staff (or even non-infra staff) and having a global policy is the easiest. 2. Even if they trust you, your employer's customers definitely don't, and a lot of big contracts will have security exhibits that explicitly require MFA if you're handling their data.
They _don't_ trust you to do that stuff. Not unilaterally at least. In a healthy system you generally aren't able to change anything without sign off from multiple other people.
Also the argument they make is, they don't trust every single component of your machine, and want to mitigate the damage caused by an attacker or malware breaking in and impersonating you.
Nah, it's not lack of trust, it's just compliance and plausible deniability.
But that's ok your work phone right? At least I hope you didn't agree to have it installed on your private phone. For work phone I guess a good strategy is to avoid installing anything non-work related, so the temptation to use it for anything is low.
Not GP, but I'm okay installing that stuff on my personal phone because it's isolated via Android Work Profile.
How is that keeping Microsoft from accessing your GPS, sensor data, wifi, camera/microphone etc? Sure, they can't get at SMS or your other apps and your work won't have access to your entire device but it means MS can still access your location (using GPS and nearby bluetooth/wifi), record audio/video, read/control sensors (accelerometer, proximity, gravity, temperature, pressure, magnetic field etc), have full network access, etc and can record and collect that data whenever they feel like it for the most part.
That's true with a separate work phone too right? And once I turn off the AWP for the day, all of that stops.
A work phone I could leave in a lead lined box until I needed to log into the company network. My personal device is often carried with me and in use at other times. If your IT people let you pause your work profile indefinitely that could help protect you though.
There's different kinds of intune enrollment. Generally if it's not a company phone, they can only see your IMEI, last 4 of your phone number, OS version etc. They'll be able to isolate and control the work apps but nothing else because it's in a separate profile.
No way I'm doing anything work related on any of my personal devices. I have a separate work phone. I turn it off at the end of the work day, and leave it at work.
I used to answer emails from bosses and managers while at home (at a previous employer), but it gets out of hand quickly and then they expect you to do it. Never again. Set boundaries immediately. At 15:00 I'm gone.
Leaving it at work goes one step further than my flow. I have AWP configured to automatically turn off at the end of the workday, so I become unavailable after that. There's always the possibility I can turn it back on after hours, but that extra step works well enough as a deterrent for me :)
First thing I thought of, too. Why do I need to unlock my phone? Because I need yet another MFA code for yet another mundane part of my job.
You can usually do OTP from your pc directly, just install an OTP application on your pc like keepassxc
Security dept. would like to have a word.
security theater dept. has entered the chat
Love it! Reminds me of an app my brother and I built 10 years ago (time flies!). It's no longer on Google Play because of the maintenance burden of keeping it there, but here's a page with some screenshots: https://apkpure.com/spinach-motivation-lock-screen/com.tengu...
The idea was that if you're unlocking your screen, you should at least: (1) reinforce a mantra, or (2) force yourself to acknowledge you shouldn't be unlocking the phone.
Happy to share notes if you think that would be helpful.
Up to you, but if the app has (or could have) an OSI license, you could submit a PR to f-droid and the app could live on. They don't care if you ask for donations, so it could even resurrect a bit of revenue
Wow. It's so cool to see such a project.
I even remember in 2019 finding an app that was using a popup after unlock to learn words of a foreign language, unfortunately, it closed and I cannot recall the name.
I would be happy to see the notes.
I think it could potentially be us too, though not sure. It was a very flexible product and we had a variety of use-cases. :)
We also had a lock screen app that you needed to play a tune on an instrument in order to unlock the screen. This too died because of Google maintenance burden (it had 500k downloads IIRC). Here's what I could find about that one: https://music-lock.en.softonic.com/android
That app I mentioned also had iOS version as well. I don't know how they made it, because AFAIK any customisation to unlock/lock process weren't allowed on iOS from the very beginning.
But nevertheless. It's a bit disappointing that major operating systems are becoming more closed for developers to create such beautiful apps
Great app! Love the design and thoughts behind it. Few comments:
- isn't it possible to select multiple intentions? I've tried but when I turn on one, another one turns off. - for apps like these I'm really missing a more expensive lifetime subscription. I'm okay with paying some more upfront if I don't have to pay a periodical fee.
Anyway, really nice work!
Thanks for giving it a try!
> - isn't it possible to select multiple intentions? I've tried but when I turn on one, another one turns off.
Here is the place where I made a UX mistake. I implemented nudges in a similar way as "modes" on iOS or routines on Samsung phones. You can enable one at a time. If you want to customise the content you see, you have to customise it inside nudge, not by enabling another one. I didn't make any UX tests before releasing this and I see a lot of confusion here. Apologise for that.
> for apps like these I'm really missing a more expensive lifetime subscription. I'm okay with paying some more upfront if I don't have to pay a periodical fee.
That's another miscalculation I made :) But I already have plans to replace the subscription with one-time purchase. Again sorry for the inconvenience.
Again, thanks for a try
No problem! To be fair, turning multiple on at the same time would be a great (premium) feature, for people who want to work on multiple things like me :)
My buddy has a wallpaper on his phone that says, in large letters, "Do I really to be picking up my phone right now?"
Done and done.
I prefer this method too, as it helps me develop my self-control. (I have "τῶν ἐφ᾽ ἡμῖν καὶ οὐκ ἐφ᾽ ἡμῖν", which is from Epictetus and means "things that are up to us and things that are not up to us" as a reminder that I can exert control over my phone use).
I've been day dreaming about an Android launcher that has a section for tool apps that you can access freely, and then a section for distractions that either guides you towards a "productive" distraction, or makes you wait for a timer before you can open a distracting app.
Even more cooler idea would be that the app restricts you to only communication apps when you choose "communication" intent or when you choose "boredom" it prompts you to enjoy IRL activities and tells you to leave your device aside. That would make it even more interactive and fun.
Well, that would be ideal.
But as soon as I think about implementation I realize how complicated it is to make such an intelligent system that would understand intent and based on intent adapt the action. In theory, it all can be manually connected, but then it would require a complicated setup.
Of course, it's only from an implementation perspective. From the UX it can be trivial.
Idk, my impression always was and is that Android app development is complex, especially when you got Java in the mix....maybe now it's easier when Kotlin is around.
Your idea is very good and you can even monetize your app by selling ad space when users choose "boredom" then you can recommend them sponsored apps and games.
This idea would be also interesting on PC, when users lock their screens and then come back to do something. Maybe it can even be part of some diary/note taking app where when you unlock your screen note window pops up and asks you "What are you planning to do now?".
Kotlin is a great langage, but Android being difficult was not about Java but about Android APIs being terrible.
For anyone looking for something similar for their desktop browser, try out Intention: https://getintention.com
Show HN post from 2020: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22936742
The fun fact. I've been using that extension while I was making Intenty back in 2020. Great extension, I'm glad to see it up and running till now!
I use this on iOS https://one-sec.app
Same. Installed for ~ 1 year, deleted after my muscle memory adapted. It was an inconvenience for some of the apps that I would actually need access to some of the time, but then again, it is a less obvious inconvenience when excessive amounts of time were spent in apps I showed up to do one thing in... All that to say. I think these tools are great, and ideally they assist us in shaping our behaviors to match our intent. A little more system 2 than system 1 thinking.
This app interrupts usage of the target app by setting up an automation (in the native Shortcuts app) that triggers when the target app is launched.[1] This means you can skip the app entirely and try to set up your own poor man's version. I fiddled around a bit and it's possible to set up an automation that automatically exits back to the home screen after some pause, or displays a notification to try to nudge you out of the app. This is not as good as the app but it is free. Also, without the Safari extension, I don't think websites can be blocked.
My own strategy is to simply use pi-hole to block time-wasting websites entirely. It's kind of a sledgehammer, but it works for me.
I used it on Android for a bit. I liked how the screen animation naturally made me take a deep breath, and I liked seeing how many times I've opened an app so far in the day. Unfortunately the free tier is quite limited - you can only enable it for one app, and you can't customize the duration of the blocking animation.
I usually just delete the app if it's dominating my time on the phone or drawing me to it.
I went another route. I bought a second phone.
I have my regular main phone that I use M-F for work and personal.
then I bought a second phone and installed GrapheneOS on it. I use this phone when I go out or doing anything on the weekends. I only have a few contacts on it and only 2 apps that I use that are my banking app and Signal. Keeps all the distractions away from me.
I bought a used unlocked Pixel 7 Pro off eBay for $250 so it wasnt the cheapest route but sure makes it really easy.
This is the way. Uninstalling instagram, facebook, youtube, reddit, and tiktok genuinely worked for me. Otherwise it's like trying to diet when your pantry is fully stocked with every possible ultra-satisfying snack food under the sun.
I deleted the apps and then also got the mobile web/ native apps versions. it also seems the algorithm is very hamstrung given that the browser versions cannot access all of those phone permissions. now it makes it think what all data are your apps even collecting?
Apps like this are a godsend. Putting away all the social media aside (where 95% of the content is fake/useless anyway), in reality there should really be no use for mobile phones besides using it for calls/music and some important things when you can't get to your laptop/desktop.
I've realized recently that it takes at least 3 times more work and time to do things on a smartphone than to do the same things on a laptop. This holds true for messaging apps where we are so limited by the typing speed and error-prone nature of composing messages on a smartphone, and the lack of good multitasking options like on a desktop interface. I have more time in my life now, more than ever, after I started to avoid using my phone for things wherever I can.
I dislike the amount of access to your entire OSN screen you have to give to these apps. is there an offline or open source or OS based solution?
Looks interesting. Any tips for using it effectively? What's it been most helpful with?
Surprisingly I find it most useful on my email app.
I pick up my phone to check email a lot, then go onto other useless apps. By catching email usage, I also stop myself going on the rest.
Some people wrap their phone in an elastic band or there’s always Opal if you want more fine grained control: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/opal-screen-time-control/id149...
Physical barrier on the phone is probably the best way to tackle with such things, but that's not what always available or convenient.
I liked Opal, but with Intenty I tried to create an alternative way without blockers or limits. For some reason, app blockers and time limits are very frustrating for me and rarely work. That was one of the primary motivations for the app creation. While I admit that for the majority setting proper limits on certain apps will work.
Opal is incredibly helpful for me. Exactly the right amount of control and annoyance to get me off social media.
Cool idea. Amazingly they've found a way to put "in-app purchases" though.
This app could just be an image set as your lock screen background.
I've found a good way to discourage mindless phone staring is to set the display to monochrome (e.g. through colorblind emulation). The decreased visual stimulation seems to have an effect on me, at least until I want to see a photo or video in colour and go back to normal.
Allow me to clarify about "in-app purchases".
The "in-app purchases" are for small complementary features, like making the screen appear on a schedule, making it impossible to skip the screen, and adding a lock button to lock the screen. Those features aren't essential for the app to function.
> This app could just be an image set as your lock screen background.
Well, yes and no. In the app, you can interact with the prompts. There is a history of your itneraction. You can export it and then analyze it if needed.
> I've found a good way to discourage mindless phone staring is to set the display to monochrome (e.g. through colorblind emulation). The decreased visual stimulation seems to have an effect on me, at least until I want to see a photo or video in colour and go back to normal.
+1 here. I have always had this setting on closer to bedtime.
The point I think was more a critique on the fact that everyone now tries to extract profit with everything, even the simplest of apps.
The point is, everyone believes all apps should be free when this developer spent time building, testing, and iterating to come out with quite the useful app. And the developer respects users, so they chose to monetize in a way that doesn’t collect our data or shove ads in our faces.
The first thing OP says is "Cool idea - don't deserve to get paid for it though".
why shouldn't they? they had to take the time to make the app and get it up on the App Store.
it's totally fair to charge for work you've done. the fact it's simple is irrelevant. what matters is the value it brings to the user.
It is totally fair to charge for work you've done - but then again, in my opinion, not everything needs to be built with some profit in mind (not talking about this app in particular now).
I think it's really refreshing to find an app that doesn't lock any features behind a paywall or makes using it more cumbersome unless you pay. I'm mostly okay with one-time payments though.
Just because you invested some time into making a project doesn't mean that you absolutely need to make some money to make it "worth" it. Hell, most open-source software is built on free/voluntary labor.
> not everything needs to be built with some profit in mind (not talking about this app in particular now).
I agree, and I make many projects for fun and find it rewarding when others use what I've built. But that is a decision that I make myself, for my own work. I never feel like I have the right to tell others whether they should build something with profit in mind or not.
I understand the sentiment from a user's perspective, I really do.
I have been totally burned out by having to maintain all my free apps in the Play Store though, lately. Even a simple non-internet-using app needs an update every year and needs to comply with new bullshit policies every few months. It has totally changed my opinion on free vs paid apps. I still despise subscription models, but I absolutely understand that there's just no free apps out there anymore. It just costs too much of my time to keep doing it for free.
Agree. I had a free app with 100000 downloads, no ads and 4.5 rating on Play store, it is no longer there because I got fed up with Google's nagging. If I will do free things going forward, I will do them outside closed ecosystems.
It is economically better for google if your free app is gone and someone makes a paid app or an app with ads...
Interesting point. I think that the availability of good free apps on Play Store has a positive effect on the market for Android phones in general. I know it factors into people's decision of phone religion that apps are more likely to charge on Apple's store (even sometimes for an app which is free on Android).
All that said, F-droid is the only one I'll ever love.
Also agree, and would also include paid apps as well!
I had a paid app which was a one time payment and was not doing anything special regarding permissions (no internet, nothing like that), but since it wasn't was bringing much revenue (some 3$-4$ per year), I let the Play Store remove it automatically. I couldn't justify adding the absurd data policies (since I wasn't using any user data) and the cost of updating it regularly.
Sorry for my 100 users, that cannot reinstall the app anymore!
I've actually been talking about the developer's perspective as well - I have a couple of personal projects that I've invested quite a bit of time into but I still don't feel the need to try to find a way to monetize them.
I can definitely see your point though. Maybe an option would be open sourcing your app? (considering it's already free anyway) - that way you could maybe find some contributors to make it easier to keep up with everything.
> not everything needs to be built with some profit in mind
You didn't say this earlier. You said this app doesn't need to be developed with profit in mind.
It's time and effort. If you're not willing to pay you're saying it has no value. I prefer a small upfront fee to seeing in app purchases though
That’s not true: not all value is monetary. The results of my hobby are distributed for free, but I gain value from the creation process for myself.
How would you suggest to compensate devs for developing and maintaining such apps?
Personally I would much prefer that developers lock poweruser features behind a paywall rather than plaster ugly ads all over the place. Making it a paid app works too, but likely 95% of the potential userbase would not try the app if they had to reach for their wallets first.
UBI.
(I would leave the comment at that, but it would probably come across as a bit facetious and would fail any 'low-effort' test. But I genuinely mean it: remove the necessity to obtain a certain amount of money every month, and all of a sudden, people would be able to create, share, and enjoy for free.
> How would you suggest to compensate devs for developing and maintaining such apps?
As a developer, I feel more than sufficiently compensated by seeing people use and enjoy my work and thanking me. Getting featured on Hacker News would make my day; nay, year.
I just need to be able to eat and use a computer. I shouldn't have to prove myself valuable just to be allowed to live. I think everybody, regardless of what they do, deserve a livable basic income.
Critiquing the players and not the game misses the forest for the trees. This is the system we live in.
Great idea for a little app. <3
I don't see a problem with in-app purchases, but have you considered offering the unlocked app for free under Google Play Pass?
Thanks
Never used 'Google Play Pass' and haven't explored it from a dev perspective. If that's something like a toggle in Google Play Console then I see no problem enabling it.
same thing worked for me. on iphone, ios 18 introduced a way to apply shades to everything, including app icon and notification counters. since i made the entire thing darker, i've stopped using instagram. i couldn't believe that such a small thing could do wonders. probably the same thing can be achieved by disabling the notification counter, but i think it's better to have it when you want to look for it, but make it not pop out into your eyes.
> Amazingly they've found a way to put "in-app purchases" though.
I've been so happy slowly going through my phone and removing every single app on my phone that has either ads or in-app purchases. I don't miss a single one.
Hacker news has ads in the form of job positions. Do you also consider not using Hacker news anymore?
My sentence, in a very loose sense is an advertisement for my ideas. I think the concept can be stretched too far.
That's a pretty loose definition of an advertisement, particularly in the context of this conversation.
If I sense that these so-called ads are lowering my quality of life—absolutely.
Not all ads are equal. I am willing to bet that every single app they were referring to had much more egregious advertising than HN does.
Your comment comes across as disingenuous.
I think by this point in time, most people who are taking an active effort to remove advertising from their lives are well aware that the concern with "ads" isn't primarily about the requirement to see ads - it's the privacy-consuming infrastructure behind them.
Not to mention the attention-stealing flashing lights and popping up over the thing you want to see and all the other ways to make you think about something against your will.
I do the same with iOS automations - disable monochrome (and orientation lock) for photos and camera apps, and enable it back once closed.
The benefit is that it re-enables monochrome mode after I might disable it manually.
you can find a balance here by setting on bedtime mode in Android where after sunset, your screen glows black and white and they added the ability to pause for 30 minutes.
I have greyscale set to activate in the evening to wind down for bed.
Could you share how you achieved activating greyscale automatically? Was it Android or iOS?
I would love to be able to do this but couldn't find a way on GrapheneOS.
Latest Android has that built-in as a "Night Mode". You can also set a schedule or have it enable while charging
It's a Samsung, Android phone. I used "Modes and Routines" which allows to set greyscale (and silent mode etc.) and automate triggers (such as time of day) to activate a "mode".
> This app could just be an image set as your lock screen background.
Installed about 30 minutes ago, it already made me reconsider using the phone 3x. It is indeed effective while you're engaging with it. Hope it continues like this for long term.
For the long term, I recommend changing the prompts from time to time and adjusting intensity and cooldown settings. Sometimes even turning it off, so you are not getting used to the screen.
It will not last much. The brain will figure out the reconsideration is wasted mental processing and just proceed to open phone by clicking tool.
For me the only really useful intervention was getting a black and white e-ink Android smartphone. I started to read a book per month and my short video watching time was decimated.
I got the Bigme Hibreak which isn’t the worst, but lacks recent android versions. Gives me hours of my life back every day, compared to the phone addiction I experience with my lcd colour screen smartphone
I'm surprised there are so few on the market. The reason I gave up on Nokia in 2020 was a handful of apps: taxi, maps, messengers.
All of that would perfectly work on e-ink. Instead I got a Pixel and after four years I have attention span of a squirrel.
Really have to do something about it, will try grayscale for now.
As an experiment, I wanted to try something similar, but more extreme maybe since it's not Android AFAIK
https://www.thelightphone.com.
Also I wonder if my app is working nicely on an e-ink smartphone, very interesting.
I need this !
I can also recommend Stretchly for the computer https://github.com/hovancik/stretchly.
Forces me to stand up and look further / go grab some chicory.
I feel like we're far too obsessed with the "nobility" of stuff we do for fun. Watch YouTube shorts, scroll reddit, whatever.
It's only "addictive" because it's fun, it's no more pointless than anything else you might do for fun. What are you really achieving by using this app? Do you have an unhealthy relationship with your phone, or are you just arbitrarily ranking it low on the "worthiness" of random shit you might choose to do to kill some time.
What I'm trying to achieve here is to make more conscious choices.
If I want to scroll Reddit, I would like to make a deliberate decision rather than doing it habitually in an "uncontrolled" way, just immediately out of boredom.
The app intervenes in this unconscious phone pickup habit loop and prompts me to reconsider this.
I'm not deleting social media apps from the device and I believe we shouldn't. I'm just trying to adjust the way how I reach them.
I like the idea and I think it will be good in the short term but eventually your brain will just gloss over it I think.
A lot of people doing the scrolling thing seem not satisfied with it. Listening to them, it seems they feel like it not only kills their time funnily, it actually goes beyond, and kills their time more they wanted will still not being so enjoyable.
So they are trying to find hacks to counter their habits.
I can relate. Sometimes I'm on HN a bit more longer than ideal. But that's not a big issue for me and it's not very often so I'm not finding a fix for this.
You might have a great relationship with time and your phone, which is great. Not all of us have that. If/when my mental health is not on its best legs tools like this might prevent it from going deeper. Its VERY easy for me to do 30 minutes of mindless youtube shorts watching instead of doing something I was supposed to do or even wanted to do.
ADHD brain is a bitch. "Gimmicks" help to trigger a intentional conscious response to break out of a pattern.
i don't have phone problems, but I do think there is a non-arbitrary worthiness scale to things I do for fun. In the long term, I think I benefit more and feel better about myself for spending time learning something or creating something than playing video games or doing something passive.
> It's only "addictive" because it's fun
This is not true. Almost everything in mobile phones exploit human brain biases to keep us hooked. It's about regaining control of what you want to use your time for.
When I don't have my phone's distractions, I read books instead, or play music, or maybe do a few pushups.
Basically anything I in-fact do when my phone's not around, is better than the phone.
The only thing I do without the phone that's almost as low-value is video gaming (gee, more electronics...)
These critiques/nudges/reminders about screen time are as much worth as a YouTube short: a dime a dozen. Completely shallow, thoughtless, vapid and a waste of time.[1] Anyone can make the point that people are staring at their phones. That they spend time on social media.
It’s the equivalent of getting up on a soapbox and exclaiming that we live in a society. (Except everyone is on their phone and won’t give you any attention)
Why? Why are you on your phone? Well, have you, the critiquer of the supposed malaise given any real thought to that? Or do you have no insights to offer, nothing more than a rhetorical one-word question to ask, nothing that penetrates the surface of the supposed problem?
Have you, OP?
At least propose a theory. Like: maybe people are overstimulated and have choice fatigue. Then what the hell does yet another automated nagger help? One more reminder that you should drink a cup of coffeine-free green tea and smile at a stranger?
Nothing was uncovered. Nothing was gained.
[1] This is not true. Making YouTube shorts takes some editing skills.
it's currently very cool to announce to everybody how little time you spend on your phone, it's like the new "I'm vegan" or "I use arch btw".
people don't realise how addiction works - see the Vietnam veterans case: https://jamesclear.com/heroin-habits
we have bigger (social) problems that's causing the phone addiction: if it wasn't a phone, it would be video games, TV or alcohol or something else.
Even if the addition is really driven by the environment, rather than its subject itself, can individuals actually solve the underlying social problem? Can they do so in a way that's actually scalable to a significant portion of the population?
If your work, or lack of money, or your kids school, or your parents health are causing you stress, most often you can't simply "change your environment" to a less stressful one.
I swear comments on posts like this one always read like some religious support group for people that think sex outside of the context of marriage is worthy of shame. It's depressing.
The new religious nutjobbery is that sex between a man and a woman inside of the context of marriage is also worthy of shame because it's gay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flRRPTfOB2U
this is the type of tool a C-level executive would mandate to be installed on your devices. Instead of “why”, it would send out notifications to a central server with a data pipeline into genAI which can generate reports on productivity.
Employee not complying? Bye bye equity, severance
Employee opening device too much? Fired.
Of course C-level executives would get exempt from policy because “rules for thee but not for me” attitude.
As for personal usage, I would much rather configure “Focus” mode to block certain apps from opening. Rather than rely on this. I would install this on phones of annoying people though for shits and giggles
Love it. I wish there was a way to select multiple nudges.
Is it possible to provide a lifetime subscription (instead of a monthly one) for premium features?
Great app, but I second the lifetime price request. It's a bit weird for me to see a subscription for such an app. I'm happy to support the developer, but not on a monthly basis.
Thanks for the try.
Now I realize that the decision to make nudges in the same way as modes on iOS was a bad decision. I made it intentionally, you select nudge as one mode to enable. If you want to customize the content, just change the prompts in the nudge. Apologies for the inconvenience.
And about lifetime subscription. I also get that. I will replace the subscription with a one-time purchase eventually.
Subscription software cost can be modeled as a one-time fee: you calculate the net present value of all the payments.
For example, if you plan to use this app for 7 years (which is a reasonable expectation for a piece of software's lifetime) and it costs $2 a month, the net present value is somewhere around $138. That is, if you decide right now to use the app for 7 years, you are costing yourself $138 in today-dollars.
Which is rather a lot.
Of course the subscription does have the benefit that you can cut off your usage at any point, however the people asking for a perpetual irrevocable license are probably not the type who appreciate this capability.
I have a foldable flip phone. It is equivalent : I need to go through some effort to open my phone. I don't open it unless I need to
BTW, it was quite complicated but I added support for flip phones as well. So the app works correctly on flip phones as well. Flip phone users might have an ultimate setup.
Have you tried RescueTime? It's a similar app that prompts you to log your activities every time you unlock your phone.
It's surprising to see how much time can slip by unnoticed each day. Using it can really make you more mindful of how you're spending it.
> Have you tried RescueTime? It's a similar app that prompts you to log your activities every time you unlock your phone.
I didn't know they had such a feature. I'm going to check this out.
> It's surprising to see how much time can slip by unnoticed each day. Using it can really make you more mindful of how you're spending it.
Exactly. I have so many unnecessary phone pickups during the day. Without such apps that would slip unnoticed. Also, it's worth mentioning that when you notice those moments at least in my case it makes you feel guilty a bit that you picking it up unconsciously, but maybe that's my individual behaviour.
Does it do this on iOS? I just cancelled RT because it crashed on my work computer all the time but if the phone app weren’t useless that might be different.
On iOS, I've tried nearly everything, but here's what's lasted more than a few months.
1. A physical blocker like Brick (getbrick.app) and/or a Kitchen Timer Safe (KSafe).
2. One Sec app
I'll occasionally leave my phone at home and use only an Apple Watch with LTE.
These are the only flows that haven't become frustrating over time and have worked to cut screen time and addicted apps (or altogether).
One Sec broke my addiction to doomscrolling apps. The feature that makes you look at your face for two seconds when you open the app, while telling you that you last opened it a minute ago, is both hilarious and effective.
has anyone dug into whether one sec is safe (private offline on device as it states)? it requires access to accessibility settings, which means that it could be reading all of you cryptocurrency apps, passwords as well as two-factor authentication
I just needed to create shortcuts. I don’t remember needing to grant any further accessibility settings, but I don’t currently have it installed.
I have been using Mindfull, and it's great. It can even block short form videos on different apps (Reddit, Instagram, Snap)
My iphone battery died and instead of getting the latest and greatest I got a Punkt phone. Best decision I ever made, I got my life back.
Tried that but came back quickly simply due to good camera and ability to do a quick search/navigate that is a godsend sometimes. Also nobody uses SMS or Signal where I live.
Interesting. How are you dealing with cases when you need a navigation like Waze or Google Maps? Navigation apps are my main obstacles for trying a "dumbphone".
My city is easy to navigate (and I've lived here my entire life) so I don't really need real-time map navigation when I'm walking the streets. I have a dedicated GPS unit in my car.
That sounds nice. In my case, I rely heavily on many "essential" apps that are available on smartphones. Maybe the approach of having another Kale phone and a "Junk" phone is a thing (https://x.com/george__mack/status/1681378342627311640). And Punkt will be a great candidate for Kale phone.
Great idea, I'm a bit worried about security. To have control over phone unlocking the app has to be pretty privileged, right?
It does not list any special privilege except drawing over other apps. I think the author could justify the network permission or they could remove it, but I personally don't consider it a big problem as-is anyway.
https://developer.android.com/training/permissions/requestin...
The Play Store lists these permissions:
* view network connections * full network access * run at startup * draw over other apps * prevent device from sleeping
The only one that gives me pause is "draw over" because it would allow the app to capture screen content, and that is only concerning because of "full network access" enabling it to send data. I'm not sure why this app would require _both_ of these permissions.
https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.actureu...
I use https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.qqlabs.min... which has several things that pester you when opening certain applications. It also makes the home screen quite dull. Combine this with a monochrome display and the phone considerably loosens its grip on you.
I think it will work just fine in combination with Intenty. Of course, it might be too challenging to use the device with so many obstacles. But if that helps to be more mindful about phone usage, why not?
I'd like to give it a try, but it is not compatible with my device. Is there a reason for it not to work on a Galaxy Note8?
My approach for iPhone:
- Set time limits on apps. - Block App Store. - Set a Screen Time pin, then forget it.
Downside: if you need to install a new app, you need to do a iTunes backup, factory reset and restore the backup,. Also apps won't continue to update with this approach.
Worth it though. I don't miss wasting 10-20 hours a week on brain rot apps.
Why have the brain rot apps installed at all?
Can't uninstall the browser, and occasionally it's needed for legit reasons. I quite literally can't resist drifting towards mindless scrolling apps, though I know that's hard to fathom for some people.
I think it's not the apps are brain rot.
It's the content available on platforms and the way how you navigate inside the app. You can watch various content on YouTube for instance.
Your method skips the subtlety and goes straight to a hard reset (literally)
I like the idea, congrats on the launch!
One feature request: instead of giving me a freeform field to enter "why", give me a few of common uses cases as options like: - Picking up the phone for real use (order, cab, call etc) - For social connection - For mindless scrolling
overtime you can plot why the phone was picked
Thanks!
> One feature request: instead of giving me a freeform field to enter "why", give me a few of common uses cases as options like: - Picking up the phone for real use (order, cab, call etc) - For social connection - For mindless scrolling
You can add quick answers to the prompts, it's there, no need to type every time
> overtime you can plot why the phone was picked
Already you can export all historical data to CSV to analyze it. There is also an interesting thing to observe, it's time spent on the screen.
Is this really a launch? I see reviews from 4 years ago.
The original app was released ~ 4 years ago, but it survived several rounds of overhauls from scratch while keeping the original idea - "showing nudges after phone unlock". It can be considered a launch because it's almost a remade app.
Genuine question, I also like to use my smartphone less, but what about when you are in the lavatory? I have a habit of using my smartphone else I cannot go. Has anyone been able to solve that?
Do as I say, not as I do....
Don't take it? It's bad to dit on the toilet longer than 10 minutes.
I'd challenge that. I suspect you can go fine (or should go to a doctor) and just don't like boredom. You're not alone! Provided it's not a medical issue, it's a mental one, and the answer is practice. Leave your smartphone outside, you can sit idle for 3-5m. If you're spending much more time than that, it's a medical issue.
https://archive.ph/Lfh1u (CNN Health)
>>"Don’t sit on the toilet for more than 10 minutes, doctors warn"
>> Leave your devices behind when you head to the bathroom (...) too much time spent on the toilet can cause possible health problems...
Congrats on a useful and popular app! It sounds like something that could really help a lot of people.
Now, I really don't want to come across as smug or anything, but I'm not one of the people this would help. I already use my phone in a consciously controlled manner and I don't do things like endless doomscrolling. Despite, it's clear from the evidence that a lot of people do and would benefit from this app. So I'm really curious... what is that like? What goes through your head when you grab the phone, see the app, and then decide to put the phone back down? If you realize at that point that you don't actually want to use the phone right now, why did you grab it in the first place? I'm not insinuating anything, I'm genuinely just curious.
In my case it depends on the nudge I'm currently set up.
If that's about using the phone less, like during focus time I pick it up habitually to procrastinate the screen can say "Just put it down and check it at the scheduled time". When I see the text I'm kind of dragged out of the habit loop and just putting it down or press the lock button. So it's a kind of replacement of one habit with another one. See an app screen? Lock the phone.
If it is about a weekend or a vacation I put a text on the screen about being more relaxed and not having FOMO. Like 'If that's something important, you will know about it'. Here the mechanism is almost the same, I'm replacing the habit of checking stuff with something different like music or locking my phone back again.
Usually it’s procrastination and anxiety escapism, and it’s all automatic. To know what goes through your head you have to reflect a lot and wouldn’t have the issue in the first place if you did that. Reflection is hard and its insights are very situational so I wouldn’t expect anyone to fully answer it.
I don't think about it at all, it's almost automatic. Like locking the door when you leave your house.
I have a free moment, I enter a bus, I sit down at a table, boom phone.
I may be an usual case as I believe it to be caused by general anxiety and wanting to avoid the world.
I am also not a doomscroller but a frequent "let's check if something new is happening" leads me to randomly picking up my phone regularly. It's almost automatic by now. Middle of work? "Muscle memory" sort of grabs phone, unlocks it, opens emails, messengers. Nothing new? Just close.
TL:DR;: For me (not a doomscroller) it's sort of automatic to check my mails and messages. Not thinking much while grabbing the phone
love the app, I think it works much better than a simple background with a question on it, and not only because I like to have pretty pictures there instead
an idea: it would be neat to have extra functionality with specific apps, with regular interruptions to ask if you're still on track or what have you. maybe not even a button press, just like a 5 second breather with a message on the screen and then it goes away. sort of like the notifications you currently have in place but for the whole screen. users could modify the message for each app...
look forward to seeing further development!
More advanced reminders are the most frequent feature request so far. As a very trivial way to implement it, I'm thinking about showing the original screen periodically instead of the notification.
But the thing you suggest with modifying the message for each app sounds interesting. Are you thinking about something like "Have you found what you searched? Or you are just scrolling" on Reddit?
In any case, it's an item on the roadmap already
I can answer this myself. 95% of the time its because I need to do some form of MFA (totp app, sms, email, duo, etc)
Installed to try it out.
I really like the art :)
When you're editing a prompt, the back button takes you back to the nudge screen instead of the prompts popup, which feels like a bug.
Thanks for the try.
> When you're editing a prompt, the back button takes you back to the nudge screen instead of the prompts popup, which feels like a bug.
Yeah, it's on the list of things to fix. Now to exit the prompt popup properly you have to click either on cross or out of the popup area.
A counter in a corner or similar might be less disruptive and still keep you mindful. Bit like a step counter
I remember a very cool similar thing from Google Digital Wellbeing Experiments called unlock clock https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.digitalwel...
Has anyone built the app from Google: The Movie yet? Er. I mean The Internship?
I love the premise behind this app, but the "draw over screen" permission is pretty dangerous. For example, stealing passwords by intercepting taps on the keyboard. How can we trust you won't be doing this?
love the idea, just installed it, but the premium cost is too much for what it offers. Monthly doesn't make sense to me, especially since you don't have any running costs.
After receiving so many comments about the "premium" version I'm going to consider adding a one-time purchase as an option.
Thanks for sharing.
One should ask themselves just this whenever they are going to act or make a judgement.
The mobile app Opal and others do a good job too.
I dare everyone to try putting their phone into grayscale instead of color display.
Yay! I've been on greyscreen for about two months now. Phone used much, much less, each week.
Love the idea, is there an iOS version planned?
Check out ScreenZen, it doesn’t work with general unlocks but you can set it to add similar mindfulness reminders for specific apps or categories of apps. Been using it a few weeks and a fan.
+1
it's pretty easy to work around but all I generally need is something to knock me out of my flow.
As soon as Apple allows listening to phone unlock events and displaying app over other apps. Currently there are not APIs on iOS for such thing
I haven't seen any of those apps (or built-in OS features like screen time on iOS) not become useless in a matter of days.
People that will use their phone for distraction (which I don't think there's actually anything wrong with) will take only a few days to get "notification fatigue" from those screens and automatically bypass them without even thinking about it.
I get that you can prevent bypassing the screen as you mentioned as an extra feature but people will just click the other button then.
There's not a single person (myself included) I have seen use screen time not automatically bypass the limitation instantly as it pops up.
> I haven't seen any of those apps (or built-in OS features like screen time on iOS) not become useless in a matter of days.
This isn't consistent with the data. I'm a cofounder of Clearspace and we see that when people make it through the first two weeks, they stick around for months or years.
YMMV - because our feature set looks slightly different - half users are in a mode where you have to do pushups to unlock distracting apps which really does tend to stick for people that opt in. (like this https://x.com/_oliver_hill/status/1825605422885253445)
I can relate to this. I conducted UX experiment during my Master's in Human Computer Interaction which was testing an impact of various interventions to screen time and user perception. I observed very similar pattern, if it clicks it stays with the people. Of course the experiment was with small group, but still.
A good comparison I think are "self help" books. People are still reading them and those books are really helpful during certain times. While same ideas and concepts are circulating across those books.
I believe such kind of apps and software deserve to exist. Whatever helps people to make their lives better.
> This isn't consistent with the data. I'm a cofounder of Clearspace and we see that when people make it through the first two weeks, they stick around for months or years.
And how many make it through the first two weeks? I'll take a guess and say less than 1%.
Well, I agree.
The fatigue from the screen is real.
What I'm trying to achieve here with the app is to give a set of tools that can help deal with this fatigue. Like adding a variety to the texts you see, changing the intensity of the pop-up screen, adding cooldown, or hard mode and schedules.
The Northstar is to adjust the nudge automatically based on the level of fatigue from the screen.
I know I'm far from it now. But I'm attempting. I'm changing the nudges often and their configuration manually for myself now. And it works for me and I believe it can help other folks as well.
That's it.
> There's not a single person (myself included) I have seen use screen time not automatically bypass the limitation instantly as it pops up.
You can take the more drastic approach and lock yourself out of your phone by changing it's unlock code and use a timelock [0] to prevent yourself from bypassing it for a given time. Works also with parental-control like Apps that require you to enter a password/code to unlock. No bypassing here.
[0]: lockmeout.online
The point is that people don't stick with it. Bypassable versions works just as well as this, for a day or two until it becomes slightly annoying. Full lockout will work for a day or two as well, until it becomes annoying. The bypass here is simply that you never use it again.
I think that's extremely dangerous and I would never consider this to be honest. My phone is my only phone, and I need to be able to call emergency services, or answer an important call, at unexpected times.
If I reached the point where I was comfortable literally being unable to use my phone for a period of time, I would just not have a phone or not carry it with me.
You literally can do both without entering your unlock code. That is the whole point, locked phones are pretty useful, but not to kill time.
You can even do more like make outgoing calls using Siri/Google Assistant, Take Photos/videos etc. This is default setting at least on iOS.
Right. Because these things require some thought and analysis if you truly think that you yourself are having issues with screen time or other attention-related issues.
I may or may not have that right now but I for sure did some years ago. And if you are having issues with your attention? Boy, loading on more stuff that you are supposed to “attend to” for sure does not help. Someone who is having self-reported issues with their attention is not going to see some automated mindfulness message and go, oh wait time to slow down and take a good gander at what I want to spend my attention on right now.
On the contrary that will just tire them more. Which makes them more susceptible to losing their awareness or attention.
But people who think there is one-weird-trick to fixing these issues are incapable of understanding the +1 attention problem: that loading more stuff onto the person is not going to help.
I want a screentime app where it requires your friends to approve an override
Like the ones you share location with
Keep you accountable more than reflexively remembering the override pattern
Has to be at the OS level so that everyone already has it
Nothing for iOS?
On iOS it's simply impossible to implement. There is no way you can display an app over other apps after unlocking. I tried to implement something similar, like a widget, but that's a completely different app. Unfortunately, such an app is possible only on Android.
i scroll through reddit when im on the toilet or waiting etc. while cooking or something
that's really it.
this is great, especially the design. but, as some of the comments have stated, it will prob get annoying.
Instead, I think it would be better to incentivize people to use their phone/social apps less.
Touch Grass. Earn Points.
Cal Newport would love this!
I was just thinking about Cal too. I listened[1] to Deep Work and Digital Minimalism a couple years ago and still use many of his prescriptions. Namely, I have no social media or gaming apps installed on my phone. On my home screen for quick access I only have Google Voice, Messenger, Maps, and the camera app. The browser app (Firefox with uBlock Origin extension) is buried and it deletes everything when I close it, so there's no history, bookmarks, logins, etc. to make browsing more streamlined. I often leave the phone at home or in my car when I go out. I leave it by the front door when I'm at home instead of keeping it in my hand or pocket.
I find that having a very light data plan helps too (in addition to saving money). I have the $5/month annual plan from Red Pocket that gives me 500 MB. I'm well aware that I could burn through 500 MB very quickly, so that makes me think twice about whether I really need to load a web page if I'm out somewhere without Wi-Fi.
[1] Audiobooks on my phone, ironically. But making audiobooks more accessible is probably the best value that smartphones have provided for me. Libby, for borrowing audiobooks from the library and listening to them, is the one entertainment app that I have installed.
This will turn into gamified form filling habit for no profit, what is the point ?
If you mechanically open phone at least do something useful in it
read a quote https://github.com/jameshnsears/QuoteUnquote
track a habit https://github.com/iSoron/uhabits
learn vim https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=develop.exampl...
c++ quirks https://github.com/vsklamm/CppQuiz
or else
I just deleted an app a month until I was happy. My phone got so boring after a few months of this I started forgetting it when leaving home. Ended up using it so little on the go, wifi was enough and canceled my cell phone plan.
Been four years since I had cell service or regularly carried any internet capable devices and I have never been happier.
My anxiety has plummeted and my attention span and productivity have skyrocketed. I do not have a phone as a security blanket anymore and feel so much more confident in public.
Smartphones are optional for most people, but if you are forced to carry one, keep it in airplane mode whenever possible and only use it when solving the specific problem that forces you to carry it that you lack any alternatives for.
If you need mobile entertainment buy a paper book.
Can confirm that physically separating myself from my phone has had benefits for me. For the last two years it's usually either sitting in another room when I'm at home, or in my bag when I'm out, always on silent. Switched off an hour before bed. This is enough to eliminate the distraction for me.
The main benefit is really just having more free time, focus and attention that you can channel into things you actually care about. So if anyone needs motivation to un-tether, think of it like this: being a phone user cuts your life roughly in half (in terms of the portion of time that's actually available to you to use).
I could go even more extreme on the phone decoupling, for instance I still bring it with me if I'm going to a bar or something, but at the moment I'm more focused on whittling down social media usage on computers as well. It does feel like the endgame could be a better life through just abandoning most of the tech that was cooked up in the last 15 years.
A phone often is necessary if you run into issues while being outside. Let's not ignore the importance of being able to call for help if necessary. Can't blame the phone for yourself not being able to detach properly.
Is this the new "we don't have a TV in this house?"
I think so. Also half of the people don't have children and/or have a lot of free time. I am not even talking about responding to emails/family chat.
How do they do 2-factor auth to Heroku/Gitlab/whatever? Maps in a foreign country where you can't even read the letters? On way to job interview when the interviewer has an emergency and needs to postpone? Good friend is in the town and calls you to hang out? Translation when a tourist comes to ask where something is?
I get the general point, especially as IRL payment options are also increasingly assuming you have a smartphone, however maps and translation can also be done offline.
Hah, I hadn't even thought of banking/payments on the go. And true regarding the offline maps - a few sister comments mentioned leaving phone at home though.
This is what I want to do, but as a husband, father, homeowner, etc, I find it is not in my best interest to be unreachable by phone.
So I think about carrying a flip phone for my telephone, an e-reader for entertainment, and a smartphone in airplane mode for (mainly) maps, photos, music, notes. But then I'd be carrying three devices, which seems worse in its own way.
Probably worth the change ultimately?
It drives me NUTS that nobody makes a decent e-ink device with a GPS app.
It seems like it'd be ideal for the backcountry use-case. Super long battery life because you could just wake up the GPS every few hours and get a new fix, reframe the map, then go back to sleep and use the latent image like a topo map.
I have a few use cases like this that would go towards replacing my phone. I'm on the lookout for a hackable/linux ereader.
I thought the reMarkable was that, but they hardware-disabled the Bluetooth radio in the wifi/bt chipset, and that really wrecked most of my use-cases.
I would never read books today if it wasn't for e-ink. I can adjust the font or the line spacing and at the end of the line I will read the correct next line instead of a 20% chance I will start at the same line.
I never had a big relationship to my phones simply because I can't stand typing on them. My plan (prepaid) is 1€/month for 1GB and 9cents per min/SMS.
I have a similar problem but my miss rate is closer to 5% so I empathize, I'm so glad you've found a good solution. truly nothing more inspiring in tech.
I think there's a lot of gains to be made in tailoring UX/UI to the individual. Not just for individuals (this person reading more books) but for societal advancement. (this person reading more books, generalized)
what do you do when you need a phone number?
Not OP, but I've been meaning to pick up a used business phone and connecting it to a VoIP number for a home phone
This is great advice. I deleted everything that has an infinite scroll of new stuff and set my phone on airplane mode where possible. Life is better. I frequently go about with no phone and I have better focus. Paradoxically I now enjoy my phone much more. It has a compass a camera and a bunch of cool utilities. It’s easier to appreciate how nice maps or translate is when you need to jump for them.
how do you listen to music then?
I'm genuinely amazed that this question exists, but then I grew up with radio, then CDs, then MP3 players.
It is not physically possible to listen to music without paying $100/mo to Verizon or AT&T and $12/mo to Spotify.
Haha, ya, this is along the lines of “You can’t send HTML over HTTP without JSON.”
I personally got bone conducting headphones with built in storage. It's a wearable mp3 player.
People have too much damn time on their hands.
Do yourselves a favor and delete all social media.
Don't know why this is being downvoted. Everyone who complains about their phone as a distraction, on inquiry also has some comment like "I get sent too many notifications by apps!"
Which is baffling to me, because apps which send even 1 notification I don't like get uninstalled unless they're some non-optional thing, in which case they get muted.
The only notifications I get on my phone is from Home Assistant telling me when my dryer has finished or warning me if the fridge door temperature is too high (I cannot recommend this enough - it usually means you should clean off the heat exchanger).
