I built a screen time app to fix my own phone addiction - might help you as well
So a few months ago I realized I was actually addicted to my phone. Like, bad. I tried the built-in app blockers but they never worked for me because the "unblock for 5 minutes" button is too tempting. It always turns into an hour.
I got so mad I uninstalled Instagram. Then I just started scrolling Pinterest. Uninstalled that, then moved to YouTube. I tried apps like Forest and Regain but half of them didn't even work on my Android 15 setup or let me bypass the timer too easily.
The funny part is I decided to build my own app to fix this — but kept getting distracted by YouTube while coding the blocker. It took 4 months because of my own addiction lol.
I finally finished it and launched it on the Play Store. It's called FocuzPass. The main thing is it makes you solve quizzes to "earn" your screen time, so you can't just mindlessly click "unblock."
I've been using it for a few weeks and it's actually working better for me than anything else out there. But since I made it, I'm obviously biased. if you guys want give it a try and let me know your thoughts.
building a focus app while getting distracted on youtube might be the most honest founder story i've read this week lol. the quiz-to-earn-time idea is neat, my only worry is i'd just get fast at the quizzes and autopilot through them. do they get harder or shuffle so you can't memorize the answers?
Hey, actually its mixture of different category suppose now you have open quiz so next time you will get something else like card matching or maths problem etc. every time you ask for more time the quiz and level will be keep increasing means first game would be easy but the 5th one will be lot more harder and so on. Thankyou so much for your beautiful comment.
nice, the mixed-category questions answer is smart, that's what keeps the earn-time loop from being gameable. since you're building for people fighting their own impulses, that self-discipline angle is weirdly close to what i'm building (helping founders back products they believe in early) groundwork, would love a builder's eye if you're up for it. the gameable-loop trap is where most of these apps quietly die, sounds like you already saw it coming
sure would love to know about it more.
the unblock-for-5-min button turning into an hour is painfully accurate. forest never stuck for me either. gonna give focuzpass a go on my android, does it block in-app browsers too or just the apps themselves? thats where i usually leak the most time.
give it a try looking forward for it, in-app browsers are way to hunting for sure in next update going to add this feature but most of them time it catches them not very accurate but it still work.
nice, that's the one feature that'd actually keep me in it. ill grab it on android this week and see how the in-app browser blocking holds up once it ships. real test is whether it survives me being annoyed at it on day 4 lol.
looking forward to see you there. have a beautiful and amazing day ahead
Nice angle because it starts from a pain you personally felt. For Android utilities, I’m finding the first-run trust moment matters as much as the feature. With Kinetic Override, I have to make “local profiles, no ads, no account, Android 15+ only” obvious before asking users to grant automation permissions.