Bounded FocusA focus app for iPhone and Android.
Four hours a day is not a habit. It is years of your life.
Bounded Focus blocks the apps that eat your evenings, using the same iOS system that enforces parental controls. Not a timer you can swipe away. A block that holds, and a small garden that grows every day you stay out.
Free to start. No account needed. Built for ADHD brains, kind to every brain.
Count what the feed costs you.
This is the same calculation the app runs on day one. Two facts about you, one honest number. Move the sliders.
years of waking life you will give a screen by 80
years back if you cut just 3 hours a day
Each circle is a year you have left before 80. The orange ones belong to the screen.
Assumes 16 waking hours a day and a life to 80. Not a prophecy, just arithmetic. The app walks you through your own numbers on first launch.
A block you cannot argue with.
Most blockers are just apps pleading with you. Bounded Focus hands the job to iOS itself, through Apple's Screen Time framework, the same machinery behind parental controls. Once a session starts, the shield belongs to the system, not to an app you can silence.
- Force quit the appThe block stays up. iOS is enforcing it, not the app.
- Restart the phoneStill there when it boots. The session survives.
- Open a blocked app anywayYou meet a calm shield screen instead of the feed.
- Wait it outFine. That was the plan. The block ends when you said it should.
Why most blockers fail.
It is not your discipline, it is their architecture. A blocker that can be dismissed by the person it is blocking was never going to win. Here is the difference, entry by entry.
| Situation | A willpower app | Bounded Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Who enforces the block | The app itself. It asks you nicely to stay out. | iOS. The same system that runs parental controls. |
| When you force quit | Blocking dies with the app's process. | Nothing changes. The shield never lived in the app. |
| At 11 pm, willpower gone | One tap on "skip for today" and the feed is back. | A breathing gate stands between you and the snooze. |
| After a bad day | Streak dead, motivation dead, app deleted. | A grace token covers it. The garden keeps growing. |
Friction beats willpower.
Willpower is a battery, and by late evening it is flat. Friction does not need charging. Bounded never asks you to be strong, it just makes the impulsive path slow and the intended path easy.
- one11:41 pm, you tap snooze. Allowed. This is a lock you own, not a cage.
- twoThe gate opens with a breath. Slow circles, in and out. There is nothing to tap yet, nothing to skip.
- threeThen the choice unlocks. Still want in? Take your minutes, deliberately. Most urges do not survive one honest breath.
Decide once, at a calm moment.
The worst time to negotiate with your phone is when you are tired and it is glowing. So you do not. You set the hours on a quiet Sunday, and from then on the blocks switch themselves on. Willpower is never in the loop.
Nothing to lose. Something to grow.
Streak apps love punishment: miss a day, lose everything, quit forever. Bounded grows a single garden instead. Every focused day feeds one tree, from a seed with its eyes shut to something mighty. Companions wander in as the weeks pass.
- oneOne evolving garden, not a hundred dead badges. You always know how you are doing at a glance.
- twoGrace tokens forgive a bad day. One slip does not salt the earth, because real life has bad days.
- threeStreaks that bend instead of breaking. Built for brains that have been burned by streaks before.
We cannot see your screen time. Good.
Blocking runs on your device through Apple's framework. The list of apps you open never reaches our servers, by design, so there is nothing to mine and nothing to sell.
It would be a strange business to fight the attention economy while quietly feeding it. The full policy is short, because there is little to disclose: read it here.
- ads, ever
- selling or sharing your data
- account required to start
- access to which apps you open
Asked, answered, honestly.
Does the block really survive force quit and restart?+
Yes. The shield is applied by iOS through the Screen Time framework, not by our process. Force quit the app, restart the phone, the session is still standing when you come back. That is the whole reason we built on this API.
Can I cheat my way past it?+
There is a door, but it is heavy. Snoozing a block is possible after the breathing gate, on purpose: you own this lock, and emergencies are real. What you cannot do is dismiss the block with a reflex tap, and that turns out to be the difference that matters.
Will blocked apps still ping me with notifications?+
While a block is active the app is shielded, so it stays out of sight and out of mind until your window ends. Calls and messages from people you care about keep working normally.
What data do you collect about my phone use?+
None. Which apps you open, how long you scroll, what you block: all of it stays on your device inside Apple's framework. We could not read it if we wanted to, and we designed it that way on purpose.
Is it free?+
The core is free: blocking, schedules, the garden and your streak. Pro unlocks deeper insights and the advanced friction options, with a free trial to see if it earns its keep.
Is there an Android version?+
Yes. Bounded Focus is live on both the App Store and Google Play. Grab it from whichever store your phone uses, the badges above link straight to it.
The years are still on the table.
Install it tonight, set one bedtime schedule, and see how tomorrow morning feels.