Original Summary

Every app blocker I tried failed the same way: the escape hatch is one tap. iOS Screen Time hands you an "Ignore Limit" button at the exact moment you least want to see it, and after a week you're past that screen before you've consciously decided anything. So I made the escape hatch cost pushups. You pick the apps to block. Every rep you log deposits screen time into a balance. The balance only drains while you're actually inside a blocked app — switch away and the clock stops. When it hits zero the apps lock again and opening one drops you back on the rep wheels. The part people argue with me about: it's an honor system. No camera, no motion tracking, no AI rep counting. You type in what you did. I went back and forth on pose detection, but propping your phone against a wall in decent light every time you want to check Instagram is friction that kills the habit, and accelerometer counting is trivially cheated by shaking the phone — you get the annoyance without the honesty. A commitment device you routinely lie to has already stopped working; a camera wouldn't have saved it. Technical bits, since this is that kind of sub: - React Native / Expo, one codebase, but the blocking is native on both sides and completely different. - Android: a Kotlin foreground service polls UsageStats once a second to see the foreground app, and draws a TYPE_APPLICATION_OVERLAY lock screen when a blocked app has no credit left. I deliberately avoided the AccessibilityService route most blockers take — it grants read-your-screen power I didn't want and invites a much harsher Play review. - iOS: FamilyControls + ManagedSettingsStore. Apple never gives you bundle IDs, only opaque tokens, so the app genuinely cannot learn which apps you blocked. A DeviceActivity extension meters usage in 15s thresholds so the balance keeps draining with the app suspended. - Fun constraint: a DeviceActivity schedule can't cross midnight, so an unspent balance needs a second monitor pre-armed for the next day or it evaporates overnight. No accounts, no analytics, no network calls at all. Everything lives on-device. Free on both stores, with a paid tier for custom exercises and uncapped banking: honorfitapp.com Happy to answer anything about the Screen Time API — it's badly documented and I lost a lot of time to it. Direct links — iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6802871620 · Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.honorfit.blocker   submitted by   /u/__majorBummer__ [link]   [comments]

  • 情报分类：技术学习与提效
  • 分类依据：内容涉及技术、AI、软件工具或工程实践
  • 信息来源：Reddit · SideProject
  • 发布时间：2026/9/17 07:39:44