Your phone has been robbing you for years. Time to press charges.
Every time you open a distracting app, an AI asks why you're there. No paywall. No breathing exercises. No ignore button. Just one question you can't autopilot through.
Join waitlist iOS Shortcut · Free · No dark patternsThe apps aren't the addiction. The autopilot is. Block one door and your brain finds another. So I stopped blocking apps and started interrupting the behavior itself.
I tried Screen Time, One Sec, Opal, Unrot and Screenzen. Nothing worked. They were either too easy to bypass, only blocked one app, or tried to manipulate me into a subscription before I could even try them. Screenzen came closest but none of them asked me why So I built something that does.
- Moritz, Ex-Doomscroller
Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat - whatever your poison. An iOS Shortcut intercepts it before the app loads.
Not a breathing exercise. Not a timer you can dismiss. You have to type a real reason. The AI reads it and decides if you're being intentional or running on autopilot.
The AI might let you in, deny you, or throw a challenge - a math problem, a typing test, an honesty check. If you really want in, you'll solve it. If you were just on autopilot, that friction is enough to snap you out of it.
If you get in, your screen goes grayscale and a timer starts. When time's up, the app closes automatically. No "one more minute" button. The AI decides how long you get - and it gets stricter the more you come back.
Powered by AW
Not a timer. Not a breathing exercise. Not another "Ignore Limit" button dressed up in wellness branding. The AW reads your excuse, checks it against your history, and decides - in real time - if you deserve to get in.
The moment you open a blocked app, the AW steps in front. No warnings. No countdowns. Just one question.
You type your reason. The AW actually reads it - no keyword matching, no timers. Context matters. "I need it for work" at 2am hits different.
Allow, deny, or challenge. The AW is funny about it - but it won't let you lie to yourself. That's the whole point.
"I need Instagram for work"
"It's Saturday at midnight. The only work you're doing is on your self-esteem."
"Replying to a DM, I swear it'll take 2 minutes"
"Sure you are. Clock starts now."
"just bored i guess"
"At least you're honest. Still no."
*it's just AI with a bad attitude
I used to lose hours every day to my phone without realizing it. Not because I was weak-willed - because the apps are designed that way. Teams of hundreds of engineers optimizing every pixel to keep you scrolling one more minute.
I tried everything. Screen Time's "Ignore Limit" button became muscle memory. One Sec only blocks one app for free - so I blocked Instagram and migrated to YouTube Shorts. I deleted YouTube and ended up doomscrolling on Snapchat. The compulsion doesn't care which app you open.
I also tried the nuclear option: just deleting the apps entirely. That didn't work either - but for a different reason. Instagram and Snapchat are how I actually stay in touch with friends. Miss two weeks of stories and you show up to dinner not knowing what's been going on in people's lives. Deleting the apps doesn't make you present - it just makes you out of the loop. I didn't want a digital detox. I wanted to stop the mindless part while keeping the parts that actually matter.
Then I tried Opal and Unrot. Both were just sales funnels to get you to subscribe before you could try a single feature. They use the same dark patterns as the apps they claim to fight.
So I built my own thing. An AI consciousness check that fires every time you open a distracting app. You have to tell it why you're there, and it decides if your reason is good enough. You can't autopilot through a conversation the way you can tap "Ignore Limit."
Built by one person, fueled by the problem. Support the build ☕
I tried that. The problem is that Instagram and Snapchat aren't just scrolling platforms - they're how people actually keep up with each other. Delete them and you stop doomscrolling, but you also miss your friends' life updates and show up to conversations two weeks behind. It's too drastic. The goal isn't to cut the apps out - it's to stop the mindless, compulsive part while keeping the intentional use. That's the sweet spot ScrollJail is designed for.
Screen Time sets a limit and shows an "Ignore Limit" button you tap on autopilot. ScrollJail makes you explain yourself to an AI every single time. One is a suggestion. The other is a conversation you can't skip.
Screenzen is actually good. It's the closest thing to ScrollJail that exists - it makes you pause and think before opening an app. The difference is personality. Screenzen is a tool. ScrollJail has an opinion about your excuses. If "useful but not fun" describes your experience with Screenzen, ScrollJail is built for you.
Read the full comparison →One Sec's free version only blocks one app - so your scrolling just migrates. Opal requires a subscription before you can even try it. ScrollJail blocks every app you want, completely free, with an AI that actually reads your excuse instead of showing you a breathing exercise.
One Sec vs ScrollJail → Opal vs ScrollJail →Yes. The AI intervention, consciousness check, and dynamic timer are all free. No trial period. No feature limits. No paywall. If a tool designed to fight manipulation uses manipulation to sell itself, it's part of the problem.
It's an iOS Shortcut triggered by Apple's app-open automation. When you open a blocked app, the Shortcut fires, sends your reason to an AI, and handles the response - all in about 2 seconds. No app to install, no VPN, no device management profile.
You can try. But the point isn't to stop you by force - it's to make you conscious. Typing out a lie takes effort, and by then you've already broken the autopilot. That pause is the intervention. Most people find that once they have to think about why they're opening the app, they don't want to anymore.
Not yet. ScrollJail currently requires iOS Shortcuts, which is an Apple-only feature. Android support is on the roadmap.