Pausible: Screen Time & Focus

Pausible puts a short pause in front of the apps that pull you in — and offers something better on the other side. Open a blocked app and instead of a wall you get a moment: a countdown, a breath, a one-line question about what you're actually opening it for — say why in one tap, or type it. Finish a two-minute "instead" — a breathing pace, a four-move stretch, three short questions, a number puzzle, or a page of an article you saved — and the wait is waived. You still get in. You just get in on purpose. FREE, FOREVER • Block unlimited apps and categories, and optionally their websites (those get Apple's block page), with one off-limits window per profile • Two friction levels — Nudge and Pause — with escalation • One profile, one focus session a day • Breathe, Stretch and Reflect insteads • Protection Status that tells you the truth when iOS drops the ball • No account, no email, no quiz, no ads. Set up in under two minutes. YOU SET HOW HARD IT IS Five levels from a nudge to a lock. Waits grow with each reopen that day, so the fifth open of the afternoon costs more than the first. Off-limits times raise the level on a schedule. Everything is per profile, so your social apps and your news apps can have different rules. SOMETHING BETTER, RIGHT THEN Pausible offers something better instead: a 4-7-8 breathing pace, a four-move stretch, a typed intention, a make-the-number puzzle, or the next page of something you meant to read (the puzzle and the reading are Pro). Share any article to Pausible and it waits for the moment you'd have scrolled. Tell a profile which instead you want first and the pause screen offers it in one tap. And the wall remembers what you said last time: the shield quotes your last intention back to you. MAKE IT STICK A blocker you can switch off at 2 am is a blocker you switch off at 2 am. So in Pausible, tightening is instant and loosening waits until the next morning — with a free undo, always. "5 more minutes" on the block screen (iOS 26.5 and later) works three times a week, not thirty. Lock Pausible's settings with your own Screen Time passcode, ideally one someone else holds. Or hand a six-digit code to someone you trust, and the hardest settings ask for it. With Pro, an NFC sticker on the fridge can start or end a focus session, via an automation in Apple's Shortcuts app. Blocking app deletion is opt-in. THE ONE THAT KEEPS WORKING iOS drops Screen Time permissions and expires app tokens more often than anyone admits. Pausible watches for it on every open, tells you plainly when it happens, and gets you back in two taps. A built-in self-test confirms the block is really up. Unlocked and done early? Lock it again from the home screen or the Lock Screen. PAUSIBLE PRO — ONE PAYMENT One payment, yours for good, Family Sharing included. No subscription, no weekly plan, no free trial, no "founder" pricing games. Pro deepens the dial — Deliberate, Firm and Strict, a daily budget of minutes per profile (spent means spent until morning; Pausible counts the minutes it unlocked, not what you did with them), more profiles, unlimited off-limits times and focus sessions, the Puzzle and Read insteads, full history (seven days are free), Siri, Control Center and the focus-session Live Activity card, automations, and your weekly letter — three calm sentences about your week, written on your phone. Blocking never goes behind the paywall. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Pausible uses Apple's Screen Time framework, which never shows us which apps you use. Your history, the reasons you tap, the occasional suggestion Pausible makes from them ("your social apps cluster around 10 pm — add an off-limits window?") and your weekly letter are computed on the phone from its own log — the letter's closing line by Apple's on-device model where your iPhone has one, and by a plain template everywhere else. There is no server, no analytics, no tracking. Pausible is for adults managing their own phone. It is not a parental-control app.