We tried most of the screen time apps on the App Store before building this one. They all converge on the same design: pick some apps, set a limit, get a dialog box when you’ve hit it. And the dialog box always has a button that lets you through anyway.

That button is the whole problem. It’s not a bug in those apps, it’s the design working as intended, because the app still needs to be usable if you genuinely need an app back early. But it means the “block” is really just a speed bump made of pixels, and pixels don’t stop anyone who’s already reaching for their phone out of habit.

The idea: make the key real

Screeny started from one question: what if the unlock mechanism wasn’t inside the phone at all?

If the only way to unlock a locked app is scanning a physical object, an NFC tag, a QR code, a barcode already on something you own, then the lock can’t be defeated by a reflexive tap. You have to go get the thing. That small amount of physical effort is exactly the friction that a software dialog can never provide, because software dialogs live on the same screen as the thing they’re supposed to be blocking.

It’s a genuinely old idea, dressed in new hardware. Alcoholics Anonymous has sponsors. Diet plans work better when the junk food isn’t in the house. Every effective commitment device works by making the undesired action inconvenient, not impossible, inconvenient. Screeny just applies that to your phone.

Built on Apple’s actual Screen Time framework

Screeny isn’t a workaround or a jailbreak trick. It’s built entirely on Apple’s Family Controls, Managed Settings, and Device Activity frameworks, the same system-level tools Apple gives parental control apps. That means the block is enforced by iOS itself, not by an app that can be force-quit or have its permissions silently revoked.

It also means Screeny structurally can’t see which apps you’ve chosen to block. Apple’s frameworks hand your selection over as an opaque token; Screeny can apply a lock to it, but never learns what’s inside. No accounts and no ads. Usage statistics leave the phone only if you say yes, under a random ID, and never with your name, your apps or your screen time.

Who this is for

Honestly: anyone who has caught themselves opening an app without deciding to. Students trying to study, people trying to protect deep work blocks, anyone trying to put their phone down before bed and failing at it nightly. We built the thing we personally needed.

We’re still in the run-up to launch, refining the details before this goes on the App Store. If the idea resonates, join the waitlist. We’ll let you know the moment it’s live.