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Comment by shiba-inu | Hacker News Reader

I personally prefer ScreenZen. It is a lot less restrictive on the free version and you can just tip once to get full access instead of a subscription. It also has a system where you can “earn back” app unlocks if you don’t use the app for the full allotted time, which encourages using your apps even less rather than feeling like having to make the most of your unlock.

App Store Link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/screenzen-screen-time-control/...

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I used it a bit but it’s buggy: failing to unlock, or just tapping the button once for unlimited use. Eventually it completely stopped working.

It only does this if you have the apps in multiple groups. Dump them all in one group. Yeah it sucks that you can't configure each of them separately, but it works really reliably now.

I haven’t had any of the other bugs you had except for it failing to unlock sometimes.

Ironically that bug has become a feature for me, sometimes after the first failed unlock I just don’t bother opening the app at all anymore, which is a win for me!

If I recall, if it fails to unlock, I mash the button a few more times, probably triggering some race condition, and the app is unlocked for the rest of the day.

ScreenZen is great, my first choice for phones as well. Very flexible settings.

For desktop, I recently built a free browser extension called MooBlock - it's similar to ScreenZen in that it adds a forced pause before you reach a distracting site. Bu once you reach the site, a herd of cows start walking all over your screen to make the website less appealing.

It's available in both the Chrome and Firefox extension stores. Hoping to make an Android version later this year too.

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/mooblock/eanbagjehd...

> Bu once you reach the site, a herd of cows start walking all over your screen to make the website less appealing.

Did you base this idea off of prior research? It sounds reasonable but I'm wondering about its practical efficacy given that I've seen people use an objectively broken screen indefinitely with rationalization.

The idea is that the number of cows grows the longer you stay on the site, so it becomes progressively harder to use.

And yes it is based off my research on Internet and porn addiction (I am a psych researcher). So far I've received very positive feedback suggesting that it does work for people.

I think it's a neat idea and will give it a try!

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