Show HN: iOS Screen Time from a REST API • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: iOS Screen Time from a REST API

#11

Post by preshdkumar » Thu, Jun 05, 2025, 7:01 PM UTC

love this idea a lot

Re: Show HN: iOS Screen Time from a REST API

#12

Post by anteloper » Thu, Jun 05, 2025, 7:09 PM UTC

mikaoj85 wrote: post #10

The webpage is not very usable on my iOS screen, is that on purpose?

Whoops, fixed thanks.

Re: Show HN: iOS Screen Time from a REST API

#13

Post by handfuloflight » Thu, Jun 05, 2025, 7:20 PM UTC

Could you just clarify how the data from someone's device gets to this API? Do they have to install something?

Re: Show HN: iOS Screen Time from a REST API

#14

Post by beggi » Thu, Jun 05, 2025, 7:24 PM UTC

Very cool! Are there plans to make it possible to restrict apps via rest API as well?

Re: Show HN: iOS Screen Time from a REST API

#15

Post by anteloper » Thu, Jun 05, 2025, 7:28 PM UTC

handfuloflight wrote: post #13

Could you just clarify how the data from someone's device gets to this API? Do they have to install something?

Yes - the Clearspace app. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/clearspace-reduce-screen-time/...

Would recommend creating an account in the API docs first because that way when you log into Clearspace you'll get an onboarding for API setup rather than general setup of the app

Maybe other apps in future will report data to the API as well

Re: Show HN: iOS Screen Time from a REST API

#16

Post by anteloper » Thu, Jun 05, 2025, 7:29 PM UTC

beggi wrote: post #14

Very cool! Are there plans to make it possible to restrict apps via rest API as well?

Yes if there's interest we'll add API functionality for

- lock/unlock apps

- exclude some apps from total screen time calculation

- get data about specific app usage

Re: Show HN: iOS Screen Time from a REST API

#17

Post by batesy » Thu, Jun 05, 2025, 7:33 PM UTC

So cool. How does it work?

Re: Show HN: iOS Screen Time from a REST API

#18

Post by anteloper » Thu, Jun 05, 2025, 7:42 PM UTC

batesy wrote: post #17

So cool. How does it work?

1. You create an account

2. Log in with that account to the Clearspace app which uses on-device permission to report your data to the API

3. Use API key associated with that account to fetch your data or be notified about changes to it

Does that answer?

Re: Show HN: iOS Screen Time from a REST API

#19

Post by aziaziazi » Thu, Jun 05, 2025, 7:45 PM UTC

Hi, thanks for that interesting tool. Totally unrelated question: I love the UI, did you use a public css framework/theme?

Re: Show HN: iOS Screen Time from a REST API

#20

Post by drag0s » Thu, Jun 05, 2025, 7:45 PM UTC

I love this! I think it would be even better to have a React Native SDK available and the ability to lock/unlock screen time via the API.