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Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

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Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#101
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazingly they've found a way to put "in-app purchases" though. I've been so happy slowly going through my phone and removing every single app on my phone that has either ads or in-app purchases. I don't miss a single one.

Hacker news has ads in the form of job positions. Do you also consider not using Hacker news anymore?

That's a pretty loose definition of an advertisement, particularly in the context of this conversation.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#102
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazingly they've found a way to put "in-app purchases" though. I've been so happy slowly going through my phone and removing every single app on my phone that has either ads or in-app purchases. I don't miss a single one.

Hacker news has ads in the form of job positions. Do you also consider not using Hacker news anymore?

Not all ads are equal. I am willing to bet that every single app they were referring to had much more egregious advertising than HN does.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#103
post #91

Congrats on a useful and popular app! It sounds like something that could really help a lot of people. Now, I really don't want to come across as smug or anything, but I'm not one of the people this would help. I already use my phone in a consciously controlled manner and I don't do things like endless doomscrolling. Despite, it's clear from the evidence that a lot of people do and would benefit from this app. So I'm…

In my case it depends on the nudge I'm currently set up.

If that's about using the phone less, like during focus time I pick it up habitually to procrastinate the screen can say "Just put it down and check it at the scheduled time". When I see the text I'm kind of dragged out of the habit loop and just putting it down or press the lock button. So it's a kind of replacement of one habit with another one. See an app screen? Lock the phone.

If it is about a weekend or a vacation I put a text on the screen about being more relaxed and not having FOMO. Like 'If that's something important, you will know about it'. Here the mechanism is almost the same, I'm replacing the habit of checking stuff with something different like music or locking my phone back again.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#105
post #62

I like the idea, congrats on the launch! One feature request: instead of giving me a freeform field to enter "why", give me a few of common uses cases as options like: - Picking up the phone for real use (order, cab, call etc) - For social connection - For mindless scrolling overtime you can plot why the phone was picked

Thanks!

> One feature request: instead of giving me a freeform field to enter "why", give me a few of common uses cases as options like: - Picking up the phone for real use (order, cab, call etc) - For social connection - For mindless scrolling

You can add quick answers to the prompts, it's there, no need to type every time

> overtime you can plot why the phone was picked

Already you can export all historical data to CSV to analyze it. There is also an interesting thing to observe, it's time spent on the screen.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#106
Great! Apps like these are sorely needed. My feedback would be, apart from what others are saying about sub vs one-time purchase, to look at what Leechblock firefox extension is doing.

The key point is to make it harder (but not impossible) for me to use the phone. A "Do you need this?" is a great start, but since I can easily sneak by, I will soon do that. Even if I click "1 minute" to get a reminder, that should not be a simple notification, but back to the large big screen covering things.

What LB does is genius. You can enable a barrier so that if you reeeeeeally need to, you can get around, but it's annoying and time consuming, and thus the quick loop of "pick up phone and get stuck" is broken. The barrier in LB can be to type a (long) passphrase, or my favorite: a 64-char random string which cannot be copy-pasted. You need to manually look at 2-3 chars at a time and replicate the whole thing. Very effective.

But again, also the snap back to reality thing. If I keep using it, throw up a big overlay with a good question "Is your attention well spent?" for example. Make me wait before I can continue.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#107

Great! Apps like these are sorely needed. My feedback would be, apart from what others are saying about sub vs one-time purchase, to look at what Leechblock firefox extension is doing. The key point is to make it harder (but not impossible) for me to use the phone. A "Do you need this?" is a great start, but since I can easily sneak by, I will soon do that. Even if I click "1 minute" to get a reminder, that should no…

I tried LeechBlock for a while and had that 64-char random string passphrase thing on. Turns out I became really quick at typing those 64 characters to get my dopamine fix.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#108

Great! Apps like these are sorely needed. My feedback would be, apart from what others are saying about sub vs one-time purchase, to look at what Leechblock firefox extension is doing. The key point is to make it harder (but not impossible) for me to use the phone. A "Do you need this?" is a great start, but since I can easily sneak by, I will soon do that. Even if I click "1 minute" to get a reminder, that should no…

I tried LeechBlock for a while and had that 64-char random string passphrase thing on. Turns out I became really quick at typing those 64 characters to get my dopamine fix.

Hahaha. Yeah. I started using a second browser...

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#109

Great! Apps like these are sorely needed. My feedback would be, apart from what others are saying about sub vs one-time purchase, to look at what Leechblock firefox extension is doing. The key point is to make it harder (but not impossible) for me to use the phone. A "Do you need this?" is a great start, but since I can easily sneak by, I will soon do that. Even if I click "1 minute" to get a reminder, that should no…

I tried LeechBlock for a while and had that 64-char random string passphrase thing on. Turns out I became really quick at typing those 64 characters to get my dopamine fix.

The same thing will happen with this app. The user will select any answer to just do what they wanted to do.

Re: Show HN: App that asks ‘why?’ every time you unlock your phone

#110
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the sentiment from a user's perspective, I really do. I have been totally burned out by having to maintain all my free apps in the Play Store though, lately. Even a simple non-internet-using app needs an update every year and needs to comply with new bullshit policies every few months. It has totally changed my opinion on free vs paid apps. I still despise subscription models, but I absolutely understand…

I've actually been talking about the developer's perspective as well - I have a couple of personal projects that I've invested quite a bit of time into but I still don't feel the need to try to find a way to monetize them. I can definitely see your point though. Maybe an option would be open sourcing your app? (considering it's already free anyway) - that way you could maybe find some contributors to make it easier t…

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