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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

#281

Post by jarko27 »

tasn wrote: post #199

Love it! Reminds me of an app my brother and I built 10 years ago (time flies!). It's no longer on Google Play because of the maintenance burden of keeping it there, but here's a page with some screenshots: https://apkpure.com/spinach-motivation-lock-screen/com.tengu... The idea was that if you're unlocking your screen, you should at least: (1) reinforce a mantra, or (2) force yourself to acknowledge you shouldn't be…

Wow. It's so cool to see such a project.

I even remember in 2019 finding an app that was using a popup after unlock to learn words of a foreign language, unfortunately, it closed and I cannot recall the name.

I would be happy to see the notes.

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

#282

Post by cardanome »

andai wrote: post #243
TeMPOraL wrote: post #213

I installed this in the morning to give it a test drive, and after several hours, I learned the following: it's great when I reach for the phone as a distraction; it's a big annoyance otherwise. E.g. each time I want to change the currently playing song, what was muscle memory gets scrambled by the interruption. Or, when I'm taking a lot of photos (like on my daughter's kindergarten event today), I tend to keep the s…

This is solved by having dedicated devices for camera and music player! (At least for these two examples, which are also my top non-distraction / non-social phone usage.) I don't have those yet but I wish I did! I was just thinking back to how cool the iPod was back in the day. (The one before touchscreens!) (I was also thinking how cool it would be if it had the iPod's UI but Rockbox's (and every other mp3 player in…

I actually went full old-school and got an portable cd-player.

This has the side effect of me listening to music more intentionally and not wasting time selecting tracks and skipping around. Listening to a full album is great, something I rarely did before. And physically owning music feels great.

Sure, it is less practical for traveling but it mostly sits on my desk to help me get through work. And CD's having a fixed run length helps me to take breaks so my tinnitus does not get worse.

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

#283

Post by Y_Y »

GrinningFool wrote: post #191
icetank wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Your comment comes across as disingenuous. I think by this point in time, most people who are taking an active effort to remove advertising from their lives are well aware that the concern with "ads" isn't primarily about the requirement to see ads - it's the privacy-consuming infrastructure behind them.

Not to mention the attention-stealing flashing lights and popping up over the thing you want to see and all the other ways to make you think about something against your will.

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

#285

Post by xyst »

this is the type of tool a C-level executive would mandate to be installed on your devices. Instead of “why”, it would send out notifications to a central server with a data pipeline into genAI which can generate reports on productivity.

Employee not complying? Bye bye equity, severance

Employee opening device too much? Fired.

Of course C-level executives would get exempt from policy because “rules for thee but not for me” attitude.

As for personal usage, I would much rather configure “Focus” mode to block certain apps from opening. Rather than rely on this. I would install this on phones of annoying people though for shits and giggles

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

#286

Post by TeMPOraL »

jarko27 wrote: post #279
TeMPOraL wrote: post #213

I installed this in the morning to give it a test drive, and after several hours, I learned the following: it's great when I reach for the phone as a distraction; it's a big annoyance otherwise. E.g. each time I want to change the currently playing song, what was muscle memory gets scrambled by the interruption. Or, when I'm taking a lot of photos (like on my daughter's kindergarten event today), I tend to keep the s…

Thanks for giving it a test drive! I'm thinking also about adding an option to have like 50% chance of a popup or a 75% chance, so it's less predictable. I first made it as every 2nd, 3d and so on, but maybe adding a randomness to it will be better? WDYT?

For my use case, randomness would make it even worse. For muscle memory, consistency is key. I don't know what the solution is - ideally, the app would not interrupt such quick actions like unlocking to take a photo or switch the song, but in practice, it can't exactly guess what I'm going to do before I do it. I was thinking about maybe "unlock and don't show the popup for the next 5 minutes", but then I already know that one of these days, I'll activate it for "one quick check of Instagram" (or HN), defeating the purpose of the application.

Sorry I can't be more helpful. I've been mulling this problem (selective blocking in dual-purpose apps/sites) in my mind for a long time now, but I haven't found any solution so far.

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

#287

Post by chatmasta »

hackernewds wrote: post #266
chatmasta wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One Sec broke my addiction to doomscrolling apps. The feature that makes you look at your face for two seconds when you open the app, while telling you that you last opened it a minute ago, is both hilarious and effective.

has anyone dug into whether one sec is safe (private offline on device as it states)? it requires access to accessibility settings, which means that it could be reading all of you cryptocurrency apps, passwords as well as two-factor authentication

I just needed to create shortcuts. I don’t remember needing to grant any further accessibility settings, but I don’t currently have it installed.

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

#288

Post by j1elo »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #286
jarko27 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for giving it a test drive! I'm thinking also about adding an option to have like 50% chance of a popup or a 75% chance, so it's less predictable. I first made it as every 2nd, 3d and so on, but maybe adding a randomness to it will be better? WDYT?

For my use case, randomness would make it even worse. For muscle memory, consistency is key. I don't know what the solution is - ideally, the app would not interrupt such quick actions like unlocking to take a photo or switch the song, but in practice, it can't exactly guess what I'm going to do before I do it. I was thinking about maybe "unlock and don't show the popup for the next 5 minutes", but then I already kno…

Here's maybe a solution: don't trigger the app if the phone is unlocked via a hardware shortcut.

At least in my last 2 phones, I got them configured such that a double press on the power button wakes the camera app immediately (great for quick photos), while the rest of the system is still locked (need the unlock pin when trying to navigate away from the camera app)

So in that situation the app could choose not to interrupt.

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

#289

Post by noapologies »

jarko27 wrote: post #279
TeMPOraL wrote: post #213

I installed this in the morning to give it a test drive, and after several hours, I learned the following: it's great when I reach for the phone as a distraction; it's a big annoyance otherwise. E.g. each time I want to change the currently playing song, what was muscle memory gets scrambled by the interruption. Or, when I'm taking a lot of photos (like on my daughter's kindergarten event today), I tend to keep the s…

Thanks for giving it a test drive! I'm thinking also about adding an option to have like 50% chance of a popup or a 75% chance, so it's less predictable. I first made it as every 2nd, 3d and so on, but maybe adding a randomness to it will be better? WDYT?

How about a pause mode?

I use Android's Bedtime mode a lot, and it has a helpful feature that let's you quickly "Pause for 30 minutes" or "Turn off for now" from a notification [1].

I don't think the app needs notifications as such, but it could have quick access to a pause button.

[1] https://img.gadgethacks.com/img/original/21/75/6372310031848...

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

#290

Post by jorisboris »

gen220 wrote: post #267
bornfreddy wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the app should kick in only if you start using one of the "bad" apps, like a browser or a social network app? Being in the way when I want to snap a quick photo doesn't sound nice.

What I did (helped me eventually delete them) was offload the "bad" apps on my phone so, if I wanted to access them, I'd have to wait for them to re-download. This is an iOS feature where the pointer to the app and the local data remains, but the app bundle itself is deleted. I think it's primary use case is to manage scarce disk space. It forced me to reckon with the fact that tapping on these apps is often a system…

I would love to remove the email app for iPhone for that reason but it’s a standard app for iPhone

Maybe I should just delete my accounts and access them through browser instead

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