One honest signal
Show recent use of one user-selected app and how often it is opened. No guilt score, diagnostic label, or comparison with other people.
Initiative 03 · validation stage
Pause the automatic open. Choose what happens next.
Reclaim is a proposed 14-day, privacy-first experiment for adults who want more intentional use of one distracting app. It adds a brief, self-chosen pause and offers a small replacement action tied to a goal the person already cares about.
The product thesis
Do not invent “time saved.” Measure the choice that actually happened.
An avoided app open does not prove that 20 or 40 minutes were saved. Reclaim records observable events instead: intervention shown, continue chosen, redirect accepted, and replacement block completed.
A pause with an exit
At the chosen trigger, ask whether the person wants to continue, leave, or start a two-, ten-, or twenty-five-minute replacement action.
Complete something real
Open the selected task—a walk, language practice, application step, reading block, or Life Dojo action—and record completion locally.
The first test
A 14-day experiment, not a lifelong promise.
The MVP should prove that people will tolerate the pause, accept a replacement, and return after novelty fades.
Days 1–7 · baseline
Choose one target app and one personal goal. Observe daily minutes, session count, and opening attempts without changing access.
Days 8–14 · intervention
Introduce a user-selected pause after an opening or session threshold. Always preserve a clear “continue” choice.
Day 14 · decision
Compare target-app minutes, opening attempts, accepted redirects, completed replacement blocks, overrides, and retention. Continue only if the person experienced more control without unacceptable frustration.
Primary success measure: completed replacement blocks per active user—not hypothetical minutes “won back.” Secondary measures are change from each person’s own baseline, override rate, seven-day retention, and self-reported control.
What the evidence actually supports
The evidence is promising but mixed, and most studies are short.
- Awareness alone is weak. A systematic review found that usage visualization by itself was barely effective; harder-to-dismiss interventions performed better, but confidence was limited by small samples and short follow-up.
- Friction can change behaviour. A field study of the one sec intervention found that a brief delay, deliberative prompt, and explicit option reduced social-media opening attempts.
- Goal-directed support is plausible, not proven superior. A randomized trial found both a values-and-planning intervention and a digital-detox control reduced use; the new approach was not superior, although self-efficacy and planning appeared important.
- Small nudges can help some users. A randomized trial combining notification changes, grayscale, and other nudges reduced problematic use and screen time, but it does not establish which component caused the change.
Competitive reality
Friction is not a moat
one sec, Opal, Clearspace, ScreenZen, and built-in Screen Time/Digital Wellbeing already provide blocking, limits, pauses, reports, or rewards. Reclaim must prove that immediate, time-sized replacement actions create durable value beyond those tools.
Until that result exists, Reclaim is a differentiated experiment—not a defensible company.
Buildable—but platform-constrained
The first implementation should be native and local-first.
- iPhone: Apple's Family Controls, Managed Settings, and Device Activity frameworks can monitor selected activity and shield apps after individual authorization. Distribution requires the Family Controls entitlement.
- Android: UsageStatsManager can expose app-usage history after the user grants usage access. Interventions require careful permission design and OEM testing.
- Privacy: selected-app tokens, usage events, and goals stay on-device by default. No advertising profile, no sale of attention data, and no connection to PULSE.
- Scope: adults choosing their own intervention. Reclaim is not treatment, diagnosis, parental surveillance, or an employer monitoring tool.
MVP boundary
One app. One goal. Three action sizes.
Do not begin with AI coaching, social leaderboards, streak punishment, cross-device tracking, or a marketplace. Prove the smallest loop first.
- 2 minutes: breathe, stand, or send one message
- 10 minutes: review notes, walk, or complete one application step
- 25 minutes: focused practice or a Life Dojo action
“The user is not the product, and attention is not a moral score.”
The next milestone is evidence, not hype.
Recruit 20–30 adults for discovery, prototype the interaction without collecting unnecessary data, and run a small 14-day feasibility study. Stop or redesign if people disable it, replacement completion stays low, perceived control does not improve, or the intervention increases distress.
Join the Reclaim discovery group