appblock

Pick apps and give each a budget: allow X in any rolling Y, in minutes, hours or days (say, 10 min in any 2 hrs). When the budget is spent, opening the app puts a "blocked, try again in N min" wall over it.

It can also block YouTube's Shorts and Instagram's Reels outright, even with time left: switch on "Block YouTube Shorts" under YouTube, or "Block Instagram Reels" under Instagram, on the home list. A wall goes up whenever Shorts or Reels is on screen, however you got there (the tab, a link, a message), and comes down when you go back. Thumbnails stay.

No dependencies, no account, no analytics. Nothing about you leaves your phone. The one download is the rules for spotting Shorts and Reels, a signed file from this repo (rules/, served at appblock.robinroy.xyz), so a redesign gets fixed without an app update.

The blocker is an accessibility service: Android tells it which apps are on screen (split screen and pop-up windows included) and lets it draw the wall over one whose time is up. It only looks at which app each window belongs to, never at what's inside, except for YouTube's Shorts player or Instagram's Reels player (by its view id, no text) when they're blocked. Besides switching it on in Settings > Accessibility, it needs a battery exemption so the phone doesn't put it to sleep. Usage access is optional, for screen-time numbers. While a limited app is on screen, a notification counts down its time (with 50%/90% warnings); two limited apps side by side get one each.

Installing the APK from GitHub on Android 13 or later? Android greys out the Accessibility switch for apps from outside an app store until you allow it: open AppBlock's App info, tap ⋮, choose "Allow restricted settings", then switch it on.

Force-stopping AppBlock (App info > Force stop) switches its accessibility service off; that's an Android rule. Blocking pauses, rules kept, until you switch it back on from the checklist in AppBlock.

Tie yourself to the mast

Ulysses and the Sirens, John William Waterhouse, 1891. That's him on the mast.

Odysseus had to sail past the Sirens, whose song lured every sailor to shipwreck. Every captain before him knew the danger. Knowing was never enough.

Odysseus wasn't stronger than the others. He was wiser: he knew that in the moment, with the song in his ears, he'd be as weak as anyone. So he had his crew tie him to the mast before the singing started.

Your phone sings too. And you already know knowing isn't enough. You've promised yourself "just five minutes" before.

AppBlock is your mast. You decide the rules now, while you're clearheaded: a few minutes per app, every few hours. Later, when the pull comes, the decision is already made. Not zero access, no daily quota to blow through by 5am. Just enough to check in, never enough to drown.

What exactly gets blocked

Blocked during a block window:

• Opening the app: from the launcher, recents, widgets, share sheet, links, anything. The moment the app's window shows up, the block wall covers it, with a button to go home (over a pop-up, it says to swipe it away in Recents).
• Split screen and pop-up windows: the wall covers just that app's window, so the other half of the screen, or the home screen around a pop-up, stays usable. Each limited app on screen uses up its own budget.
• Tapping one of its notifications: the notification arrives and is readable, but tapping it opens the app → blocked like any other open.
• Overstaying: if you're mid-scroll when the budget runs out (checked every 5 seconds), the wall drops over the app.

NOT blocked:

• Notifications: they arrive, buzz, and show on the lock screen exactly as always. Inline actions (e.g. replying to a message from the notification) work, since they never open the app's window.
• Background activity: messages keep syncing, downloads keep running, audio keeps playing. A blocked Spotify keeps playing what's queued; you just can't open its UI.
• The budget clock only ticks while the app is on screen. Background use costs nothing.
• Incoming calls in blocked apps (WhatsApp/Telegram): the ring notification appears, but the full-screen incoming-call UI is the app's window. Answering while the app is over budget will likely get walled. Think twice before blocking an app you take calls on.
• The notification shade and power menu: pulling either down over a blocked app lifts the wall while it's open, so the shade stays usable. The wall is back the moment it closes, and a limited app keeps counting underneath.
• A blocked app's content shown inside another app (e.g. a YouTube video embedded in a browser) is not blocked. Only the app's own windows are.