Show HN: Limit Phone – Hardcore social media blocking for Android
limitphone.comI've tried all the app / website blockers on iOS and Android to try and help encourage healthy use of my phone - I particularly wanted to stay away from feeds and doom scrolling.
I needed something that could not easily be circumvented by 'impulsive me' but also didn't block the utility of my phone (e.g. reading a single Reddit post or watching a YouTube video).
In the end I built my own hardcore blocker for Android: Limit Phone.
Features that are different from mainstream blocking apps:
* Blocks apps using Android's 'Device Owner' APIs (like a work profile) - it's impossible to disable the blocks via workarounds.
* Granular blocking of websites, e.g. youtube.com can be blocked, but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyz is allowed.
* This is done using a custom build of Firefox and blocking all other browsers.
* These come with sensible defaults for allowing individual Reddit posts, YouTube videos etc.
Limit Phone just launched in beta and works best on 'stock' google android phones (e.g. Pixel). The install process currently requires a factory reset.
A small group of us have been running this system on our phones for a few a months and it's surprising just how effective it is once you set it up.
I built Limit Phone because I wanted something like this to exist as a mechanism for impulsive people like myself to fight back against larger companies optimizing algorithmic feeds to deliberately increase screen time.
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