Pause before autopilot takes over.
Pause adds a meaningful moment between you and distracting apps — helping you open them with intention instead of habit.
Free tier planned at launch. Pro pricing below is planned launch pricing and is not yet available for purchase.
Take a Pause
One intentional moment before another scroll.
Why Pause
Most app opens happen before you even think.
Social feeds and other distracting apps are designed to be opened without deliberation. The habit is fast, familiar and largely automatic — which is exactly why willpower alone is a weak place to intervene.
Habit happens quickly
The reach, the unlock, the tap. It is often finished before any decision is made.
Repeated warnings fade
An interruption that looks the same every time becomes wallpaper you swipe past.
Numbers alone rarely help
A weekly screen-time total tells you what happened. It does not change the next tap.
How Pause works
Four small moments between the urge and the app.
- 01
Past self
“You said tonight was for sleep, not the feed.”
Recorded by you
Your past self appears
Before a selected app opens, Pause can show a short message you recorded earlier.
- 02Hold
Breathe in
Stay with it until the circle fills.
Complete a quick reset
Hold the circle, breathe, or complete another short interaction designed to interrupt autopilot.
- 03
Why are you opening this?
Reply to someoneCheck an updatePost somethingI'm just boredRemember your reason
Choose why you are opening the app before continuing.
- 04
Take a Pause
One intentional moment before another scroll.
Open PausePut phone awayOpen with intention
Continue when the choice still feels worth it.
Past Self
Hear from the person who knows you best.
Record a short message when you are thinking clearly. Pause can show it later, right before you open a distracting app.
- Record when you are clear-headedA few seconds is enough. Say the thing you know you will not want to hear later.
- Attach it to the apps that pull hardestEverything you did not select stays exactly as it is.
- Meet yourself at the doorwayPause can play the message as part of the step before a selected app opens.
Pause works within Apple’s Screen Time system, so exactly when and how often the message appears depends on iOS. Pause does not claim to intercept every single app launch.
Past self
“You said tonight was for sleep, not the feed.”
Recorded by you
Not a single loop
Not the same interruption every time.
Pause can rotate between short reset interactions, so the step in front of your apps stays noticeable instead of turning into something you dismiss without reading.
Items marked In development are not in the current build.
Hold to continue
A deliberate press that outlasts the reflex to tap through.
Guided breathing
One slow cycle, paced by the app, before anything else happens.
Notice your surroundings
A prompt to look up from the screen for a moment.
Read a Future Self message
A note you wrote to the version of you who will read it later.
Set a short intention
Name what you are about to do, in your own words.
Confirm your reason
Pick from a short list of honest reasons before you continue.
Why are you opening this?
Intent, not impulse
Remember why you opened it.
Naming the reason is a small act, but it separates a deliberate visit from a reflex. Sometimes the honest answer is enough to close the app on its own.
- Reply to someone
- Check an update
- Post something
- I’m just bored
Screen Time
Choose which apps deserve a pause.
Pause uses Apple's Screen Time and Family Controls frameworks to place an intentional step before the apps and categories you select. It is a deliberate speed bump, not a permanent lock — you stay in control of your own selection.
Pick individual apps
Choose the specific apps that pull you in. Everything else is left alone.
Or whole categories
Select supported categories and web domains when app-by-app is too fiddly.
Selections stay private
Apple hands Pause opaque tokens, not a readable list of the apps you chose.
Screen Time authorization is requested when you set Pause up, and can be revoked at any time in iOS Settings. Pause cannot make an app impossible to reach, and does not claim to.
Add accountability when you need it.
You can ask someone you trust to set a passcode that protects your most important Pause settings. When the urge to loosen your own limits arrives, the change is no longer a private, one-tap decision.
This is a friction feature, not a security guarantee. It does not prevent every possible way of getting around Pause, and it is not a parental-control or monitoring tool — the trusted person holds a passcode, nothing more.
Progress
See your intentional choices add up.
Pause keeps a simple record of the moments you showed up for. Not a scoreboard to feel bad about — a quiet signal that the habit is shifting.
- Intentional opens
- How often you continued on purpose.
- Pauses completed
- Every time you sat through the moment.
- Weekly trends
- Which days pull hardest, at a glance.
- Recent wins
- The times you turned back instead.
Figures shown in app previews on this site are sample interface data.
This week
18
Intentional opens
31
Pauses completed
Sample data
Privacy
Designed with privacy in mind.
Pause is a personal app about a personal habit. The less of it that leaves your phone, the better.
Screen Time permission, used narrowly
Family Controls authorization exists so Pause can act on the apps you selected. That is all it is used for.
Your app selection stays opaque
Apple gives Pause tokens rather than app names, so your selection is not readable app data.
Past Self recordings stay on your device
As the app is built today, recordings are written to Pause's own storage on your iPhone and are not uploaded to a Pause server.
The website is separate
The waitlist form on this site stores the name and email you submit with Supabase, our hosting provider for that list.
Full detail, including what the waitlist stores, is in the Privacy Policy.
Planned pricing
Simple, and mostly free.
Pause has not launched yet. The plans below are the planned launch pricing and are not available for purchase today.
Free
Planned$0
No payment required.
- The core Pause experience
- Basic app and category selection
- Basic pause interventions
Pro
Planned$0.99/ month
Or $10 per year. A 30-day free trial is planned at launch.
- Everything in Free
- The full rotating intervention set
- Deeper progress insights
- Support for continued development
When Pro launches, subscriptions will be sold and managed through the Apple App Store and can be cancelled at any time in your Apple ID subscription settings. Trial terms, including whether a payment method is required, are set by Apple’s subscription flow and will be shown in the app before you subscribe. Pricing may change before release. Questions? Email us.
Waitlist
Take back the moment.
Join the Pause waitlist for launch updates and early-access announcements.
Your phone is not the enemy. Opening it without meaning to is.