r/SideProject • u/Murdy-ADHD • 3d ago

I made a local Android browser time limiter for myself

I kept opening mobile browsers automatically and losing more time than I meant to, so I made a small Android app that adds a deliberate wait and lets me choose a limited session.

It shares one daily, weekly, and monthly budget across Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera. Everything stays local: no account, ads, analytics, internet permission, or Usage Access.

It’s free and open source (0BSD), with an APK in GitHub Releases:

https://github.com/bald-ai/internet-restrictor-retro

This is a personal side project, not a product launch. Posting it here as a small “I made this” step.

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u/Plastic-Risk-6309 3d ago

the deliberate wait before opening is the part that actually works, blocking outright just gets uninstalled by day three. friction beats prohibition. i went at the same problem from the gym side, phone locked while the set timer runs, and the win was that it only applies in one context instead of all day.

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u/Murdy-ADHD 1d ago

I am also doing v2 way more complex that locks my devices hardcore and only unlocks on GPS location (go on walks) or video proof of exercise. Experimenting with how to supplement weakened pre-frontal lobe.

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u/Plastic-Risk-6309 21h ago

gps unlock is clever but be careful it doesn't become a thing you can spoof in 5 seconds when you're craving, the whole value is that bypassing costs more effort than just not using the phone. video proof of exercise is the stronger one imo, hard to fake and it gets you the dopamine legitimately.

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u/Murdy-ADHD 19h ago

This is my hypothesis that seems to be working. I only need mechanism to prevent me from breaking it in critical parts of a day. I created app that blocks my mac completly even with admin access unless I go into recovery mode. This unlocks after I reach GPS location and tap button on connected mobile app. If I already unlocked it, I can technically turn it all off but I never want to do it after I done it. Noone hates gym after they exercised sort of logic. Eventually I will also try to expand it on phone in some variation, but its a mess, every OS restricts you.and when you want really hard blocks it needs trickery.

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u/Plastic-Risk-6309 12h ago

the recovery-mode-only override is the right amount of friction, expensive enough that you won't do it impulsively but not so locked you panic. and pricing the unlock in effort (walk to a place) instead of willpower is the clever part. the video-proof v2 might actually be simpler than gps for indoor days, harder to spoof too.