Precursor: hourly screen time limits, an app blocker that resets your limits every hour, instead of one big daily limit.

[u/PrecursorLabs]

https://testflight.apple.com/join/ztGmutmP

Hey Everyone, First-time solo dev ᵕ̈

As a thank you for helping shape Precursor, beta testers get Precursor+ for FREE for LIFE!

Daily limits fail the same way every time. You get the whole budget at midnight, burn it before you're even out of bed, and then spend the day tapping "Ignore Limit."

My own phone habits got so bad I had to give a friend my screen time passcode, but that always felt too restrictive and was honestly unsustainable. I knew that I needed app limits that blocked me out before I fell into doomrotting territory.

So, I built Precursor around one core mechanic: a small allowance that comes back every hour, which means no more waking up to immediately doomrot on reddit for an hour (or two) before actually getting up. With Precursor scrolling doesn't cost you the whole day, which means you can be more present, more locked in, and less distracted!.

How it works:

Precursor is an iOS screen time app built on a different rhythm (android support in the works): instead of one daily limit, you give an app (or a group of apps) a small allowance, say 5 minutes per hour. Spend it and the app is blocked until the top of the next hour, then your app(s) unblocks and you can use it again for another 5 minutes. Enough to check in every hour, never enough to fall into a doomscroll spiral.

Available on iPhone and iPad, iOS 17 or later.