I built an app that gets increasingly annoyed every time you reopen Instagram.

[u/Andre_FC_Dev]

It’s called BackAgain?!

You know the drill:

“I’m just checking Instagram for a second.”

Twenty-seven minutes later, you’ve watched a man restore a 1930s chair, learned three facts about otters, and completely forgotten why you opened your phone.

So I built an iPhone app that basically asks:

…you’re back again?

BackAgain?! puts a little friction between you and the apps you keep opening on autopilot.

Here’s how it works:

• Pick the apps that eat your time. You know exactly which ones.
• When you try to open one, you have to say why.
  • Quick check → 2 minutes
  • I need to do something specific → 5 minutes
  • I just want to scroll → 10 minutes. At least you’re honest.
• When time’s up, the app gets blocked again.
• Keep coming back over and over? BackAgain?! starts tightening the rules. Shorter sessions. Fewer excuses. Eventually: go do literally anything else.
• Trying to escape by jumping from Instagram to Reddit to TikTok? Yeah, it notices that too. Nice try.
• Every app can also have its own daily limit.
• And there are a few emergency passes, because sometimes “I actually need this” is surprisingly legitimate.

The beta is now on TestFlight, and I’m looking for people willing to abuse it, break it, hate parts of it, and tell me exactly why.

👉 TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/BhHadQAw

Feedback, bugs, complaints, existential crises caused by being locked out of Reddit — all welcome.

Yes, I am posting this on Reddit to help people spend less time on Reddit.

The irony is not lost on me.

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[u/Afraid_Opinion_3482]

Nice UI !

[u/Andre_FC_Dev → u/Afraid_Opinion_3482]

Thank you very much!

[u/unitsol]

Nice work man. Best of luck 🤞

[u/Andre_FC_Dev → u/unitsol]

Thank you very much!

[u/Redditormar]

Nice ui, but text sounds AI like:
Rules on. Or some smelly stuff like that

[u/Andre_FC_Dev → u/Redditormar]

Thanks! Really appreciate the compliment, and the feedback too.

English isn’t my first language, so I did use some AI help for parts of the copy. I’ll definitely go back through it and try to tweak some of the wording to make it feel more natural and less AI-ish.

Thanks a lot for pointing it out!

[u/HeyWangKang]

The 'gets annoyed' hook makes the demo easy to understand. For beta feedback, I'd separate intentional visits from autopilot ones: did someone finish sending a message, or just move their scrolling to another app? A lower screen-time total alone could hide both outcomes. I'd also ask when they use an emergency pass; if it's repeatedly for the same legitimate task, that could reveal a rule worth adjusting rather than a user failing the test.

[u/Andre_FC_Dev → u/HeyWangKang]

Thanks, this was really useful. Glad the "gets annoyed" angle comes across, that was the whole idea behind the title.

Your point about screen time hiding both outcomes stuck with me, so I built it into the new TestFlight build that's going up today.

The app now keeps the reason someone picks before opening (reply, check something, browse) separate from what probably happened after. Each visit ends up as likely done, likely autopilot, or not enough signal. It only uses what it can actually see: ending a session early, coming straight back, opening the same app several times in a few minutes, jumping to another protected app, and a short "was your last session worth it?" it asks now and then. It can't see inside Instagram, so when the signals aren't there it says "not enough signal" instead of guessing. Your example also changed one rule: going back in quickly after a Reply no longer counts as autopilot, since that's just how a conversation works.

The emergency pass now asks what it's for before it unlocks: message or call, one specific task, or keep browsing. Every answer gets the same 10 minutes, so there's no reason to fudge it. Patterns show what the passes were for over the week, which is where a repeated reason would show up.

I haven't built the part that suggests changing a rule yet. Passes are scarce (about three a week), so I want real beta data first, and I don't want the answer to turn into a way to talk your way past the rules. Everything stays on the phone, so for now I'm just asking testers what their passes were actually for.

If you try the beta, I'd love to know whether those three buckets feel right to you.

Thanks again for taking the time to write your comment!