Blocky
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How to make a run unlock Instagram or TikTok
Strava or your watch records the run, Apple Health gets it, and Blocky opens the apps the moment it lands. Milestones, rest days, and the day you skip.
You already do the hard part. You get up, you run, Strava or the watch records it. The feed is the easy part, and that's the problem: it's just as easy on the days with no run in them.
Here's how to make Instagram and TikTok open because the run happened, and stay shut when it didn't.
The run lands, the apps open
Record the run the way you already do. Your Apple Watch writes it to Apple Health, and so does Strava. Blocky reads Apple Health, and the moment the run is there, the apps you put behind it open on their own. Nothing to log twice. You don't open Blocky and you don't type anything.
Until then, they're blocked. Open Instagram and the block says where you stand: "Instagram unblocks after a workout. 18 minutes to go." Then the run lands, and the next time you look: "Moved. Done. Instagram is unblocked."
Moved. Done. Instagram is yours.
Setting it up
Pick the exercise habit, set the goal, and choose the apps to block. The goal is counted from workout minutes; thirty a day is a fair place to start. Put Instagram and TikTok behind it.
The block runs on your phone, not on our servers, so it holds with no signal at all.
Halfway opens some. Done opens all.
A long run doesn't have to hold everything until the end. Add a milestone, a smaller goal on the way, and pick which apps it opens. Messages at fifteen minutes, YouTube at thirty, the rest at the goal. The habit is done for the day at the goal. You pick the order, and when you open a blocked app, the block tells you what unblocks next and when.
Rest days are rest days
Set the habit for the days you run: weekdays only, or whatever the plan says. On a rest day nothing is owed. The day is skipped, so your streak keeps going. Pause the habit while a knee heals and the paused days are skipped the same way. Only falling short ends a streak.
The day you skip
Skip a run on a day you'd planned one and the apps stay blocked. That's the whole mechanic, not a glitch.
Two things can happen from there. If you need an app anyway, a gem opens it for 15 minutes. You earn a gem with a sweep, a day you did every habit you'd scheduled. Spending one shows in your history, and if you let your friends see it, they can tease you about it. Doing the run always unblocks the apps for free, and a gem never breaks a streak.
If the run never happens, the streak ends. The next time you open Blocky, it offers to put that day back with a streak cover. You get streak covers at streak milestones, and a friend can send you one. Missing one day doesn't break a habit. Deciding you can't do it does, so Blocky offers the day back before you get there.
Run with your crew
Start a quest with the people you run with. Most minutes wins, the loser buys lunch. A friend sees that you've done three of five habits, and nothing else: not your numbers, not your meals.
Seven days free, on iPhone.
The Blocky team