Blocky
Blocky vs ยท ScreenZen
The ScreenZen alternative that waits for the habit, not the clock
ScreenZen makes you wait before an app opens, and it's free. Blocky is a habit tracker: the apps you pick wait for the water, the run or the sleep.
If you're looking for a ScreenZen alternative, it's probably not because of the price. ScreenZen is free, with a tip jar if you want to say thanks, and it's on iPhone, Mac, Windows and Android.
What it does, it does well. Before a distracting app opens, ScreenZen puts a delay in front of it, and the wait can grow each time you open the app. You can set a number of opens a day, a time limit, or block an app outright in a time range. Settings can lock until a time you choose, and an accountability partner can let you back in. Streaks count the days you stayed under your limits.
But a wait can't answer one question: did you do the thing you were putting off?
Two glasses to go. Then TikTok.
A delay doesn't know what you did
Thirty seconds pass whether you drank a glass of water or stared at the countdown. The clock is all it checks, and the opens you allowed yourself run out at the same pace on a good day and a bad one.
That's a good way to use an app less. But if the goal is the habit, the app is only the leverage, and nothing here checks the habit.
Blocky starts with the habit
Water first, TikTok second.
Blocky is a habit tracker. You pick the habit you keep skipping, then the apps that wait for it. It stays blocked until the habit is done, not until a timer runs down.
- Run with Strava or your watch. When your 30 minutes reach Apple Health, Instagram is unblocked.
- Water, fasting, sleep, weigh-ins and meditation work the same way.
- A workout can't be ticked off by hand. Apple Health has to show it.
- It bends for real life. Halfway there can unblock some apps early, and Phone, Settings and the apps you choose are never blocked.
Side by side
| Blocky. | ScreenZen | |
|---|---|---|
| Blocks apps | Yes | Yesafter a delay, a number of opens, a time limit or in a time range |
| Unblocks when you do the habit | Yes | No |
| How you get around it | A gem buys 15 minutes, and it's on the record | Wait out the delay and tap through, inside the opens you gave yourself |
| What it tracks | Exercise, sleep, water, fasting, weight, meditation, meals, medication and your own habits | Screen time in your distracting apps, and a streak of days under the limit |
Which one is for you
If you want friction in front of the feed and nothing to pay, ScreenZen is the one. It's free, it's careful, and it runs on Android, Windows and Mac, where we aren't.
If what you want is the habit, pick the habit tracker whose app waits for it, not for a countdown.
Seven days free, on iPhone.