Frequently Asked Questions

Phoneless Garden is an iOS and Android app that helps you build more intentional phone habits by showing a calm pause screen when you've used a tracked app longer than your chosen daily threshold.

Phoneless Garden is for people who want to use their phones more consciously without being shamed, locked out, or made to feel like a failure. It is designed for anyone who has tried hard blockers or streak-based apps and found them too rigid or guilt-inducing to stick with, and for anyone who simply wants more intentional screen time.

You select the apps you want to be more aware of, and the first daily pause for each one appears at the threshold you've set (15 minutes by default, but customizable). After that first pause, you choose a new timer for that specific app, which can be 5, 10, 15, 30, or 60 minutes. When that timer runs out, another pause appears, and the cycle repeats throughout the day.

A pause screen takes over the app you are using. From there, you choose whether to close the app or continue. If you want to continue, you go through the pause process, which asks you to set a new timer before returning. Once your new timer expires, the next pause appears and the cycle continues.

Phoneless Garden uses Apple's ManagedSettings and ShieldConfiguration APIs on iOS, the same system-level APIs that hard blockers use, but configured for a pause flow rather than enforced lockout. There is no passcode, no penalty for continuing, and no friction designed to override your choice.

The first pause of the day uses a single customizable threshold applied to every tracked app. After that first pause, the timer becomes per-app, where each app gets its own independent timer based on the value you chose in the pause screen.

Any app installed on your phone. You choose which ones to track yourself, and nothing is added by default.

Most screen time apps treat all phone use as a problem to be reduced. Phoneless Garden does not. You pick which apps to track, you set your own daily goal that can vary by day, and a pause appears when you use your apps. There is a brief wait timer on the pause to help you settle into the moment, but no passcode, no streak, no shame screen if you don't hit your goal. Phoneless Garden gives a more intentional screen time.

Not in the conventional sense. Conventional blockers add intentional friction such as passcodes, hidden uninstall buttons, and mandatory wait timers, to override your decisions when willpower fails.

No. There are no streaks to break, no badges to earn, and no shame screens for missing a goal.

That is the gap Phoneless Garden was built for. Its philosophy is autonomy-supportive: noticing what you are doing is the goal, and what you do with that awareness is up to you.

Pausing between sessions is more effective than hard blocking for most people who want to keep using their apps but still notice when time passes. The apps people struggle with are designed by large teams to make users lose track of how long they have been using them. A pause exists to give back the sense of time those apps are designed to take away.

A moment of intention is the pause moment the app creates. After you have been using a tracked app long enough to cross your timer, the pause interrupts the flow and gives you a brief space to notice what you are doing and decide whether to continue. Phoneless Garden is designed around this single idea: that small moments of awareness are more valuable than strict limits, because awareness is what makes any choice feel like yours.

The design is informed by widely-discussed ideas about how habits work and how autonomy affects behavior change, but the specific design of Phoneless Garden has not been tested and is not a research-backed product. It is an indie app built around a philosophy.

Yes. Phoneless Garden has no user accounts, no backend server, no third-party analytics, no advertising trackers, and no email collection. All of your usage data, settings, and trial state stay on your device.

None that leaves your device. The app reads your phone's built-in screen time data through Apple's Family Controls and Device Activity APIs (iOS) or Android's UsageStatsManager (Android) to know when to show the pause screen. That data is processed locally and never sent anywhere.

No. There is no signup, no email required, no password, and no login. You install the app and use it.

No. Phoneless Garden has no server infrastructure. The app does not upload usage data, settings, or analytics anywhere.

No. There is no Google Analytics, no Facebook SDK, no advertising network, and no third-party crash reporting service. Crash logs use only the platform-native systems provided by Apple and Google, which you can opt out of in your phone's settings.

Subscriptions are processed by RevenueCat using an anonymous identifier, not your name or email. Payment itself happens through Apple's App Store or Google Play. The developer never sees your payment details.

Phoneless Garden has a free tier and a premium tier. New users get 9 days of full premium access on install with no credit card required, after which the app drops to the free tier unless you choose to subscribe.

The free tier includes the core pause mechanic, selecting which apps to track, the customizable daily threshold, basic insights, default day types, default pause settings, and limited history visibility.

Premium includes everything in the free tier plus advanced insights, custom day types, more customization on pause settings, and unlimited history visibility.

Premium is $2.99 USD per month or $29.99 USD per year. Prices may vary by region and are shown in your local currency at the point of purchase.

You get 9 days of full premium access automatically when you install the app, with no signup, no payment method, and no surprise charge at the end. After the trial, you continue using the free tier unless you decide to subscribe.

Yes. Subscriptions are managed through your Apple or Google account and can be cancelled at any time. You keep premium access until the end of your current billing period.

Phoneless Garden runs on iPhone (iOS 16 and later) and Android phones (Android 8.0 Oreo, API level 26, and later).

The pause mechanic relies on the system telling the app when you have crossed your daily threshold. On iOS this uses Apple's Family Controls and Device Activity frameworks. On Android it uses the UsageStatsManager API. The permission is required for the app to function, and the data accessed never leaves your device.

No meaningful battery impact in normal use. The monitoring uses platform-native APIs.

The core pause mechanic, threshold settings, and tracked usage data all work offline. Subscription status is verified through RevenueCat, which needs an internet connection occasionally to confirm your premium tier.

The screen time APIs provided by Apple and Google have known quirks that no third-party app can fully fix, and Phoneless Garden is being actively worked on to make the data it shows as accurate as possible. On iOS, the data may still occasionally corrupt. In most cases it resets when you re-select your tracked apps, or automatically as the day rolls over and the daily counter resets. If you see persistently wrong data, please email support so it can be investigated.

The pause is triggered by the operating system signaling your app has crossed the threshold. Occasionally that signal fires late or fails to fire entirely, due to system-level delays. If it happens to you consistently, please email support so it can be investigated.

Phoneless Garden sends very few notifications by design, and all of them can be disabled in your phone's settings.

Phoneless Garden is built by an independent solo developer.

Email support@phonelessgarden.com.