Beat the doom-scroll. Earn your screen time with your brain.
Brainfuel is an iOS focus and self-control app. You choose the apps that distract you (Instagram, TikTok, and so on). When you try to open one, Brainfuel blocks it and gives you a short brain-game quiz. Pass it and you earn 15 minutes of access; miss it and the app stays locked. When the 15 minutes are up, the block comes back automatically.
It is a fun, gamified way to break compulsive app habits, built around quick mental challenges instead of a guilt-trip.
- Pick the apps to block in Brainfuel.
- Open a blocked app and Brainfuel intercepts it with a lock screen.
- Play a quick quiz (1, 3, or 5 questions) to unlock.
- Pass and you get 15 minutes. Re-shielded automatically afterward.
Original, brain-stimulating questions across several categories, backed by cognitive-science research on what actually exercises the mind:
- Memory — working-memory and recall challenges
- Math — fresh mental arithmetic, generated every time
- Puzzles — logic, spatial reasoning, pattern recognition
- Riddles — lateral thinking and insight
- Sequences — find the rule in number and letter patterns
- Wordplay — anagrams, vocabulary, verbal reasoning
You choose a category or a random mix, and how many questions it takes to unlock.
Brainfuel uses Apple's Family Controls, ManagedSettings, and DeviceActivity frameworks to shield the apps you select and present a custom shield screen. Your app selections stay private: iOS hands the app only opaque tokens, so Brainfuel never sees which apps you picked. After a passed quiz, the shield is lifted for 15 minutes and DeviceActivity re-applies it when the window ends.
- Expo (React Native, TypeScript)
- Apple Screen Time API via
react-native-device-activity - Firestore and StoreKit for accounts and subscriptions (3-day free trial)
In active development for iOS. Subscription-based with a 3-day free trial. Android is planned after the iOS launch.