Recess
Takes away the apps you name, driven by whichever Focus mode you're already in.
- Swift
- Family Controls
- Focus Filters
What it is
An app that takes chosen apps away from you whenever a Focus mode turns on. You build a configuration, which is a list of apps to take time away from, and attach it to a Focus you already use. After that the Focus is the whole interaction. There’s an optional Slack connection as well: while a linked Focus is running, your status tells your colleagues that notifications are paused, so you don’t have to announce it.
Why I built it
Screen-time tools kept failing me in the same way. They put a speed bump in front of the app and then let me through, because any tool that can be dismissed will be dismissed, usually within about four seconds and without any conscious decision being involved. The muscle memory is the problem, and a dialog box doesn’t touch muscle memory.
The other failure was configuration. Every app wanted its own schedule, its own rules, its own idea of when my day starts. I already had all of that in the Focus modes on my phone, which I maintain because the OS makes them useful. Anything that makes me restate the same intent in a second place will drift out of date within a fortnight.
How it works
The app registers as a Focus Filter provider, so the OS hands it the fact that a Focus has become active. There’s no polling and no background trickery, because the event arrives on its own.
The blocking itself runs through Apple’s Family Controls framework, which hands an app an opaque selection instead of a list. So Recess can’t see which apps are installed on your phone, and can’t see which ones you picked either. That’s a constraint I’d have wanted anyway, and the framework enforces it whether I want it or not.
The Slack integration is a separate, optional piece. Connect a workspace and your status updates alongside the break, so it isn’t one more thing to remember. Same instinct as the rest of it: your status should know what you’re actually doing.
Where it is now
Free on the App Store, for iPhone, Mac and Vision Pro. There’s no analytics or activity tracking in it either, which is an easy promise to keep when the framework never let it see much in the first place.