u/Carlituser

After months of building during early mornings, my app Pause went live on the App Store this week. It's a screen time app that puts a small puzzle between you and your doomscrolling apps.

The build was the easy part. The business and distribution part of it I foresee being the hardest ones.

Monetization: 7-day free trial → then users either drop to a free ad-supported tier (one puzzle type, rewarded video before each puzzle) or subscribe ($9.99/mo or $75/yr). The theory: the ad friction on the free tier is itself a reason to upgrade, and it keeps free users generating revenue.

Pricing: I anchored annual first with a "Save 37%" badge. No idea yet if $75/yr is right for this category. Screen time apps range from free to $80+/yr and there's no consensus.

Pre-launch: I sold promo codes to a waitlist before launch — early believers got a year free via code redemption. Cost me nothing in cash terms and gave me a first cohort of real users who feel like founding members.

Distribution so far: organic only. Threads, LinkedIn for the build-in-public crowd, and Reddit this week. Holding paid ads until I have usage data worth optimizing against.

Open questions I'd genuinely love takes on:

• Is an ad-supported free tier a trap for a mindfulness-adjacent app? The irony isn't lost on me.
• Anyone found subscription pricing sweet spots for utility apps in the $5-10/mo range?

Happy to share numbers as they come in.

If you want to try the app, link in the comments.

[removed]

Every screen time app I tried was too restrictive, too easy to bypass, or hinged on a gimmick that was cute for a week and then meaningless. Full blocking made me delete the blocker. Soft reminders got dismissed without reading.

Nobody seemed to consider the obvious: social media isn't bad. We're just bad at choosing when to use it.

So Pause does one thing. When you open an app out of habit, it puts a small puzzle between you and the feed. Solve it, and you're in. No guilt. No lockouts. Just one honest moment to ask yourself: do I actually want to be here right now?

Built it solo with Claude Code, Xcode, and the Screen Time API.

It's a 7-day free trial, then a free ad-supported version or a paid tier. It's live on the App Store as "Pause: Mindful Scrolling" — link in comments.

Would love honest feedback, especially on onborading/set up and puzzle difficulty balance.

If you look at your screen time right now, how long does it say you spend on your phone each day? For me it shows that I spend around 6 hours each day, 5 days on Instagram.

That's a problem.

But app blockers are too restrictive, and social media isn't inherently bad. We are just so used to reaching for our phones and scrolling mindlessly, without even realizing it.

So I am building something to add some friction to this already-established muscle memory that we have. It's called Pause, and it will prompt a puzzle before you open your doomscrolling apps.

It will give you a brief moment of reflection to truly ask yourself: is this the best time to scroll?

https://try-pause.com/

Will you roast the landing page expresses the problem and the solution correctly? If this is interesting to you, I'd be very glad if you choose to join the waitlist.

If you look at your screen time right now, how long does it say you spend on your phone each day? For me it shows that I spend around 6 hours each day, 5 days on Instagram.

That's a problem.

But app blockers are too restrictive, and social media isn't inherently bad. We are just so used to reaching for our phones and starting to scroll mindlessly, without even realizing it.

So I am building something to add some friction to this already-established muscle memory that we have. It's called Pause, and it will prompt a puzzle before you open your doomscrolling apps.

It will give you a brief moment of reflection to truly ask yourself: is this the best time to scroll?

The app is not finished, but I do have a landing page where I'm inviting members to sign up to get the first beta version. https://pause-me.webflow.io/

Will you tell me if the landing page expresses the problem and the solution in the right way? If this is interesting to you, I'd be very glad if you choose to join the waitlist.

If you look at your screen time right now, how long does it say you spend on your phone each day? For me it shows that I spend around 6 hours each day, 5 days on Instagram.

That's a problem.

But app blockers are too restrictive, and social media isn't inherently bad. We are just so used to reaching for our phones and starting to scroll mindlessly, without even realizing it.

So I am building something to add some friction to this already-established muscle memory that we have. It's called Pause, and it will prompt a puzzle before you open your doomscrolling apps.

It will give you a brief moment of reflection to truly ask yourself: is this the best time to scroll?

The app is not finished, but I do have a landing page where I'm inviting members to sign up to get the first beta version.

https://pause-me.webflow.io/

Will you tell me if the landing page expresses the problem and the solution in the right way? If this is interesting to you, I'd be very glad if you choose to join the waitlist.

If you navigate to this website

https://pause-me.webflow.io/

In 4 seconds, do you understand the pain point it solves, who is it for, and how it solves it?

(Im using 4 seconds because is the number I am getting from Google Analytics)

Pause is designed to make you think before you scroll.

An antidote for heavy social media use