Make productive actions easy. Make distracting actions intentional.

Friction is a design material, not a bug

Most software treats friction as something to eliminate everywhere, always. ReClaim treats it as a material to place deliberately, removed entirely from the handful of apps you actually mean to use, and added back precisely where you've told us you tend to lose time you didn't intend to spend.

That's why blocking, limits, reminders, schedules, and hidden apps all exist as separate tools instead of one blunt "block list." Different apps deserve different amounts of friction: a hard wall for the ones you already know you overuse, a soft check-in for the ones you just want to stay mindful of, a fixed daily budget for the ones you use for legitimate reasons but tend to lose track of time in.

The home screen should have one job

Give you instant access to the apps you actually intended to install your phone for. Nothing more. That means: no widgets competing for attention, no algorithmic suggestions, no ads, full-color icons only for the apps you deliberately chose to keep close, and a large clock so checking the time doesn't require opening anything at all.

Swipe right for everything else, and it's rendered as flat as we could make it, black text on a plain background, alphabetical, no icons. An app you're actually looking for is just as reachable as it would be anywhere else. An app you weren't thinking about doesn't get a free advertisement for itself along the way.

Three levels of friction, not one

Hidden Apps is the clearest example of "friction as a dial, not a switch." Level 1 just gets an app out of your daily view, useful for apps you don't want deleted but also don't want tempting you by habit. Level 2 adds a small deliberate barrier, like solving a short math problem, aimed squarely at muscle-memory opening rather than a real decision to use the app. Level 3 goes further for apps where even a moment's hesitation isn't enough, a harder challenge, sometimes a short delay, designed to interrupt a compulsive loop rather than a considered one.

None of these are punishments. They're calibrated to match how much you've told us you struggle with a specific app, set by you, changeable by you, at any time.

What we won't build

Streaks. Badges. "You're 80% to your daily goal!" push notifications. Anything that turns reducing your screen time into its own addictive loop is, in our view, exactly the failure mode we're trying to fix, just wearing a wellness costume. Before any feature ships, we ask one question:

If the honest answer is the second one, it gets reworked or cut. That's not a slogan for the About page, it's the actual bar every feature in ReClaim has to clear.