See the minutes before they disappear.
Open a distracting app and a timer appears in the Dynamic Island — counting your current session, quietly, while you're still inside it. On iPhones without the island, the timer lives on your Lock Screen, and the full reminder ladder lands on every iPhone. Leave, and the session ends with a calm receipt: how long, how many times today, and the number that matters most — your longest stretch off the phone.
Adrift states facts, never verdicts. "You've been on Instagram for 15 minutes" — that's the entire intervention. No shame, no streaks to lose, no red numbers. The timer is the nudge, and it turns out that's enough.
You set up the parts yourself. Adrift never asks permission to watch you. Instead, parts you add in Apple's Shortcuts app start the timer when you open an app and stop it when you leave. On iOS 27 you add two ready-made parts and turn them on, in three steps; on earlier versions a voiced walkthrough shows you how to build a pair for each app. Then Adrift checks that they work. The parts are yours, in the open, and you can remove them anytime. Adrift works with Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, X, Facebook, Threads, and Snapchat.
Gentle reminders, on your terms. A quiet banner at 5, 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes — landing over the feed itself. Choose the Early Nudges, Steady Bells, or Long Watch ladder, or make your own. Pick the voice: the warm Adrift default, Calm (the plain fact, nothing more), Scripture (KJV/WEB/BSB verses on time and stillness), Quotes (a line worth keeping from writers long gone), Perspective ("About enough time to clean up your kitchen."), or Note to Self — your own words, back at you.
Adrift Pro — start with 7 days free, then keep everything with a small yearly subscription or a single one-time purchase: unlimited tracked apps, the daylight metric, custom reminder ladders, all the reminder voices, and Note to Self.
Private by design. No account. Your sessions, notes, and settings never leave your phone. The one exception is anonymous analytics — counts, not content. Inside the app (Settings → "Privacy — what leaves the phone"), Adrift lists its own events word for word and describes what TelemetryDeck, the library that sends them, adds: its own signals and standard details on every event. The privacy policy at mhs5643.github.io/adrift-site/privacy.html says the same.
Doomscrolling is drifting. The timer is what tells you you're adrift.
Terms of Use (Apple's standard EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
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