# Habits First — user reviews > 40 indexed App Store user reviews of Habits First by Eric Su, rated 4.90/5 from 63 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/habits-first/id6791076258/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/habits-first/id6791076258.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 59 · 4★ 4 · 3★ 0 · 2★ 0 · 1★ 0 ## Newest reviews (18 of 40) ### 5/5 — Amazing app! But…. *2026-09-03* Regardless of the but I just want to say this app is hands down my favorite “lock in” app haha I’ve been reading more and find myself not scrolling as much anymore so kudos to that! My only but is that I would lock my phone while listening to my audible and realized that when you lock the phone the app doesn’t track the time. Other than that this app is amazing! ### 5/5 — Its really good *2026-09-02* Hey reysu, I'm going to test it right away and I love your idea, and I rly hope it will be able to help me with being a lazy bum lol. One thing I'd love to see (although I'm not sure if it's possible), is being able to lock certain websites from my browser, for example Youtube etc, since I'm afraid that I would instead of actively try to unlock Youtube (by reading a book for example), I'd just use safari to watch Youtube. also would love to have this app on my MacBook, would be really great to stay productive. And since I fear that when I am in college I'd be glued to my iPad since I'd use it for studying, it would be really cool if I would be able to lock my iPad in it's entirety for 2-3 min for example, to give myself a mental break (This feature may be already implemented in your app, but didn't rly get to fully test it out yet ... so sry for suggesting something that's already in your app). Again thank youuu for this amazing app and stay healthy and safe!🙏 🙏🙏 Bug: Unlocking YouTube for 30 min, proceeds to use it for 10 min does something else for 20 min and YT is blocked again ### 5/5 — Great App, helps a lot *2026-09-02* Hey reysu, I'm going to test it right away and I love your idea, and I rly hope it will be able to help me with being a lazy bum lol. One thing I'd love to see (although I'm not sure if it's possible), is being able to lock certain websites from my browser, for example Youtube etc, since I'm afraid that I would instead of actively try to unlock Youtube (by reading a book for example), I'd just use safari to watch Youtube. also would love to have this app on my MacBook, would be really great to stay productive. And since I fear that when I am in college I'd be glued to my iPad since I'd use it for studying, it would be really cool if I would be able to lock my iPad in it's entirety for 2-3 min for example, to give myself a mental break (This feature may be already implemented in your app, but didn't rly get to fully test it out yet ... so sry for suggesting something that's already in your app). Again thank youuu for this amazing app and stay healthy and safe!🙏 🙏🙏 BUG: when I unlock YouTube for 30 min, but then only use it for 10 min and then proceed to do something else for 20 min, YT gets blocked again ### 5/5 — Love it so far !! *2026-09-01* I love the concept of the app and how it’s constructed. What’s missing for me would be creating my own habits like “make breakfast” before f.e. open YouTube or “read” or “time for hobbies”. I’d love to make my own habits. And that’s almost it. I love that I can select a time window when I can use apps and that I can also select “blocked the whole day”. Really nicely done ! I would like a more detailed location but I think it’s already better than most of the screen time- apps behind a paywall and it’s free. So thank you so much for trying to get a whole generation out of phone addiction <33 ### 5/5 — Great concept! *2026-09-01* This is the first app that I’ve seen like this, and I’m sure it’s the first good free one. It makes a lot more sense than any other I’ve used and I’m excited to see where it goes. It already pretty great already. ### 5/5 — Fantastic App - Feature Request / Idea *2026-09-01* Really like Habits First! I use it to block my social media apps until I’ve completed my workout, and it works really well. One feature idea: I’d love the option to schedule when a block is active, while still keeping the unlock condition. For example, I’d like my social apps to stay blocked until I finish my workout, but only between 8:00 and 20:00. Because I use a Shortcut that adds a waiting time before opening apps, so being able to combine time-based blocking with conditions would be really useful. ### 5/5 — Finally an app I couldn’t find a way around *2026-09-01* I feel like I’ve tried every screen time app there is and I always ended up finding some way around it, which kind of defeats the whole purpose. I’ve done phone lock boxes, I’ve given my friends and family the passcode to my screen time so I couldn’t get to it, and I still found ways to bypass it. Honestly it got pretty bad and I kind of assumed nothing was going to work. This app is different, I mean the developer must’ve been in the same spot as me because there are so many features that are exactly what I needed. The fact that I can’t delete it is insane to me. That was my first reaction to every other app, well none of this matters because I can just delete the thing that’s blocking me, and this one closes that off completely. The part I think is actually the coolest is that the apps aren’t just gone. It’s not like the lock box where my whole phone is unusable, and it’s not like handing off a passcode where I have no access at all. I can still get into everything I block, I just have to do certain things first. That little difference of it actually being available but only after I do something I’ve realized is soooo helpful. I’m going to email you because I have some ideas I think would make it even better, but it’s already so good. Really cool app, thank you!! ### 5/5 — Woah! *2026-08-31* I'm finally doing my hobbies and not wasting my time on social media 😭 Thank you!!! ### 5/5 — Really like it, one question though *2026-08-31* Came from the video and really liked the concept, very cool app indeed! Can recommend, but I have one question: Why is chess.com something you unlock with the purchase but can be used with the app time requirement? Does that mean it doesn‘t work without the purchase and i dont get the minutes? Because I have some minutes of the chess.com app but it still shows 0/15mins in the overview of the block… **Developer response:** App time requirement tracks how long you have the app open. Chess.com integration tracks how many games you completed. If you add Chess.com as an app time requirement it should track how many minutes you have used it. If there's a bug please let me know and I will fix it as soon as possible! ### 5/5 — Thx *2026-08-30* This app truly improved my quality of life. I am so grateful for all of the features that I’ve been waiting for someone to create for such a long time. This app is awesome and I would recommend it to literally anyone. ### 5/5 — Amazing app made by an amazing Youtuber *2026-08-30* Saw this app from Reysu, someone who I have loved watching since his first channel, and I have to say that this is a game changing app. His thoughts and principles have always been something I agreed with and seeing those implemented in the best screen-time app I’ve tried (and I’ve tried a lot) was amazing. All in all, it is an essential app to try if you’re trying to implement habits well. The only possible improvement (and this is frankly nitpicky) would be for apps that are blocked and only accessible after using an app for X number of minutes to be only be blocked in a specific timeframe so that I could use it whenever during the day but at night, when I can actually do the habit, it would then lock it until I used my reading app. Also, potentially making it so the bluetooth devices zone could block the apps and only be unblocked when out of their range, instead of vice versa like how it is currently. Great work though!! ### 5/5 — good *2026-08-30* vary nice **Developer response:** Thank you! ### 5/5 — Don’t want to use minutes all at once *2026-08-29* Really good app, it will definitely be a permanent feature on all of my devices. The one thing I would love to see is not having to use my app time all at once, and it was just available for however many minutes left whenever I want it. It could work as a selectable option for those who prefer the allotted time. **Developer response:** Thank you for the feedback and I will look into this for an upcoming update! ### 5/5 — it works *2026-08-29* First habit app which does the job for me. Instead of me having to track anything, it just doesn’t let me use the apps I usually use to not do what I wanted to do. ### 5/5 — Must have for habit junkies *2026-08-28* I‘m so glad that I found this app right after it’s release. While using it for the last couple of days, I got some ideas how the app could be improved at some points. And suddenly, the first ever update fixes exactly those few things that I had wished for. Incredible work! Excited to see how this app will evolve and (most likely) overtake this niche. ### 5/5 — PERFECT *2026-08-28* Incredible app. it’s simplistic and does everything it needs to while not having ads or needing a subscription. It feels amazing to finally check your social media after walking thousands of steps every day, because you know that you earned it. Highly recommend! **Developer response:** Really appreciate the nice comment! Even better features are coming soon :) ### 5/5 — Easy to use, yet so powerful *2026-08-27* This app really does what it promises. A functionality I‘m missing is an inversion of the „Device“ condition, so I can’t use unwanted apps while I‘m at my desk. **Developer response:** I will add this in a future update! Thank you for your review. ### 5/5 — Honest review *2026-08-27* Saw the yt video and just went for it straight…crazy experience reysu…what an app…was always wondering abt a subscription free app✌🏽 **Developer response:** Thank you for watching, trying and reviewing! I'm glad you found the app to be useful. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 3/5 — Nice app *2026-08-27* It is a nice app with a brilliant concept. Nevertheless, I would like to be able to combine multiple conditions (for example unblock a app when I am not at home, but when I am at home I need to use another app for a certain time) **Developer response:** You can do this right now with multiple blocks, but I will add it so you can do it in one block in a future update. I hope you will find the app useful and reconsider the review! ### 4/5 — Good concept, but … *2026-08-30* The app is really helpful for spending less time on social media and more time reading or sticking to fitness goals, but it's really annoying that it keeps turning off in the background. I don't know if there's any way to prevent that on iOS, but if there is, please give it a try. **Developer response:** What do you mean it's turning off in the background? Could you send me a bug report? This hasn't been a widely reported bug ### 4/5 — Good app but need some updates *2026-08-26* I’ve been following Reysu for some time now on YT and once he dropped this app I knew it was gonna be good and the idea really resonated with me. My biggest problems with the app is that you need to pay for custom shortcuts but it wasn’t explained that I needed to create an Apple shortcut for habits first to recognize that I completed the task to unlock social media time for example. Is there any easy way for habits first to recognize that you completed that task other than you going into Apple shortcuts and selecting the automation which triggers that you completed that task and unlocked social media time for example? I believe that custom shortcuts should have been made available in the free version but I purchased Pro version to unlock this. Also, the screen insights they are only for the phone right? I tried contacting you via email on YT and io to no response. I just wish there was an easier way maybe for the app to recognize that you completed a task other than going into Apple shortcuts and clicking **Developer response:** In the next version you will be able to manually track habits or even track time spent doing real life tasks. I'm working as fast as I can and testing everything, it should be out shortly! ### 4/5 — Confused how it works *2026-08-26* The lock mechanic confuses me. I thought the 24 hr button would lock for 24 hrs and unlock after or sooner if you did the task, but it relocks back at 11:59, forcing me to do the task? I used 2 of my emergency unlocks. Honestly some guide would be useful. Still a good app when i dont force lock, but it just allows me to stop anytime which I dont want. I thought it would be like, locked until i did the task then it unlocks, that way when i want to do this again, I can once i finish. Hopefully that makes sense! ### 4/5 — Great concept, just needs a few improvements *2026-08-25* It seems like a really cool concept! Unfortunately, it doesn’t always block every app in the list. For example, I had messages selected, but it didn’t block it. It also didn’t block itself, even though I had Habits First in my list. It seems like it mostly works otherwise. The other thing keeping me from using it is that there just aren’t that many integrations that are useful to me personally. I think shortcuts should be included in the free version. I think that is essential. It seemed like it might be included but then it also says it’s only available in the pro version, so I don’t know. My final note is that the UI feels AI generated. I don’t know if it was for sure, but it’s definitely giving me AI vibes, even though many elements are native SwiftUI components. Keep up the good work though! I think this is an awesome concept. It just needs a few improvements! ### 5/5 — Awesome *2026-09-07* I bought the premium one time purchase which lets you have more features too very nice ### 5/5 — Only one that has a free tier that does something *2026-09-06* This app is peak ### 5/5 — Great design *2026-09-06* The app has everything. This is not a good app but an excellent app. ### 5/5 — Awesome *2026-09-06* Very happy with how simple this is. Happy to support the creator! ### 5/5 — Opal/Brick, etc. Killer *2026-09-06* 10/10 No Notes ## Most praised reviews (5 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — So good! *2026-09-05* Amazing app actually works really well and is super effective, one down side is when you turn on “prevent app deletion” it definitely works but it also blocks you from deleting every single app on your phone so basically I completely loss the ability to delete other apps aside from habits first and there’s no way for me to turn off deletions because it’s permanent please help me 😭 (As soon as this is resolved I’ll change my rating to 5 stars) **Developer response:** Hey there you can disable this by going into screen time settings then turning off content restrictions. Apologies as this is an iOS limitation and I should make that clearer in the future. I hope you reconsider your review ### 5/5 — Great app *2026-09-05* I gave it 4 stars earlier but the dev very quickly addressed everything **Developer response:** Hey there you can report a bug in the app at the bottom of the settings page. For your specific use case I think it makes more sense you create two blocks. You can create a block with no conditions except time which just keeps it blocked other than the specific date or time ranges you select ### 5/5 — Good but… *2026-09-05* Better than expected! I got the og yt video from the dev. Said it’d be free, ad free, all of the features would be free and it’d still be developed even without significant backing! All of it is true, except for the fact there is a $10 flat fee that lets you use Apple short cuts, lets it connect to other apps and alternative widgets. I haven’t paid for it and it works great! Highly recommend it! ### 5/5 — App deleting Bug *2026-09-05* I enabled the feature that you can’t delete the Habbits App, but now I can’t delete any of my other apps anymore. An issue on my iPad and IPhone! **Developer response:** You can turn this off by going to Settings > Screen time > Content restrictions, and turning it off. In the update now it's made clearer that it blocks deleting apps in general. ### 5/5 — Best content limiter app i’ve used *2026-09-04* Really tapped into something genius here with the “hijacking” of the addictive nature of apps towards personally meaningful goals. Apple health integration is a fantastic idea --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-08.*