apptoken vs Silk

Apptoken helps you create real friction before opening distracting apps. Instead of relying on willpower, Apptoken lets you create blocking profiles, choose the apps and websites you want to restrict, and start focused sessions using Apple's Screen Time controls. When you need access again, unlock using the method that fits your setup: NFC token, QR code, timer, schedule, widget, or manual control. Apptoken is free. There are no subscriptions, no in-app purchases, no paywall, and no account required. HOW IT WORKS 1. Create a blocking profile 2. Select distracting apps and websites 3. Grant Screen Time permission 4. Start a blocking session 5. Unlock only when you choose to BUILT FOR PRACTICAL FOCUS Apptoken is designed for people who want a stronger boundary than a reminder, but still need controlled access when life happens. Use it to: - Reduce mindless scrolling - Protect work and study blocks - Build better phone habits - Keep social apps out of easy reach - Add physical friction with an NFC token - Use a QR code as a simple unlock method - Schedule recurring focus time - Control active sessions from widgets UNLOCK OPTIONS NFC unlock Pair blocking with a physical NFC tag or token so access requires a deliberate tap. QR unlock Use a QR code as a lightweight unlock method when you want separation without extra setup. Timers Start timed sessions and return to your selected restrictions when the session ends. Schedules Create recurring blocks for work, school, mornings, evenings, or any routine you want to protect. Widgets and Live Activities Control active sessions and keep track of focus time from the places you already use on iPhone. PRIVACY-FIRST BY DEFAULT Apptoken does not require an account. Your profiles, selected restrictions, NFC and QR identifiers, schedules, timers, and session history are stored locally on your device or in the app group container used by the app and its extensions. The app does not use third-party app analytics, advertising SDKs, behavioral tracking, subscriptions, or in-app purchases. REQUIREMENTS Apptoken uses Apple's Screen Time, Family Controls, Managed Settings, Device Activity, NFC, Camera, WidgetKit, Live Activities, and Background Tasks frameworks to provide blocking and unlock features. You can revoke app permissions at any time in iOS Settings. Apptoken is developed by Fokusbloks Oy. Support: benjam@fokusbloks.com Website: apptoken.co

Silk blocks the apps you choose and gives you one daily budget of minutes to open the ones you name. To open a blocked app, type or dictate a whole sentence naming the app and the minutes, for example "unlock Instagram for 10 min." Silk shows a short wait, a few seconds that grow with the minutes you asked for, then subtracts the minutes from the day's budget, opens the app, and shows the time it locks again. It never locks early. If you stop using the app, a grant under 15 minutes can stay open for about 16 minutes. When the budget is used up, Silk refuses the request. During your down hours it refuses and shows the time they end. HOW IT WORKS • One block list. Pick the apps you want blocked, once. They stay blocked until you spend minutes on one of them, and they lock again after the minutes run out. • Named apps. Choose up to six you expect to ask for, from Silk's list of popular apps (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, X and more). The name is what you type or say, and it is the app Silk opens. Any other app you block stays shut. • One budget. One number of minutes for all of them, for the whole day. • An optional ceiling. If one app tends to take the whole budget, cap how much of it that app may use, for example 50 minutes a day with at most 20 on TikTok. A ceiling limits one app's share of the budget and does not add minutes. • Down hours. Set one nightly window. During it no unlock is granted, and Silk switches to its night colours. • You type a sentence or use the keyboard's dictation key. Both spend from the same budget. • Tightening a rule takes effect immediately. Loosening one (a bigger budget, a shorter night, a removed ceiling) is held until the next day. The held rule carries a button that applies it today. The blocked app's own screen does not offer that button. Removing an app from Silk takes it off the block list at once, at any hour. NOW AND MIRROR Now shows the minutes left today, drawn as a circle whose length is the budget. Spent time is blank. Mirror shows the score for the last completed day under that day's name, with the past week as six shades of one colour, darker for a better day. Silk does not estimate time saved, because it has no way to measure it. WHAT SILK DOES NOT DO • It sends no notifications and does not ask for notification permission. • It keeps no streaks and has no leaderboard and no mascot. • During down hours a blocked app's screen shows the time down hours end; with the budget spent it says Open Silk. Either way there is one OK button and no chat and no coach. Silk only takes a number of minutes. • It is free, and the blocking does not depend on payment. PRIVACY Silk records what it granted and when a blocked app's screen appeared. It does not read your usage. Apple keeps per-app usage data away from third-party apps. To lock an app again, Silk asks iOS to signal when the app has been used for the minutes granted; iOS keeps the count, and Silk never sees it. The numbers Silk shows are computed from that record, kept on this iPhone. Nothing leaves the device. Silk has no server and no accounts. WHAT SILK DOES NOT INCLUDE There is one block list. There are no location rules, no per-app schedules, no habit tracker, no meditation timer, and no feed. Silk is not a rule engine. A per-app ceiling is the one extra limit. It is still one budget: the ceiling limits what a single app may draw from it and adds no minutes of its own. iPhone only. Screen Time blocking does not extend to an iPad or a computer. English only at launch. Requires iOS 26.5 or later and Screen Time permission.