Takeback vs Ransom

Every screen time app has an ignore button. That is why they stop working. Takeback does not. Open the app you swore you were done with and Sarge is there first. He is a drill sergeant, and he wants to hear your reasoning. Make your case. He decides. He is not easy. SARGE, YOUR DRILL SERGEANT He knows how long you have already scrolled today and answers accordingly. Ask for twenty minutes at midnight and see how that goes. Ask for five to reply to a message and he will probably wave you through. He negotiates. He counts. He remembers. YOU CAN'T FOOL HIM Try to talk your way past him and he will ask you to prove it. Say you are at the gym and he wants a photo from the gym. Pictures of pictures do not work on him. THE PROGRAM Four phases, and Sarge gets stricter in each one: Neutral, Firm, Strict, then full Drill. Your daily limit starts halfway between your old habit and your goal, and drops until it hits your goal. After that, the lock-in is for life. EARN YOUR TIME Want more minutes? Earn them. Go for a walk, work out, touch real grass, or hold a 45-minute focus block. He checks the proof: your steps, a fresh photo, or 45 minutes without unlocking. Up to 60 earned minutes a day. HE WANTS YOU ASLEEP Set your wind-down time. After it, Sarge gets much tougher and pushes you toward sleep. WHAT YOU GET BACK Evenings that end in sleep, not a 2am feed. An attention span you can feel coming back. Hours a week that used to vanish with nothing to show for them. A phone you finally trust yourself with. HOW IT GOES Day 1, you pick the apps. Sarge locks them and sets your first limit. Day 4, he gets firm and your limit drops again. Day 11, your limit is your goal. By the end, you have hours back and you are spending them on something. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://trytakeback.com/privacy

Get your evenings back. Keep your apps. Ransom locks Instagram, TikTok and whatever else eats your day, and asks for push-ups, squats or steps before it opens them. Most of the time you'll decide it isn't worth ten push-ups. That is the whole trick. WHAT CHANGES You stop opening apps by reflex. A set standing between you and the feed makes you notice your hand reaching for the phone, and noticing is most of the battle. The hour before bed comes back. Set a wind-down rule and scrolling takes twice the reps right when you'd normally lose the evening to it. You get a bit stronger without meaning to. Ten push-ups a few times a day adds up faster than you'd think. You watch the number drop. The Progress tab shows today against this time yesterday, and your whole week. HOW IT WORKS 1. Pick the apps that eat your day. 2. Rex, a buff T-rex with tiny arms, locks them. 3. Do a set. The front camera counts push-ups and squats. The pedometer counts steps. 4. A set earns coins, and coins are minutes, one for one. 15 coins opens your apps for 15 minutes. Spend them on whatever you like. When they run out, your apps lock again until your next set. NOTHING LEAVES YOUR PHONE No account, no sign-up. Your screen time never leaves your phone. The camera looks at your form on the device and never records, saves or uploads a frame. Your screen time is your business. EVERY DAY IS A FRESH START Coins clear at midnight, so unspent minutes never pile up. Had a bad day and scrolled through all of it? Tomorrow starts at zero, and Rex is not going to bring it up. REX COUNTS PROPERLY Half a push-up is not a push-up. The camera looks for real depth, so a bounce doesn't earn a minute. It also means the minutes you do earn actually feel earned. RULES FOR THE HOURS THAT MATTER Name an hour. Dinner, gym time, wind down. During it, opening your apps takes twice the reps. You still can, it just takes more work. PICK YOUR LEVEL Chill, Standard or Beast. Start easy. Move up when ten push-ups stops being a reason to put the phone down. WHAT IT DOESN'T DO It doesn't delete your apps. It doesn't shame you. It doesn't nag. Full access is a subscription that renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before it ends. Manage it in Settings > Apple Account > Subscriptions. Terms: https://lucascoles.github.io/ransom/terms/ Privacy: https://lucascoles.github.io/ransom/privacy/