A physical key for a quieter phone
FocusLatch locks your distracting apps behind a real, physical NFC key. Not a focus mode. Not a willpower app. Your feeds stay shut until you walk over and scan the key — wherever you chose to leave it.
iPhone with iOS 17 or later · works with any blank NTAG215 tag
Where the time goes
spent on social feeds. Not per week — every single day, by the average person.
That is 38 days a year.
Awake, thumb moving, nothing kept.
Zoom out
one month of an 80-year life lost to the feed
Six years. Doomscrolled.
The mechanics of the drain
The average user picks up their phone 96 times a day — once every ten waking minutes.
How long it takes to fully refocus on deep work after a single interruption.
Touches, swipes, and taps the average user gives their phone every day.
Every feed you open is tuned by thousands of engineers whose job is to keep you there. You can't out-discipline an industry. But you can change the physics of your phone.
One scan closes the latch. Apple's system-level shield drops over your feeds — and the only way back in is a physical key you deliberately left out of reach.
How it works
Pick the apps, categories, and websites that pull you away. Group them into modes — deep work, evenings, sleep.
Begin focus and Apple's Screen Time shield drops over everything you chose. The apps are locked — not muted, not hidden. Locked.
Your registered NFC Focus Key is the only way back in. Leave it in the kitchen, at the office, with someone you trust.
Why it holds
Most blockers fail at the same moment: the weak minute. FocusLatch is built so that the weak minute has nowhere to go.
Built on Apple's Family Controls and Managed Settings — the system-level shield, not a notification filter.
Unlocking requires scanning the exact tag you registered. The app verifies the chip's factory-programmed identity.
While focus is running you can block more, never less. No settings loophole, no quick exception.
Lost your key? Unlock after a waiting period you chose in advance — 15 minutes to 8 hours. Changing the clock doesn't help.
Separate selections for work, evenings, and sleep. Switch before you lock, not while you waver.
Weekly focused time and a day streak. Enough to see it working — no gamified noise.
The other side of the math
Cut the scroll in half and that's what you get back — three years of evenings, mornings, and attention. That's what a one-euro NFC tag and a latch can be worth.
Reclaim your timePrivate by design
FocusLatch has no backend. Apple hands the app privacy-preserving tokens instead of app names,
and the only thing stored about your key is a one-way hash. Read the privacy policy.
Questions
Just an NTAG215 NFC tag — a blank sticker or card for about one euro. No writing or setup needed; FocusLatch reads the chip's factory identity and registers it as your key.
Deleting the app or revoking Screen Time permission does lift the shield — Apple guarantees you that control over your own device, and every app in this category shares it. FocusLatch is a commitment device: it makes the escape slow, deliberate, and mildly embarrassing instead of one thumb-flick away.
Start the emergency unlock and wait out the period you chose before locking — 15 minutes, 1 hour, or 8 hours. The countdown resists clock changes and survives restarting the app.
No. Focus modes silence notifications; the apps still open. FocusLatch applies Apple's Screen Time shield, so blocked apps physically refuse to open until you scan your key.
English and German, fully localized — including the shield screen.
Availability
FocusLatch is in the final stretch before release.
Questions in the meantime? Visit support.