Indie App Spotlight: ‘one sec’ helps you stop doom scrolling on your iPhone

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.

one sec aims to help people reduce mindless scrolling on social media, requiring users to make a conscious decision on whether or not they want to actually open that app every time. It’s very configurable, so you can customize one sec to meet your needs.

Top features

With one sec, you can configure which apps you’d like to use less. Every time you open one of those apps, you’ll be forced to deal with some sort of intervention, whether that be a breathing exercise or otherwise. By default, you have to take a deep breath – but there’s other options. The point is, you can’t have an unintentional moment where you doom scroll social media.

Plus, even once you’re in your desired app, you can configure a time limit for an intervention to pop up again. It’ll definitely reduce how much time you accidentally waste on your phone. Social media is a key focus here, but you can also use it for other things, such as requiring an intervention with a work app outside of work hours – thanks to its schedules feature.

one sec also integrates with focus modes on iOS, and has options to completely block apps, rather than just slowing down your usage of them. There’s a feature called “Good Morning Countdown”, preventing usage of selected apps for more than 15 minutes until you’ve been awake for at least an hour, using data from Apple Health.

Why use ‘one sec’

In studies (conducted by the Max Planck Institute), one sec reduced social media usage by 57% on average. So far, all of one sec’s users have saved 1000 years worth of time combined!

Obviously, using social media comes with some instant gratification, so it’s easy to get sucked in to. This app aims to help you change that behavior, and take back your time. I’ve personally found it quite effective.

Download the app

one sec is available for free on the App Store, where you can get a feel of its abilities by setting up one app you’d like to use less. With one sec pro, you can unlock the apps full set of features, including all of the varying customization options, unlimited apps, and more.

Pro has a number of pricing options, including a monthly plan for $2.99/month, annual for $19.99/year, and a lifetime unlock for $49.99. There’s also options with family sharing, which cost $29.99/year or $69 for lifetime.

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