An Android App
A small pause
changes everything.
When you unlock your phone or open an app, a short, unskippable pause arrives.
A mindful thought. A reminder to breathe. A countdown.
Then you continue, with intent. Or you don't.
you become.
the practice
One screen.
One thought.
One countdown.
The pause arrives the moment you'd otherwise be pulled in. The timer runs its course — you can't skip it. You can sit with it, read the thought, or put the phone down and walk away.
how it works
Three steps,
then nothing.
Your phone unlocks — or, with the app pause, an app you've chosen comes to the foreground.
A thought, a breath, a question, or the silence of a timer.
When the timer ends, continue with intent — or lock the phone, or close the app, and walk away.
what appears
Four different
kinds of stillness.
hold.
out.
you become.
need right now?
our promise
Three things
we will never do.
No stats. No charts. No streaks.
Your data stays on your phone. We see nothing.
It's your phone, and your apps. The choice is always yours.
questions, answered
A few questions,
before you start.
Why do I reach for my phone without deciding to?
Because most phone reaches aren’t decisions — they’re reflexes. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman described two modes of thinking: a fast, automatic mind that runs on habit, and a slow, deliberate mind that reasons and chooses. A lit screen is a cue, and the fast mind acts on it before the slow one is ever asked. A pause opens a small gap where the deliberate mind can catch up — so the choice is yours again.
Can a few seconds really change anything?
Yes. A pause doesn’t decide for you; it moves the decision from the fast, automatic mind to the slow, deliberate one. Once the deliberate mind is awake, it often wants something different than the reflex did. Sometimes it still wants the app — and that’s a real choice now. Often it just sets the phone down.
Why is it only on Android?
With Intent needs to do things only Android lets a third-party app do: notice when you unlock your phone, draw a pause over whatever’s on screen, and — if you choose — tell when a specific app opens. Apple’s iOS doesn’t give apps that kind of system-wide access, so a true pause isn’t possible there yet. If that changes, we’ll revisit it.
Does With Intent block my apps?
No. With Intent never blocks you. It’s a door, not a lock — it adds a brief, unskippable pause and an easy way to walk away, then leaves the choice entirely to you. It’s your phone and your apps; the pause just makes the automatic open a little less automatic.
What happens during a pause?
One of four things, chosen at random: a breath (a short guided in–hold–out), a thought (a quiet line to consider), a question (something like “is this what you need right now?”), or simply silence with a timer. It varies on purpose, so the practice never hardens into a routine you tap through without noticing.
Why a pause instead of just more willpower?
Because willpower is the slow, deliberate mind doing heavy lifting, and that mind tires — which is why the late-night scroll is so much harder to resist than the morning one. A pause asks for almost none of that. It borrows a few seconds of slowness and hands them to you, so the choice arrives with the part of you that can actually make it.
Won’t I just learn to tap through it?
Maybe sometimes — and that’s fine, because a pause isn’t about force. Even a few seconds breaks the reflex’s momentum, and with an easy way out, many urges simply lose their pull (an urge is a wave; it rises and falls if you don’t feed it). When you do go in, it’s because you chose to, not because you drifted there.
Do you collect any of my data?
No. Nothing leaves your phone. There’s no account, no sign-up, no cloud, no analytics, and no tracking of any kind. Your preferences, your intention, and your pause stats live only on your device, and we never see them.
Is it free?
Pausing when you unlock your phone is free, always. Pausing before specific apps you choose is an optional subscription — weekly, monthly, or yearly, each with a free trial. Billing is handled entirely by Google Play; we never see your payment details, and you can cancel anytime.
Can I control how long and how often it pauses?
Yes. You set the length — anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds — and the most often it can appear — from 1 to 10 times an hour. The aim is the smallest pause that still wakes you up, without getting in your way.
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