App Blocker: StayBrief

Use your apps with a purpose, for the time you choose. StayBrief helps you pause before opening an app on autopilot: pick a reason, set a duration, then start. When the session ends, the app is protected again.

With Pro, run independent sessions together.

Tap that app and the shield appears instead of it. Press its button and open StayBrief, and it asks what you are going in for and how long you need. Name both and press Start. The full selected duration begins then. Open the protected app and use it until you are done or the duration ends. When your time is up, it is protected again.

Nothing is chosen for you and nothing starts by itself. There is no session until you pick a reason and a duration.

HOW A SESSION WORKS

- Tap a protected app. The shield appears in front of it.
- Press the shield's button, then open StayBrief.
- Pick one mission: Reply, Post, Find, or Break.
- Pick how long you need: 3, 5, or 10 minutes.
- Press Start. The full selected duration begins.
- Open the protected app. Your Lock Screen shows the mission and the duration you picked.
- A warning is scheduled for one minute before the session ends.
- When the duration is up, the app is protected again and the session is written down.

A duration is one continuous session. It keeps running after you leave the protected app, while the phone is locked, and when StayBrief is not open. Three minutes ends three minutes after Start.

Finished in forty seconds? Tap "I'm done" and the shield returns straight away. The session is recorded as what it was.

FREE, FOREVER

- One protected app
- The four built-in missions
- Sessions of 3, 5, or 10 minutes
- The warning before your duration is up
- Your session on the Lock Screen
- Ending a session early, any time
- The last seven days of your history

The free version does not expire. There is no session quota, advertising, or account.

WITH PRO

- Protect more than one app
- Run independent sessions at the same time
- 15-minute and custom durations
- Missions you write yourself
- Your full history and weekly insights

Pro is one yearly subscription. It renews each year until you cancel, you can cancel any time in the App Store, and the price is shown before you subscribe. Everything in the free list above stays free.

PRIVATE BY DESIGN

There is no account, no sign-in, and no server. Nothing about your apps, your missions, or your sessions leaves your iPhone. StayBrief contains no analytics and no advertising code, and it works with no connection at all — the only things that need one are subscribing and restoring a subscription.

Your history stays until you remove it. Deleting it is one row in Settings, and deleting the app takes everything with it.

Protection is yours. Turning all of it off is one row in Settings and two taps, at any time.

WHAT YOU NEED

iPhone, iOS 18 or later.

StayBrief asks for Screen Time access on this iPhone. It uses it to shield the apps you pick and restore protection when a session ends. It cannot read your messages, posts, searches, passwords, photos, or anything inside another app.

Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/