Why this matters
Modern apps are engineered to bypass willpower, and software-only blockers lose the same fight; they’re one tap away from being disabled. Pause Card introduces physical friction: your phone only enters or exits Focus Mode by tapping a physical NFC card. Leave the card in another room and laziness becomes a feature, not a failure mode.
What exists now
- An Android app with the full core loop working: onboarding, app blocklist, NFC card pairing with signed-card verification, tap-to-toggle Focus Mode, accessibility-based blocking with a shield screen, and a 10-minute emergency-unlock penalty
- iOS development underway
- Local-first and account-free by design: no cloud, no accounts, no analytics
- Card design and early sales-site drafts
The business model is simple: the app is free; revenue comes from selling the physical card packs.
What I’m looking for
People who’ve tried every screen-time app and bounced off all of them. I want early testers who’ll live with a card for two weeks and report honestly.
Open questions
- Is the card a product or a gift? (The gifting angle keeps coming up.)
- How much hardware security does v1 actually need before it ships?
- Retail-style packaging vs. direct simple packs: what does the first hundred look like?