ByIntent · 本意
ByIntent is an iPhone app that runs entirely on your device. Before you open the few apps that are hardest to put down, it gives you one choice: not now, or open for N minutes on purpose. It never lectures you, never scores you, and never writes a line meant to make you feel bad.
On-device only · No network requests · Core features always free
Three modes
Most apps in this category pile every switch onto one screen, so you can never tell what is actually in force. ByIntent has three things: Plan is the foundation, Focus is temporary pressure on top of it, and Commitment mode is a lock around both. Each card below answers the same three questions.
Standing rules
You set it once and it stays on. A daily total, a cap on how many times you may open, and hours that are simply closed — enforced on schedule, with nothing left for you to do.
A temporary push you start by hand
When you want a stretch of real quiet, tap once. For 30, 60 or 90 minutes every guarded app is closed; anything not on the guard list is unaffected. You can end it early whenever you want.
A lock on the rules themselves
It does not change your quota; it changes how easy it is to back out. Once on, an emergency pass waits 10 minutes and you get 1 a week. Turning it off takes 24 hours. It is off by default.
| Plan | Focus | Commitment mode | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it governs | Daily quota / opens per day / off-hours | Every guarded app closed for one stretch | How hard the rules are to change |
| When it applies | Always on, enforced on schedule | The moment you press Start | Immediately when turned on |
| How to leave | Tightening at once; loosening waits 24 h | End early any time, nothing cleared | Turning it off waits 24 h |
| Effect on emergency passes | None (5 min each · 3 a week · 30-second wait) | None — passes stay available during a focus session | Wait starts at 10 min · fixed at 1 a week |
| Any further levels? | — | — | Level 2 borrows the system’s “Don’t Allow Deleting Apps”; level 3 mirrors your most important rule into the system’s Screen Time |
What one block looks like
Everything happens in the system’s block layer and in notifications. The block screen is drawn by iOS and has room for a title, a subtitle, an icon and two buttons — that is the platform’s hard limit, so we spend it on saying the true thing clearly.
Open #1 today · 40 min left of your quota
Design evidence
These five sources informed the design. They explain why ByIntent works the way it does; they are not a promise of any health outcome.
Gollwitzer, P. M. (1999). Implementation intentions: Strong effects of simple plans.
American Psychologist, 54(7), 493–503.
doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.493
→ The two-step intent gate. The finding: spelling out when and what in advance changes behaviour far more than resolve alone. So the block screen never asks “are you sure?” — it offers a choice measured in minutes: not now, or open for N minutes.
Grüning, D. J., Riedel, F., & Lorenz-Spreen, P. (2023).
Directing smartphone use through the self-nudge app one sec.
PNAS, 120(8), e2213114120.
doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2213114120
→ A short wait before opening. This randomised controlled trial found that inserting a brief forced pause before an app opens meaningfully reduces how often people go in. That is why the block screen is two-step: the first tap on “Open” only registers, and you tap again after a few seconds to actually enter. An emergency pass starts at a 30-second wait.
Wood, W., & Rünger, D. (2016). Psychology of Habit.
Annual Review of Psychology, 67, 289–314.
doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-122414-033417
→ Off-hours cut the cue instead of the urge. Habits fire from context cues automatically, and beating them one at a time is expensive. Rather than fighting each impulse, close the window entirely — which is what the off-hours rule does.
Michie, S., Richardson, M., Johnston, M., Abraham, C., Francis, J., Hardeman, W.,
Eccles, M. P., Cane, J., & Wood, C. E. (2013).
The Behavior Change Technique Taxonomy (v1) of 93 Hierarchically Clustered Techniques:
Building an International Consensus for the Reporting of Behavior Change Interventions.
Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 46(1), 81–95.
doi.org/10.1007/s12160-013-9486-6
→ Commitment mode and the 24-hour cooling-off period. The taxonomy lists commitment devices as a technique in their own right: you, now, closing a door on you, later. So loosening any rule takes 24 hours to take effect while tightening is immediate — which shuts the “change the rule, then walk through it” bypass.
World Health Organization. Addictive behaviours: Gaming disorder (ICD-11 Q&A).
who.int · Gaming disorder Q&A
→ Support for self-control, not a diagnosis. The WHO definition has a clear clinical threshold: impaired control, gaming taking precedence over other interests, sustained for at least 12 months with significant impairment. ByIntent deliberately stays outside that line. It helps you keep a boundary you set yourself. It is not screening, not a diagnosis, not treatment. If you are distressed, please talk to a professional.
Citation discipline: this page quotes published conclusions and their sources (author, year, journal, official link) only. It reproduces no text, figures or scale items, and it does not imply that any author or institution endorses ByIntent. Nothing here is medical advice.
Privacy and capability transparency
For an app that watches how you use your phone, the important part is what it cannot see. The list on the right comes straight out of the in-app “What ByIntent can do” screen — every line is a real iOS boundary that applies to any app of this kind.
events.jsonl) or delete everything at any time. Both are free, forever.
Partly: limiting websites (Safari and system WebView only).
Can: showing your purpose and today’s open count on the system block screen.
These are Apple’s boundaries, not our choices.
How it looks
The seven palettes are told apart by lightness rather than hue, running from the lightest (Silver Mist) to the deepest (Bluestone), and each has a light and a dark set that follows the system. There is also a low-stimulation mode: no grain, no glow, no animation — flat colour only.
Pricing
The intent gate, basic limits, emergency passes, export and deletion are free forever and will never be moved behind a paywall. Emergency passes especially: they are a safety exit, not a selling point.
Free
events.jsonl and delete all historyComing later
More palettes and deeper insights are still being worked on; the exact benefits and price are not settled. What is settled: none of the five things above will move into it.
Any purchase happens inside the app, through Apple’s in-app purchase. This website sells nothing, collects no payment details, and offers no way to buy outside the App Store.