Screen time for adults, not inmates
Pause
before
you scroll.
Forepause adds one breath — four seconds in, four seconds out — before the apps you choose. Then you decide: turn back, or open with intention.
57%
A pre-opening pause cut social media use by roughly 57% in peer-reviewed research by the Max Planck Institute — one of the few screen-time interventions with published evidence.
PNAS, 2023 ↗
Three quiet steps
-
01
Choose your apps
Pick the apps that take more than they give. Two minutes, no account, no quiz, no Shortcuts gymnastics.
-
02
Meet one breath
Next time you tap one of them, Forepause appears first — the moment you tap the icon, not thirty seconds into the scroll.
-
03
Decide, on purpose
Turn back, or open for 5, 15, or 30 minutes. Your choice is recorded — never judged.
No streaks.
No guilt.
No “weak willpower.”
Blockers gamify your shame: streaks that shatter, gems to collect, notifications that scold you for being human. Lose a 30-day streak once and you delete the app — we've read two thousand reviews of people doing exactly that.
Forepause keeps one number, and it only goes up: time reclaimed. Opening an app isn't a failure. It's data.
“Blocking alone changes behavior temporarily.
Understanding changes it for good.”
See when you
actually scroll
A weekday-by-hour heatmap shows your real pattern — the Thursday-night spiral, the Sunday-morning drift. Computed entirely on your device. You didn't quit scrolling; you just moved it. Forepause shows you where it went.
Your data never leaves your phone.
By design, we can't see it either. Apple's Screen Time framework keeps usage data on-device — and Forepause has no server to send it to anyway.
- No accountNothing to sign up for, nothing to leak.
- No serverNo cloud, no sync, no database of your habits.
- No adsNo trackers, no review nags, no “check out our other app.”
- On-device insightsEvery chart is computed by your iPhone, for your eyes.
Honest pricing
The core experience is free, forever. Pro is about a third of the price of typical $100-a-year blockers — and the 7-day trial is a real trial, not a billing trap.
Free
$0
- The one-breath pause
- Up to 3 apps
- Today's time reclaimed
Pro — Yearly
$29.99/year
7-day free trial
- Unlimited apps & schedules
- Full pattern history
- Every future feature
Pro — Lifetime
$49.99once
- Everything in Pro
- Pay once, keep it forever
- No subscription at all
For reference: Opal Pro lists at $99.99/year (publicly listed price, June 2026). Forepause Pro is $29.99/year. We compare prices, not people.
One breath.
That's where it starts.
Coming to the App Store
Launching June 2026 · iOS 17+ · Free to start