The Stooped Key, Pawl's mascot: a brass key with a bent back, two eyes and a small mustache. Pawl: App Blocker With a Key

Block any app. Keep the key out of reach.

Pawl uses Apple Screen Time to block the apps and sites you choose. Nothing on the phone can lift the block. To unblock, you need a physical security key you have left somewhere else, and then a 15 minute wait.

Read the source on GitHub

Blocking, the key, the wait and your streak are free. Pawl Pro is optional ($3.99 a month or $29.99 a year in the US, with a 7-day free trial on the yearly plan) and adds new scheduled sets and the full weekly report. You need a USB-C security key (FIDO2), sold separately.

The screen a blocked app shows. Chess is locked. Open Pawl and use your security key, then wait out the cooling-off. No shortcuts, even at 1am. You've walked away 12 times this week. Buttons: Close this app, I'm tempted. There is no unlock button.

How it works

Most blockers fail at 1am because you can switch them off with one tap. Pawl moves that decision to a small object you have already put out of reach.

1

Pick what to block

Choose any apps and sites you keep reaching for: betting, adult sites, social feeds, games, or the one app that eats your evenings. Apple Screen Time does the blocking and shows a calm locked screen with no unlock button.

2

Put the key somewhere else

Unblocking needs a physical USB-C security key. You plug it in once when you set Pawl up, and Pawl remembers that key and only that key. Then leave it at a friend's place, in your car, or anywhere that is not your pocket at 1am.

3

Wait it out

Even with the key in hand, unblocking starts a 15 minute wait. After a short open window (30 minutes by default), the block comes back on by itself.

What it looks like

Three screens from the app.

Pawl app screen. The key mascot stands in a green box above the words Apps are blocked. Below it a Tap to unlock button, and the line: Using your key starts a 15-minute wait. Apps stay locked until it's over, then re-lock on their own.

Apps are blocked

Tap to unlock starts the 15 minute wait. Apps stay locked until it is over.

Pawl app screen. The key mascot with closed eyes and a small hourglass, above Unlocking soon, 14:57 until apps unlock. Below it: Apps unlock when the timer reaches zero. Waiting it out is the whole point. A button reads Cancel: keep apps locked.

Unlocking soon

The timer counts down to zero. You can cancel and keep apps locked.

Pawl app screen. Home: 44 days on track inside a ring, 16 days to the 60-day milestone, resisted 1 time, Protected. Below it an I'm tempted button and What's blocked: 2 apps, locked by your key.

Days on track

Your streak, the next milestone, and an I'm tempted button for hard moments.

No account, no tracking, no Pawl server. Read the privacy policy

Pawl adds friction. It does not make anything impossible. What it does not promise

Make the 1am version of you slow down.