BePresent

Duolingo for reducing screen time

5.0•1 review•

444 followers

Duolingo for reducing screen time

5.0•1 review•

444 followers

•

•

BePresent is not your typical screen time app. The app blocking tools you need are reinforced with psychology-based gamification, accountability, and awareness. Replace the dopamine hit you used to get from scrolling with dopamine for staying off your phone.

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Launch tags:iOS•Health & Fitness•Productivity

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BePresent

Maker

📌

Hey Product Hunt! 👋 I’m Jack, the founder of BePresent: Duolingo for reducing screen time. I founded the company with my brother because as the first generation to grow up with smartphones, we struggle with phone addiction every day. And we truly believe this is the defining problem of our generation. We’ve tried everything to solve it, from time limits we just ignored, to app blockers we just disabled. Nothing worked. Sound familiar? We realized to solve this problem, we needed to take a different approach. Introducing BePresent, where instead of focusing on self-control or simple app blocking, we use the same psychological techniques that keep us addicted to instead enforce healthy tech use. Essentially, we turn limiting your screen time and blocking apps into a game you can play solo or with friends for accountability, replacing the dopamine hit you used to get from scrolling with dopamine for staying OFF your phone. We’d love for you to try it out and let us know what you think! #StopScrollingStartLiving -Jack & Charles Winston, Co-founders @ BePresent P.S. If you're looking to get involved in our mission, reach out at jack@bepresentapp.com! P.P.S. huge shoutout to @benln for hunting us!

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2yr ago

BePresent

Maker

@benln @jack_winston1 Couldn't have said it better myself. So happy to be working on such an important problem with my brother!

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2yr ago

@benln @jack_winston1 Amazing honestly !!!

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2yr ago

Solvemigo - ChatGPT for Telegram

@jack_winston1 how do you compare yourself to opal

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2yr ago

Flex-Worthy Templates

I like the tagline that you've mentioned on Product Hunt. Also, since we have many such apps that help us reduce screentime, how is this one better?

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2yr ago

BePresent

Maker

@shushant_lakhyani Hey Sushant! Thanks for the question. Every other app out there is designed to do one thing: make your phone as frustrating as possible so that you use it less. We are taking a different approach. Instead of making the consumer experience of your phone WORSE, we make it fun, motivating, delightful, and empowering to use your phone how you want to use it through psychology, not frustration. Additionally, unlike simple app blockers or time limits that you don't think about until the limit kicks in, our users report the reason BePresent works better for them is because it creates a constant awareness in the back of your mind whenever you're using your phone. You can't simply turn off our app like you can an app blocker since it's always working in the background.

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2yr ago

BePresent

Maker

@shushant_lakhyani Every other product out there has 1 goal: make the phone as frustrating to use as possible. Their hypothesis is that by putting more friction between you and the phone, you’ll use it less. We’ve found that simply does not work against this true behavioral addiction. Folks will just end up ignoring and removing the screen time limits they set up. Our key insight is that we need to use the same psychological techniques that social media uses, but instead the reinforce the habit of staying off your phone. Fight fire with fire. So we give you tools to limit screen time (app blocking, hourly notifications, data and insights) but the magic happens when the gamification hacks BACK your psychology to empower you to keep up the habit. Hence “Duolingo for screen time.”

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2yr ago

WotNot

Congratulations on the launch, Makers! Just curious how it is different from the app I used in past one-sec.app?

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2yr ago

BePresent

Maker

@makadiaharsh hey Harsh! Glad you asked. Instead of making the consumer experience more frustrating by simply adding friction to opening apps, BePresent makes it fun to develop a mindful relationship with your phone by turning it into a game. Think streaks, leaderboards, and even real-life rewards to motivate you to limit screen time and block distracting apps. This approach is backed in psychology, with the net result being a constant awareness in the back of your mind whenever you use your phone.

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2yr ago

BePresent

Maker

@makadiaharsh Apps like one sec want to make your phone as difficult to use as possible. We’ve found that this often has the opposite effect. Users get frustrated and annoyed, and remove the app altogether. Our approach uses the same habit-forming psychology that social media uses, but to help you stay OFF your phone. When addiction is so strong, we believe this is the only way to solve it for most people, especially for those of us in Gen Z who grew up with phones attached to our hips. We give you the tools to reduce your screen time, but instead of making it frustrating to use for phone, we make it MOTIVATING to get off your phone. Hope that makes sense :)

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2yr ago

Unique: Manage your ADHD

Congrats on the successful launch! In the onboarding process, you prompt the user to disable screen time sharing between devices. Why is that? Why cannot the user use BePresent on both iPhone, iPad, and Mac, especially since Apple users tend to have multiple devices?

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2yr ago

BePresent

Maker

@mpastewski The main reason is because most users want to track screen time on their devices separately and are unaware of this default setting that merges together all your screen time. On a deeper note, we are mainly focused on screen time on the phone right now. Phones are very different types of devices than other screens. The fact that they are attached to us 24/7 make it a much different problem than computers or TV. The addiction is much greater for most people. Counting screen time on other devices gets tricky, as many people (like myself) work on their computers all day and do not consider that to be unproductive screen time.

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2yr ago

BePresent

Maker

@mpastewski thanks, Mateusz! As Charles said, it's a combination of technical limitations and hyper-focusing on the problem we're trying to solve. We believe our relationship with our phones is a unique challenge that is different than to other screens, particularly for my generation gen z. For our first verison, we are hyper-focused on solving our phone addiction. However, as we grow and evolve, we anticipate addressing other areas of tech addiction as well.

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2yr ago

Glasskube

Looks cool! In a time where social media platforms try so hard to get our attention, managing off-time has become really crucial. I use Android Wellbeing to achieve something similar, but it leaves a lot to be desired. Do you plan to release on Android as well?

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2yr ago

BePresent

Maker

@kosmoz_glasskube We would love to release on Android as soon as possible. As soon as we grow the dev team a little bit, this will be a huge priority. Thanks for your support, Jakob!

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2yr ago

BePresent

Maker

@kosmoz_glasskube thanks, Jakob! Built-in screen time tools from Apple and Android leave a lot to be desired. As we build out the dev team, we definitely plan on launching on Android!

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2yr ago

@kosmoz_glasskube @jack_winston1 @chazwins +1 for Android. I just tried to download it but found that it's not yet available on Android. Will you re-post on Product Hunt when you launch on Android?

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2yr ago

So, basically you aim to make the users spend as little time chained to the screen, including your app, as possible? :))) Just kidding, awesome product!

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2yr ago

BePresent

Maker

@shambalyov As much time being *present* as possible! Thanks for the support :)

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2yr ago

BePresent

Maker

@shambalyov 1 minute on BePresent is 3 hours less you'll spend on TikTok :) Thank you for the support!

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2yr ago

I like this idea, but I hate the onboarding order. the fact that I go through the entire onboarding process before seeing a pricetag feels a little predatory, now I have an app with access to all my screentime information that I am not sure if I want to pay for but I've already given all the permissions to.

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2yr ago

BePresent

Maker

@nathan_gonzalez Thanks for the feedback, Nathan. The premium version is optional, you can feel free to skip it and use 99% of the app for free - the free tier is still super helpful for reducing screen time. We totally do not intend to be predatory and misinform users. It’s pretty common for apps to show a paywall during their onboarding, and we’ve done a lot of user testing to show the paywall in the time that’s most beneficial to our users. But of course, we can improve

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2yr ago

BePresent

Maker

@nathan_gonzalez thanks for the feedback, Nathan! Please feel free to skip the paywall - almost all of the app is free. We only charge for a few select premium features for power users so that we can continue to invest in improving the app for everyone :)

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2yr ago

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