BePresent

BePresent

Duolingo for reducing screen time

5.0•1 review•

443 followers

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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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BePresent gallery image
BePresent gallery image
BePresent gallery image
BePresent gallery image
BePresent gallery image
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Launch tags:iOS•Health & Fitness•Productivity
Launch Team / Built With
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ace.me
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What do you think? …

Jack Winston
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!
Charles Winston
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!
Edouardo Vitale
@benln @jack_winston1 Amazing honestly !!!
Asad Dhamani
Solvemigo - ChatGPT for Telegram
@jack_winston1 how do you compare yourself to opal
Ben Lang
Cursor
Hunter
Reducing screen time is a noble cause - appreciate you building this.
Boris Markarian
AppStruct
@benln 100% support
Charles Winston
BePresent
Maker
@benln Thanks for hunting us, Ben!
Jack Winston
BePresent
Maker
@benln thanks for hunting us, Ben!
Shushant Lakhyani
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?
Jack Winston
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.
Charles Winston
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.”
Mateusz Pastewski
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?
Charles Winston
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.
Jack Winston
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.
Harsh Makadia
WotNot
Congratulations on the launch, Makers! Just curious how it is different from the app I used in past one-sec.app?
Jack Winston
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.
Charles Winston
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 :)
Ana
Well if this doesn't help me, I don't know what will :D Best of luck! 🚀
Charles Winston
BePresent
Maker
@ana_ideabuddy Thanks for giving it a try, Ana. I know it will help you!
Jack Winston
BePresent
Maker
@ana_ideabuddy oh it will :)
Salar Davari
AI HomeDesign
Always a pleasure to see products whose main function is human wellbeing !
Charles Winston
BePresent
Maker
@salar__davari Glad we agree on what’s important. Thanks for the support!
Salar Davari
AI HomeDesign
Jack Winston
BePresent
Maker
@salar__davari same here, Salar! Appreciate the support :)
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