Hi Product Hunt, I'm Ashy, and I made ColorPause for my own needs and now extending it to the community!
I built it because I have been trying to fight social media addiction for a long time and have tried various blocking apps! None of them worked for me as I would stop using them after some time but I noticed that going gray doesn't feel like forced stoppage and I naturally lose interest in a few minutes with no desire to come back quickly!
ColorPause is a menu-bar app for macOS. It turns the websites and Mac apps you choose black and white once you
reach limits you set: minutes or opens per hour or day, active hours, chosen days, and days off.
What it does differently:
Only the window showing a listed site or app goes gray. The rest of your screen stays in color, on any number
of displays.
It works in Safari and Google Chrome without a browser extension. Other Chromium browsers are experimental.
You can list Mac apps too, like Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, or games. Sites you installed as web apps from Safari
or Chrome follow the site's rule.
It doesn't cut you off. A hard block can feel like a punishment: you're pushed out, the want is unchanged, and
you turn the tool off, so the habit never becomes yours. ColorPause leaves the site open and takes the color, so
the interest fades and you're more likely to leave the limit on. That's the aim of the design, not a measured
result. From the menu bar you can keep a site gray, or show it in color for a few minutes.
A simple Last 7 days page compares your time with the 7 days before.
What you browse and use never leaves your Mac. There's no account and no analytics. ColorPause goes online only
to check for updates and, when you enter a license key, to activate it with Polar and re-check it about once a
week.
The trial is 14 days, with no card. After that you pay once: $39 for 1 Mac, $59 for 3, or $69 for 5, each with 12
months of updates, and $10 less for everyone until 10 November. It needs macOS 14 or later. It isn't on the Mac App Store because it uses macOS features the store doesn't allow; it's signed and notarized by Apple.
Two questions I'd love your answers to: which browser or app should I test next, and did setting your first
limit make sense without help?
I'm here all day to answer questions.

ColorPause

Break the scroll habit on your Mac

Break the scroll habit on your Mac