Launched this week
HeadsUp
Notice digital absence. Reclaim collective presence.
9 followers
Notice digital absence. Reclaim collective presence.
9 followers
Unlike traditional screen-trackers, Heads Up is a reflective, screenless app that maps collective digital distraction. Instead of tracking your screen, you log observed phone absorption around you using a simple tap or volume-key gesture, acting as a sensory micro-meditation. These anonymous observations populate a live, aggregated ambient map of shared attention. Built privacy-first with a zero-cost architecture, it helps us notice our own habits by seeing the patterns we create together.
curious how the live map handles location precision, does it just show city-level trends or can you zoom into specific neighborhoods and venues?
@ayegl433435 We intentionally designed the map to protect privacy and avoid the feeling of surveillance. Before any observation syncs, exact GPS coordinates are converted into a coarse Geohash-5 zone (which covers a grid of roughly 4.9km × 4.9km).
Because of this, you cannot zoom in to pinpoint specific neighborhoods, streets, or venues. Instead, the map visualizes attention like a regional weather system - active areas glow in warm brass geometric grids, while quiet ones settle into graphite. It’s designed to show the collective atmospheric "climate" of attention rather than tracking individuals or specific businesses.
love the angle here. quick question though, how do you keep people from gaming the system if there's zero cost and no accountability tied to an account?
@makbule1016505 This is the beauty of our local-first, decentralized model! There is no global, centralized database or public leaderboard, so there is no commercial or gamified incentive to exploit the system.
By default, your observations sync directly to a Google Sheets-like backend. Ultimately, the "reward" of HeadsUp isn't digital points, it's the real-world mindfulness check that happens when you use the physical volume buttons to log a tap. If you game it, you're only gaming your own reflection!
Noticed my bus ride differently after one evening of logging glances. The whole "observe, don't track" framing actually made me put my own phone down more than expected.
@saadetpz2y This is exactly what we hoped for! Thank you so much for sharing this.
The core idea behind the screenless hardware logging (using the volume buttons) is to turn the act of observing digital distraction around you into a mirror for your own behavior. Instead of looking at a screen to track screen-time, the physical "tick" of logging a glance serves as a micro-meditation, it snaps you out of the default autopilot mode and pulls your attention back to your immediate physical surroundings.
We are thrilled that it helped you reclaim that space on your commute!