How it works

Three decisions, and then you stop having to make them.

The apps you want to put down aren’t failing. They’re working exactly as built, on evenings exactly like yours. Here’s what Warden does about it.

You pick what to block

Warden opens Apple’s own app picker, so picking takes seconds. The apps stay on your phone. Nothing gets deleted and nothing gets hidden.

The picker hands back a token, never a name. So Warden can block an app without ever knowing what it is. If you asked us which apps you had picked, we couldn’t tell you.

You choose how it blocks

Scheduled hours
Blocked between times you set
Daily allowance
A number of minutes per day
Always on
Blocked until someone says otherwise

Switch mode whenever you like. Adding apps happens straight away. Taking one back off waits a day, because otherwise the picker is just an unlock button with extra steps.

You pick one person

Send them a link, however you normally message them. They install Warden, tap once, and you show up in their list. It takes them about a minute, and it’s free for them forever.

Pick the friend who’d tell you there’s something in your teeth. Someone who says yes to everything is just a slower unlock button, and you’ll both know it within a week.

When you want out, you ask

The shield appears in front of the blocked app, drawn by iOS itself. Tapping “Ask” opens Warden, where you say how long you need and why.

They can approve the full time, shorten it, or hold. Ask for twenty and get ten with a note explaining why.

If nobody answers within thirty minutes the request closes itself and you stay locked. Silence is never treated as a yes.

The parts that let you out

Three of them, and none needs anyone’s permission. An app that can strand you is a worse problem than the one you installed it to fix.

  • The emergency override works instantly, offline, with no approval. It unlocks everything for an hour, resets your streak, and tells your Keyholder.
  • If Warden hasn’t opened successfully in three days, every shield clears itself.
  • Losing your Keyholder doesn’t strand you. Blocking continues for two days so the arrangement can’t be ended by agreement, then everything lifts.

What it needs

Phone
iPhone, iOS 17 or newer
Your Keyholder needs
An iPhone too
Blocking your own apps
7 days included, then one month free
Price for them
Free, permanently