Most app blockers fail the same test. At the moment the block fires, you can undo it by yourself — a button, a passcode you know, a setting two taps away. Everything else about the app is irrelevant once that is true.
So the useful question when comparing blockers is narrow: at the moment you most want in, is the decision still yours?
The four kinds of block
1. Friction blocks
A pause, a breathing exercise, a "are you sure?" screen. Apps like one sec and ScreenZen do this deliberately well.
Holds against: unconscious reaching. Genuinely effective — a large share of phone pickups are automatic rather than intentional, and a two-second interruption kills them.
Fails against: anything you actually decided to do. By design, you can always continue. That is the point of the category, not a flaw.
2. Timer blocks
A session you start, with a countdown. Forest and most focus timers work this way.
Holds against: distraction inside a work session you chose to start.
Fails against: evenings and weekends, because you simply do not start a session. A timer you must opt into is only ever as reliable as the moment you opted in.
3. Self-held passcode blocks
Apple Screen Time and most strict modes. The block is real, and the code is yours.
Holds against: mild impulse, and being asked adds a useful pause.
Fails against: deliberate craving. You know the code. This is the failure mode almost everyone hits.
4. Blocks another person controls
The decision genuinely leaves your hands. There are two versions worth distinguishing.
The improvised version is having someone else type a passcode you never see. It works, and it costs nothing to try. Its weakness is logistical: they have to be physically present every time you have a legitimate reason to get in, which is why most people abandon it within a fortnight.
The built-in version is an app with a request-and-approve flow, where you ask remotely and they answer in one tap. Same principle, without the logistics problem.
Which one you actually need
Be honest about which failure mode is yours. They need different tools.
- You open apps without noticing. Friction is the right answer. You do not need anything stronger, and stronger will feel oppressive.
- You focus badly during work. A timer is enough, because you are present and willing at the start of the session.
- You lose whole evenings, deliberately, and regret it. Nothing you can undo alone will hold. This is the case that needs another person.
Most people over-apply the strict option to problems that only needed friction, then abandon the whole thing because it felt like a punishment. Match the tool to the actual failure.
If you have already broken your own limit on a specific app more than twice, that app needs a lock you cannot open. The evidence is in.
How Disconnect handles this
Rather than picking one model, Disconnect provides all three of the ones that work and lets you choose per rule:
- Soft lock — a reminder of why you blocked it, then you can continue. Friction, for unconscious reaching.
- Medium lock — a five-minute wait, and cancelling restarts the timer rather than skipping it. For restlessness that passes.
- Hard lock — only your buddy can approve an unlock. No override, no backdoor, no setting that turns it off.
All three are in the free version, including Hard lock, so the strongest option is not behind a subscription. See how this compares to other blockers.
A lock you genuinely cannot open
Hard lock has no override and no backdoor. Only your buddy can approve an unlock, and approvals expire on their own.
Get Disconnect →Two practical warnings
Do not start with Hard lock on everything. Block your single worst app first. People who lock six apps on day one are back to zero by day ten.
Set the schedule wider than feels comfortable. If the danger window is 9pm to midnight, block from 8pm. Relapse happens at the edges, in the half-hour before the rule kicks in.