One tap locks your distracting apps. One tap brings them back. That’s it.
The short version: we kept losing our evenings to the feed. So we built a key.
Lara · Co-Founder
One minute on why ctrl exists. Keeps playing while you scroll.
What you get back
About 2 hours less per day, measured across our TestFlight beta testers. Converted into awake time: 16 waking hours a day, an adult life from 18 to 80.
No willpower to summon, no app to argue with every day. One small object that makes the hard decision for you, once.
Pick the apps that pull you in. Once, in the free ctrl app. Your rules, not ours.
Hold the ctrl key to the back of your phone. The apps you picked go quiet. It is NFC, so there is nothing to open.
Real life is still there. The app keeps your streak and the hours you win back.
Founder Edition of 500 · engraved · free app, no subscription
The biggest pull on your day.
Willpower renews every morning. A key does not. It sits on your desk, on your fridge, on your keychain, and it holds the line you drew, so you do not have to redraw it every evening.
The app comes free with the ctrl key. Tap through its most important features, from Focus to Sleep to your own rules.
Keep it up, you've got this.
Lock your phone with the ctrl key, pick your mode and see your ctrl time today.
76 of 126 days in ctrl.
Your streak, the time you've won back and your history. Every day in ctrl counts.
keep going, you've got this.
in ctrl right now
12Szymon invites you to the group · 8 days in ctrl
See who else is in ctrl right now and cheer your friends on. Together you stick with it.
Your chosen apps pause automatically at night, so you can too.
A gentle nudge before bedtime, then fully paused.
before it counts as oversleeping
5 minApps stay held briefly
15 minScan your ctrl key to stop the alarm.
A fixed night's rest where your apps stay quiet. The alarm only turns off with a Key scan.
Mon-Fri · 09:00-17:00
onEvery day · 19:00-20:00
offSchedules lock and unlock automatically. A tap on the Key overrides this time window.
Works even when the app is closed.
This schedule locks your phone automatically.
Set when each mode starts and ends automatically. Closed at night, open in the morning.
Set seconds or minutes before settings open.
Long enough for an impulse to pass. Short enough that you always stay at the wheel.
This week: 1 of 3 used. Next week the counter fills back up.
Backs your rules up with a wait time and locks. An honest hurdle, not a cage.
Questions about the app
The answers come straight from ctrl.
Tap to pair
Share, block
Manage members and roles
Pair your Key, ask ctrl when you have questions, and manage friends and family.
Ships October 1 · cancel any time
A precision-milled aluminum body with a matte ceramic top that won’t scratch or fade. It feels like the decision it helps you keep.
Hold the Key to your phone. The feeds, the apps, the doomscroll, gone. No account to open, no charging, nothing to update. Just a tap.
Hold it to the back of your phone. It’s NFC, it just works.
The apps that pull you in go quiet. On your terms, not theirs.
Look up. The hours you were losing are yours again.
Every Key is engraved with its own number, 001 to 500. When they’re gone, they’re gone. Not a gadget, a small, quiet statement.
Why alternatives work where bans fail: the thinking behind ctrl, with numbers.
Read more ↗ FocusIt is constantly interrupted. What the goldfish myth gets wrong, and what really helps.
Read more ↗ HealthStress, sleep, cortisol: studies from 2018 to 2025, honestly framed.
Read more ↗From the manifesto
ctrl was never the goal.
ctrl is the tool.
ctrl the phone.
then go lose ctrl out here.
a key that wants to be forgotten.
Read the manifesto
