The Brick is not a standard screentime app. It is a bodily magnet that is the important thing to blocking sure apps in your telephone.
My ceaselessly purpose is to spend much less time on my iPhone to defend my psychological well being. Nevertheless, as a wellness author whose job is to maintain up with the most recent well being tech tendencies and information, it may be robust for me to lower my screentime. Plus, iPhone and in-app screentime limits do not work for me, as I discover they’re straightforward to disable in seconds with only a few faucets.
Maybe the over 1 billion individuals who spent at the least three hours a day scrolling social media in 2020 can relate, particularly contemplating that the pandemic years supercharged our scrolling and created poor digital hygiene habits many people nonetheless have not recovered from.
But, since its launch in 2023, a palm-sized machine known as the Brick has gained recognition for its capacity to forestall individuals from endlessly scrolling on their telephones. It is a $59 sq. magnet “powered by an NFC [near-field communication] chip embedded within the machine,” TJ Driver, the Brick’s co-founder, tells CNET.
“As a substitute of counting on batteries or an exterior energy supply, it attracts energy straight out of your smartphone’s NFC reader whenever you faucet it,” he says. “That communicates along with your Brick app to lock (or unlock) your chosen apps, placing actual friction between you and your screentime.”
In different phrases, it’s a must to bodily faucet your telephone on the Brick to activate or deactivate the lock, so you possibly can’t merely faucet it away such as you would a screentime alert or app in your telephone.
To seek out out if the Brick is the important thing to reducing ties with doomscrolling, I spent months tapping my telephone on the floor of that unassuming grey sq..
Find out how to cement the Brick into your life
Your buy of the Brick contains the bodily Brick and entry to the Brick app, no subscription needed. Contained in the field, there is a QR code that takes you to a webpage the place you possibly can obtain the app for iOS or Android.
For the iOS app, Apple requires an iPhone passcode, however you possibly can take away it after you utilize the Brick for the primary time. As for Android customers, the Brick may also direct you to your machine’s settings to permit the Brick app, alarms and reminders and notification entry.
One Brick can be utilized with a number of telephones, and a single telephone can be utilized with a number of Bricks if you wish to hold them in several places, corresponding to at residence and at work.
The Brick magnetized to my fridge.
Find out how to begin utilizing the Brick
When you create an account, you may must grant the app entry to your telephone’s screentime tracker. Then you definitely create your first mode, identify it and choose the apps and web sites you wish to block or enable when enabled. You possibly can create as much as 10 modes for various events, corresponding to work, finding out, household dinner and private time.
All blocking info is saved regionally in your telephone, and the Brick cannot see what you block.
Whenever you wish to begin or finish a Brick session, you merely press the “faucet or maintain to Brick” button on the app’s residence display after which bodily faucet your telephone to the Brick. You can too maintain down the button for five seconds to “brick” your telephone, however you may want the bodily Brick to “unbrick” it.
You possibly can even create a schedule for when your modes are enabled. It’s going to begin at a selected time on chosen days and both conclude at a set time or whenever you faucet the Brick along with your machine.
The Brick app homescreen the place you possibly can faucet or maintain that button to “brick” your machine.
Customizable settings
Within the app, you possibly can view your Brick exercise and modify settings, together with entry to 5 “emergency unbricks” that allow you to unbrick your telephone in an emergency with out utilizing the bodily Brick. And sure, you solely get 5, so use them correctly.
In settings, you possibly can allow the next when your Brick is energetic:
- Strict mode: Stops you from ending a session by deleting the app
- Block app installs: Prevents putting in apps
- Block in-app purchases: Limits in-app purchases
- Block mature content material: Limits mature content material throughout apps and web sites
- Dwell actions: Reveals an energetic Brick session timer on the prime of your telephone’s display
- Notifications: Permit notifications for teaching help, check-ins and updates to your account or the app
Along with being magnetic for fridges, lockers and the like, the Brick has an anti-slip silicone backside that retains it in place on any floor.
There are numerous customizations you can also make to your Brick periods to forestall doomscrolling.
My expertise, brick by brick
After organising the Brick app, I positioned the bodily sq. on my fridge. My thought course of was that I are likely to doomscroll on my sofa, and my fridge is way sufficient away that I’ve to assume twice earlier than getting as much as stroll by way of my front room and kitchen to faucet the Brick.
I created one mode known as “Conscious Mode,” which I programmed to dam all social media apps and web sites I have a tendency to make use of: TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.
In contrast to screentime limits that solely work in your telephone, I really like that the Brick requires an additional step, permitting you to get away out of your telephone’s affect and take a second to ask your self: Do I actually wish to spend extra time on my telephone proper now?
When you’ve got the area to truly take into consideration all the different actions accessible to you throughout your free time, all of a sudden looking at a display would not appear so interesting. Personally, I might moderately spend time with family members, learn on my balcony, birdwatch at a neighborhood park or go for a stroll. From FOMO to NO-MO.
What it seems to be like whenever you attempt to entry one in all your bricked apps.
My complete Brick time
As of proper now, my longest Brick session was 6 hours and 45 minutes. In complete, I’ve spent 35 hours with my telephone bricked. That feels actually good.
Numbers apart, I genuinely consider that the Brick has helped me spend much less time on my telephone. Social media is designed to be addictive, so having a bodily barrier just like the Brick helps break the cycle and remind you that there are extra essential issues in life than your units.
A weekly recap electronic mail I acquired from the Brick.
Is the Brick value $60?
The Brick is $59, however that does not embrace transport, which is able to range by location. Nevertheless, it’s HSA/FSA- eligible with a 30-day money-back assure.
For $12, Brick additionally sells a mount with adhesive backing so you possibly can safe it to any floor. A magnetic inside permits the Brick to snap in place. I would not suggest paying the additional price except you are planning to stay the Brick to the wall and do not wish to use a Command strip.
Comparable units embrace the $39 Bloom Card and $49 Blok Card, however these aren’t magnetic and as a substitute slot in your pockets or pocket. There’s additionally the $27 Unpluq Tag, however that requires a premium subscription beginning at $35 for six months.
For individuals who are particularly thrifty, you should purchase your personal NFC tags ($13 for a 50-pack) or print a QR code. Then use the free, open-source Foqos app to dam apps and web sites.
All that stated, whereas I want the Brick have been extra inexpensive, I do find it irresistible and assume it is value it in comparison with a wallet-sized card or tag that requires a subscription. I like having it magnetized to my fridge and recognize all of the completely different customization choices accessible within the app.
The Brick can simply slot in your palm, however has the ability to alter how you utilize your telephone.
My ultimate ideas
I discovered the Brick to be thoughtfully designed, and it is a useful reminder that if you wish to get away out of your telephone, you typically need to bodily transfer away from it to clear your head. This leaves room for therefore many potentialities in how you need to use your free time.
Although I nonetheless take pleasure in utilizing the Brick, I discover that I am even beginning to spend much less time doomscrolling with out it. It is like all I wanted was a sq. grey magnet to interrupt the screentime spell I used to be below. Who would’ve guessed? Actually not me, particularly whereas I used to be extra targeted on the photographs and movies that endlessly appeared proper earlier than my eyes.
