Hey there,
I'm Thoma, an indie developer, and for the last few years, my screen time has been absolutely embarrassing.
I would wake up, grab my phone, and immediately open Twitter, Reddit, or Instagram. I would tell myself, "just five minutes to wake up." Forty-five minutes later, I'd finally get out of bed, already feeling drained, anxious, and behind on the day.
The worst part wasn't just the wasted time. The worst part was that my bookshelf was overflowing with unread books. I wanted to read. I bought books constantly. But when push came to shove, the algorithms always won. Scrolling was just easier.
The problem with standard screen time apps
I tried everything. I set Android Digital Wellbeing timers, but I just hit "Add 15 minutes" every time the warning popped up. I downloaded apps that grew virtual trees if I stayed off my phone, but I just watched my trees die while I kept scrolling.
Nothing worked because these apps rely on willpower and guilt. When you're tired at 10 PM, willpower doesn't exist.
Building the wall
I realized I didn't need a gentle reminder. I needed a brick wall. I needed an app that physically stopped me from opening social media until I did the one thing I actually wanted to do: read my books.
So, I built Readwall. It has a singular, uncompromising purpose: it locks your distracting apps inside a vault. The only key to that vault is completing a reading session.
It sounds brutal. It is brutal. But it's also incredibly effective. For the first time in my adult life, I am reading 30+ pages a day. The doomscrolling hasn't completely vanished, but it only happens after I've earned it.
No subscriptions. No nonsense.
Most productivity apps charge you $10 a month forever. I hate that model. Readwall is a single, lifetime purchase. You buy it once, and it's yours. It doesn't harvest your data, it doesn't show ads, and it doesn't have a recurring fee.
If you're tired of losing hours of your life to infinite feeds, I built this for you. Let's get back to reading.