Anchor: Accountability

Anchor Digital LLC

About this app

Anchor blocks the apps you choose. When you want one back, you ask your accountability partner, and they decide.

WHAT IT DOES

You pick the apps that stay open. Everything else is blocked, including apps you install later. Your home screen shows only the apps you allowed.

Open a blocked app and you get a block screen instead. From there you can send a request to your partner. They get a notification and approve or deny it. If they approve, the app opens for the length of time they set, then it locks again.

While you have a partner, you cannot turn blocking off on your own. That is the point.

PARTNER MODE

Pair with a spouse, friend, or mentor. You both install Anchor and connect with an 8 character code or a QR code. You can have more than one partner.

You approve each other's requests. You can add a reason when you ask, and your partner sees it with the request.

SOLO MODE

No partner yet. Anchor generates a random PIN you are not meant to memorize. Write it down and keep it somewhere inconvenient. Opening a blocked app means going to get it, and that trip is the pause that does the work. You can add a partner later.

ALSO INCLUDED

Daily limits. Set a cap on an app. When you hit it, the app is blocked until tomorrow.

Schedules. Set the hours an app is available. Outside those hours it stays blocked.

Browser blocking. Browsers are blocked like any other app, with a separate setting for stricter web blocking.

Minimal home screen. A text list of your allowed apps, or a simple grid.

WHAT YOUR PARTNER CAN SEE

Your name. Whether your blocking is set up and running. The requests you send them and how they answered. The daily limits and schedules you set for yourself.

They do not see which apps you use, how long you use them, which blocked apps you tried to open, your messages, your browsing, or anything on your screen.

Anchor is built for accountability, not monitoring.

You can disconnect from a partner at any time without their permission. They are told when you do.

PERMISSIONS

Accessibility service: detects which app you just opened so it can be blocked. It cannot read your screen. canRetrieveWindowContent is set to false, so that capability is off at the system level.

Usage access: measures your own screen time for your limits and your own usage screen.

Notifications: partner requests, approvals, and alerts.

NOTES

Anchor is for adults, 18 and over. It is not a parental control app.

No ads, and we do not sell your data.

The name comes from Hebrews 6:19: "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure."