Pause Cat: Screen Time Pet

MindyLabs

In-app purchases

About this app

Pause Cat is a screen time app for Android with a cat in it. Pick the apps you lose time in, like Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, and set a limit. Stay past it and a cartoon cat walks onto your screen, right over the app. Leave, and the cat trots off happy. It never locks you out.

How a visit goes
At your limit, the cat just peeks in. Stay a little longer and it sits down on your feed, chases a butterfly, climbs into a box. Keep scrolling and it gets cozier, until it naps right on your screen ("shh… you can't move a sleeping cat"). "Leave app" and a snooze are always one tap away, and snoozes come from a small daily budget shared by all your apps.

A pet, not a timer
• Pet it and it purrs: you feel a soft buzz. Tickle its belly when it flops over.
• Pick it up and it hangs on to your finger, legs dangling. Fling it and it bounces off the edges.
• It drops by to say hi, on your home screen and in the apps you pick, at the times you pick: good morning, welcome back, a happy hop when you close an app before your time is up, a sleepy goodnight. You choose how often, or never.
• Call it any time from the home-screen widget, quick settings or its notification.
• Its own painted room, with Treat · Play · Dress: feed it, play with a toy mouse, yarn, a laser dot or a cardboard box, and dress it up.
• Leave when your cat shows up and it brings you fish coins. Spend them on rooms and toys. Fish are never sold.
• Little gifts for time you spend away, a cat diary of every moment you've seen (some are rare), and a bond that grows, with heart colors and outfits to unlock.
• A cozy home-screen widget, by day and by night. On a charger, your cat naps in its bed.
• Gentle, playful or cheeky: you choose how persistent it gets. Take days off whenever you like.

Six cats
Mango, the ginger cat, is free forever. Adopt Pebble the grey tabby, Nori the black cat, Mochi the calico, Biscuit the tuxedo and Miso the Siamese, one at a time or as a family. The cats you have come along as friends and pile up together for the big nap.

Private by design
No account. No ads. No AI features. Pause Cat only checks which app is open and for how long, never what's on your screen, and that stays on your phone. It doesn't use an accessibility service. Purchases go through Google Play.

Free, really
Watching your apps, every visit, leaving and snoozing, days off, gifts, fish, the diary and Mango are free. If you love it, you can adopt more cats, get the Family of four or the Forever pack (every cat now and later), seasonal outfits, or a treat for your cat. One-time purchases only, no subscription.

Questions
Does it block apps? No. The cat gets in the way, playfully, and leaves when you do. You can always leave or snooze.
Which apps does it work with? Any app you pick: social, video, games, news.
What does it need? Usage access, to know which app is open, and "display over other apps", to draw the cat. The app explains both before Android asks.
Does it read my screen? No. It never sees what's on your screen, your messages or your notifications.
Does it run all the time? Only while your screen is on and you've turned watching on. It checks which app is open about once a second.

Made for anyone who wants to scroll less without a strict app blocker, and would rather be interrupted by a cat than by a timer.

What’s new

Full release