The Commons: Students

The Commons App

About this app

The Commons™ – Make Focus Common Again

Let’s be real—phones are amazing. But in class? They can be a total distraction.
The Commons helps you stay focused during school hours without having to give up your phones - no locks necessary.

It’s a privacy-first app that pauses access to the most distracting stuff, like social media, games, and endless scroll traps, during the school day, so you can reconnect with what matters most.

The Commons was created because we believe school should be a place to connect, not just scroll.

It helps you take back control by automatically pausing access to distracting apps during school hours, while your academic, medical, and critical communication apps stay functional, supporting your growth without restricting your independence.

The result? Less stress. More focus. Real connection.

What You Can Do with The Commons:
* Stay present in class without missing what matters
* Cut distractions, not communication
* Build stronger tech habits, starting now

How It Works:
* Turns on automatically when you get to school
* Blocks distractions during school hours
* Keeps school-approved apps and essential tools available
* Shuts off as soon as the school day ends

No tracking. No snooping. No weird data grabs.

We never access messages, browsing history, photos, social media content, or location history.

We’re not here to monitor.

We’re here to help you take your focus back.

About the Tech:
The Commons student-facing app requires several device permissions to function in accordance with school policy:

- Location Permission – Allows the app to detect presence within the designated school zone, ensuring features activate only during school hours. The App does not track precise GPS location. It only detects whether a student is inside or outside the school zone based on Wi-Fi or motion triggers, not continuous tracking.
- Notification Permission – Enables the app to send alerts about compliance status or missing permissions.
- Motion Permission – Helps the app optimize performance and battery life while at school.
- VPN Permission – Establishes a secure connection that filters distracting content during school hours, without logging browsing history. The VPN operates strictly within a school-defined window (e.g., during school hours and within school zone) and is configured to block non-educational content. It does not log browsing history, inspect private content, monitor app usage or affect internet traffic outside of school hours. Once school hours end, the VPN deactivates automatically.

These permissions are used strictly for technical functionality and are never used to collect personal content, track movement outside of school zones, or share data with third parties. Disabling these permissions may prevent the App from working as intended. School administrators may be alerted if a required permission is missing.

Learn more about our privacy commitment → the-commons.app/privacy-policy

Ratings and reviews

The Commons is a great app that helps students learn how to properly manage their smartphone instead of punishing them for simply owning one. Plus, it just blocks the distracting apps while they're at school, so I can have peace of mind knowing my kid can still text or call me if they need to. That's much better than schools locking up students' phones for the whole day!

Under two party consent states this app should be illegal since it can record you without consent. The app also prevents your phone from going to sleep constantly draining your battery.

This app constantly runs in the background even when your not on school campus. It drains your battery by running in the background and your battery dies even faster then normal. The app claims that it's "inactive" while your not on campus but that is false. If it was really "inactive" it SHOULDN'T be running in the background while your OFF campus.The only thing it doesn't do while your off campus is track how long your on your phone. It runs secretly without you even knowing.