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Charlie Ellington.
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Open-source tool

Calm Phone.

Your iPhone, without the scroll.

Every app locked except the useful ones. Someone you trust holds the PIN. Unlock for 15 minutes, an hour or until midnight. Then it locks itself again.

Get it on GitHub Read the story

You build it yourself in Xcode. Free code, MIT licence.

  1. Locked. App restrictions on. Allowed apps stay available. One Unlock button.1 · Locked
  2. Enter Bene’s PIN. Six empty dots and a number pad.2 · Bene’s PIN
  3. Unlock for: 15 minutes selected, 1 hour, until midnight. Until 12:07.3 · Unlock for 15 min
My phone, 6 October 2026.

01 / Why

Evenings, the phone wins.

Mornings are Coco’s. Days are work. By the evening I’m tired, and I scroll.

I tried a Light Phone, twice. Apple’s hardware is too good to leave.

So: keep the useful apps. Lose the scroll. No new device.

The Calm Phone icon on a photo of the three of us under an umbrella, as my wallpaper.

02 / How it works

Locked by default.

Built on Foqos and Apple’s Screen Time controls.

  1. Locked.

    Everything is shielded except your allowed apps.

  2. The PIN.

    Someone you trust types it. You never see it.

  3. Timed.

    15 minutes, an hour or until midnight. Then it locks again on its own.

  1. Unlocked until 12:08. Everything. A Lock now button.4 · Unlocked until 12:08
  2. Chrome open on ellington.design.5 · A website, open
  3. History, 30 September to 6 October: 6 unlocks, 1 hour unlocked, a bar per day.6 · History
History counts unlocks and time, on the phone only. A Shortcut turns the screen greyscale at 19:00 and back at 09:00.

03 / Keep, limit, block

Useful tools, yes. Endless scroll, no.

Keep
Calls, messages, WhatsApp, camera, maps, music, the bank.
Limit
Photos, Maps, Weather, Files: ten minutes a day. Claude: thirty.
Block
Browsers, mail, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, the App Store. Everything not on your list.
Real app icons, the allowed ones ticked, the blocked ones crossed out.

It’s friction, not security. A full wipe from a Mac gets round it, and links inside allowed apps still open.

04 / Before you start

What you’ll need.

A Mac with Xcode
No App Store, no TestFlight. You build it onto your own phone over a cable.
An Apple Developer account
€99 a year.
Your iPhone
Nothing wiped, nothing deleted.
Someone you trust
They set the PIN.

Nothing leaves the phone. No account, no analytics.

05 / Get it

Clone it. Build it. Hand over the PIN.

The README has the steps. Change it with a coding agent: your apps, your limits.

Not a developer? Reply to the email and I’ll find a way.

Get it on GitHub

Shared as a working tool, no support promised. On my phone since 4 October 2026.

Say thank you!

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