The Brick is not a conventional screentime app. It is a bodily magnet that is the important thing to blocking sure apps in your cellphone.
My endlessly purpose is to spend much less time on my iPhone to protect my mental health. Nonetheless, as a wellness author whose job is to maintain up with the newest well being tech developments and information, it may be powerful for me to lower my screentime. Plus, iPhone and in-app screentime limits do not work for me, as I discover they’re straightforward to disable in seconds with just some faucets.
Maybe the over 1 billion people who spent no less than three hours a day scrolling social media in 2020 can relate, particularly contemplating that the pandemic years supercharged our scrolling and created poor digital hygiene habits many people nonetheless have not recovered from.
But, since its launch in 2023, a palm-sized system referred to as the Brick has gained reputation for its skill to forestall folks from endlessly scrolling on their telephones. It is a $59 sq. magnet “powered by an NFC [near-field communication] chip embedded within the system,” TJ Driver, the Brick’s co-founder, tells CNET.
“As an alternative of counting on batteries or an exterior energy supply, it attracts energy straight out of your smartphone’s NFC reader while you faucet it,” he says. “That communicates along with your Brick app to lock (or unlock) your chosen apps, placing actual friction between you and your screentime.”
In different phrases, it’s important to bodily faucet your cellphone on the Brick to activate or deactivate the lock, so you’ll be able to’t merely faucet it away such as you would a screentime alert or app in your cellphone.
To search out out if the Brick is the important thing to cutting ties with doomscrolling, I spent months tapping my cellphone on the floor of that unassuming grey sq..
Learn how to cement the Brick into your life
Your buy of the Brick contains the bodily Brick and entry to the Brick app, no subscription obligatory. Contained in the field, there is a QR code that takes you to a webpage the place you’ll be able to obtain the app for iOS or Android.
For the iOS app, Apple requires an iPhone passcode, however you’ll be able to take away it after you employ the Brick for the primary time. As for Android customers, the Brick will even direct you to your system’s settings to permit the Brick app, alarms and reminders and notification entry.
One Brick can be utilized with a number of telephones, and a single cellphone can be utilized with a number of Bricks if you wish to preserve them in numerous places, reminiscent of at residence and at work.
The Brick magnetized to my fridge.
Learn how to begin utilizing the Brick
When you create an account, you will must grant the app entry to your cellphone’s screentime tracker. Then you definitely create your first mode, identify it and choose the apps and web sites you need to block or permit when enabled. You possibly can create as much as 10 modes for various events, reminiscent of work, learning, household dinner and private time.
All blocking data is saved domestically in your cellphone, and the Brick cannot see what you block.
If you need to begin or finish a Brick session, you merely press the “faucet or maintain to Brick” button on the app’s residence display screen after which bodily faucet your cellphone to the Brick. You may as well maintain down the button for five seconds to “brick” your cellphone, however you will want the bodily Brick to “unbrick” it.
You possibly can even create a schedule for when your modes are enabled. It’s going to begin at a selected time on chosen days and both conclude at a set time or while you faucet the Brick along with your system.
The Brick app homescreen the place you’ll be able to faucet or maintain that button to “brick” your system.
Customizable settings
Within the app, you’ll be able to view your Brick exercise and modify settings, together with entry to 5 “emergency unbricks” that allow you to unbrick your cellphone in an emergency with out utilizing the bodily Brick. And sure, you solely get 5, so use them correctly.
In settings, you’ll be able to allow the next when your Brick is lively:
- Strict mode: Stops you from ending a session by deleting the app
- Block app installs: Prevents putting in apps
- Block in-app purchases: Limits in-app purchases
- Block mature content material: Limits mature content material throughout apps and web sites
- Stay actions: Exhibits an lively Brick session timer on the high of your cellphone’s display screen
- Notifications: Enable notifications for teaching help, check-ins and updates to your account or the app
Along with being magnetic for fridges, lockers and the like, the Brick has an anti-slip silicone backside that retains it in place on any floor.
There are numerous customizations you may make to your Brick periods to forestall doomscrolling.
My expertise, brick by brick
After organising the Brick app, I positioned the bodily sq. on my fridge. My thought course of was that I are inclined to doomscroll on my sofa, and my fridge is much sufficient away that I’ve to suppose twice earlier than getting as much as stroll by my lounge and kitchen to faucet the Brick.
I created one mode referred to as “Conscious Mode,” which I programmed to dam all social media apps and web sites I have a tendency to make use of: TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.
Not like screentime limits that solely work in your cellphone, I really like that the Brick requires an additional step, permitting you to get away out of your cellphone’s affect and take a second to ask your self: Do I actually need to spend extra time on my cellphone proper now?
When you will have the house to truly take into consideration the entire different actions out there to you throughout your free time, abruptly observing a display screen does not appear so interesting. Personally, I might slightly spend time with family members, learn on my balcony, birdwatch at a neighborhood park or go for a stroll. From FOMO to NO-MO.
What it appears to be like like while you attempt to entry one among your bricked apps.
My whole Brick time
As of proper now, my longest Brick session was 6 hours and 45 minutes. In whole, I’ve spent 35 hours with my cellphone bricked. That feels actually good.
Numbers apart, I genuinely consider that the Brick has helped me spend much less time on my cellphone. Social media is designed to be addictive, so having a bodily barrier just like the Brick helps break the cycle and remind you that there are extra necessary issues in life than your units.
A weekly recap electronic mail I acquired from the Brick.
Is the Brick price $60?
The Brick is $59, however that does not embrace delivery, which can differ by location. Nonetheless, it’s HSA/FSA- eligible with a 30-day money-back assure.
For $12, Brick additionally sells a mount with adhesive backing so you’ll be able to safe it to any floor. A magnetic inside permits the Brick to snap in place. I would not suggest paying the additional value until you are planning to stay the Brick to the wall and do not need to use a Command strip.
Comparable units embrace the $39 Bloom Card and $49 Blok Card, however these aren’t magnetic and as a substitute slot in your pockets or pocket. There’s additionally the $27 Unpluq Tag, however that requires a premium subscription beginning at $35 for six months.
For individuals who are particularly thrifty, you should buy your individual NFC tags ($13 for a 50-pack) or print a QR code. Then use the free, open-source Foqos app to dam apps and web sites.
All that mentioned, whereas I want the Brick have been extra inexpensive, I do like it and suppose it is price it in comparison with a wallet-sized card or tag that requires a subscription. I like having it magnetized to my fridge and respect all of the totally different customization choices out there within the app.
The Brick can simply slot in your palm, however has the ability to alter how you employ your cellphone.
My remaining ideas
I discovered the Brick to be thoughtfully designed, and it is a useful reminder that if you wish to get away out of your cellphone, you generally need to bodily transfer away from it to clear your head. This leaves room for thus many potentialities in how you should use your free time.
Regardless that I nonetheless take pleasure in utilizing the Brick, I discover that I am even beginning to spend much less time doomscrolling with out it. It is like all I wanted was a sq. grey magnet to interrupt the screentime spell I used to be below. Who would’ve guessed? Actually not me, particularly whereas I used to be extra centered on the photographs and movies that endlessly appeared proper earlier than my eyes.
