squat to scroll: app blocker

Inspiration

Honestly, after years of sitting at a desk, my body started falling apart despite 20 years in sports. Most of the issues are in the hip area. On top of that, I noticed I was scrolling way too much — my average screen time hit 3.5 hours a day. I decided it was time to fix that. The idea came to me about four months ago, but the RevenueCat Shipathon pushed me to finally build it.

What it does

booty lock blocks selected apps instantly, unlike other screen time limiters. To earn your right to scroll, you first need to do 10 squats. The camera counts them, and only then can you unlock your apps. First, work your glutes — then you can scroll.

How we built it

I discussed options with ChatGPT about iOS built-in frameworks. Privacy was crucial: everything had to stay 100% on-device. So I used Apple’s Vision, AVFoundation, and a few more SDKs. I mixed in some vibe-coding, though I still had to write plenty of code manually (vibe-coding sometimes led me to dead ends). I probably did around 1,000 squats myself while debugging and testing the app. I’m using RevenueCat to handle purchases, just like in my other two apps, and Superwall for the paywalls.

Challenges we ran into

The biggest headaches came from Apple’s quirky Screen Time API — tons of edge cases around blocking apps, tracking time, and requesting permissions.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

It really works. It really blocks apps. It really makes you squat. And it genuinely cuts scrolling time, because sometimes squats feel like too much effort — and you stop to think, do I actually want to scroll right now?

What we learned

Never dive into Screen Time API again.

What's next for booty lock

I want to improve the design — right now it’s more MVP than polished. I’m also exploring ways to let users skip squats occasionally, but without making it too easy to ignore the challenge.

Built With

• avfoundation
• swift
• vision