Giraffocus

Inspiration

We all know the feeling: you unlock your phone for “just a second” and end up doomscrolling for 20 minutes. As a new parent, I wanted to spend that time being present with my daughter instead.

What it does

Giraffocus is an iOS app and website blocker with a mindful pause. Before you open a distracting app, you’re asked to wait a few seconds. This pause gives you a chance to reconsider whether you really want to continue

How we built it

Swift, SwiftUI, iOS 18+, Screen Time API, RevenueCat Paywalls. The UI is minimal and playful. Giraffe mascot is inspired by my daughter's favorite animal!

Challenges we ran into

The biggest challenge was finding time to work on the project. It's super challenging with a 9-5 job and a small kid.
Screen Time API is not well documented, unfortunately
Testing takes time.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I'm super proud that with extreme time constraints I was able to ship the project and publish it
I managed to cover features planned for MVP
Unblocking the app in a non-typical way - user has to open my app to unblock distracting apps.

What we learned

Finding even 30 minutes to work on a project in the early morning, while everyone is sleeping does miracles. Consistency is key
Sometimes you need to just pause and stop working on a project to recharge (and sleep more for instance :))