Ruptr

A calm next step to rupture the urge of addiction and divert it towards the discipline, focus and better tomorrow.

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Inspiration

Ruptr is more than just a project for the hackathon for me - it comes from a deeply personal experience. During my teenage years, I struggled with pornography consumption. Like many people, I discovered that simply relying on willpower isn't enough. I have tried many blockers and I don't lie they were pretty good at blocking the content but they were bad at diverting that urge because when I had that urge I would do everything to watch the content even after turning on the uninstall protection I did everything to watch the content - find the way to uninstall it (as it ask to write very long sentence) then watch the content. So I realised I need something to divert this urge. Recently, I have seen many teenagers in my neighbourhood struggling with same what I have struggled with.

That experience inspired me to build Ruptr an application focused not only on blocking explicit content but also on helping users recover through healthier alternatives and habit-building.

The goal is simple:

Don't just block the behavior - help change it.

What it does

Ruptr is an Android application that helps users reduce compulsive pornography consumption by combining multiple protect layers with behavioral interventions.

Current features:

  • Website blocking using Local VPN and DNS filtering.
  • Accessibility Service for detecting risky browsing behavior.
  • Instant intervention screen before accessing blocked content.
  • Panic Button for immediate urge diversion even before browsing
  • Workout and breathing exercises to redirect attention
  • Recovery streak tracking
  • Progress monitoring
  • Accountability-focused design

Instead of simply displaying:

"Access Denied" Ruptr immediately encourages users to perform a healthier action that interrupts the urge cycle.

How we built it

The application is built entirely for Android using Kotlin with the help of Codex - GPT 5.6 Terra in Chatgpt Firstly I used Chatgpt for the blueprint of the app and then totally work inside the Project with Codex using GPT5.6 Terra.

Some of the core Android components include:

  • VpnService for filtering network traffic
  • AccessibilityService for monitoring supported browsing interactions
  • Local DNS filtering
  • Local domain blacklist
  • Foreground services for continuous protection
  • Material Design UI
  • Gradle build system

The overall architecture looks like this:

User
      ↓
Browser
      ↓
VPN + DNS Filter
      ↓
Accessibility Monitoring
      ↓
Detection Engine
      ↓
Intervention Screen
      ↓
Workout / Breathing / Recovery

The application performs all blocking locally, helping reduce latency and avoiding the need to send browsing data to external servers.

Challenges we ran into

Building Ruptr was much more challenging than I initially expected.

Some of the biggest challenges included:

Android Background Limitations

Modern Android versions aggressively stop background services to save battery.

Keeping protection active while respecting Android's lifecycle required careful handling of:

  • Foreground Services
  • VPN lifecycle
  • Accessibility lifecycle
  • Battery optimization

Website Detection

No single database contains every explicit website. Many smaller or regional websites are not present in public blocklists. To improve coverage, multiple detection layers are combined instead of relying on a single source.

Privacy

Since this application deals with sensitive user behavior, privacy became an important design goal. Wherever possible, decisions are made locally on the device instead of sending personal browsing information to cloud services.

Balancing Protection and User Experience

One difficult challenge was making the app effective without becoming frustrating. Rather than locking users into the application, Ruptr tries to increase friction while also encouraging healthier decisions.

Examples include:

  • Panic Button
  • Recovery streaks
  • Physical activities
  • Breathing exercises
  • Accountability concepts

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

First time I am participating in hackathon, and this is the era of AI we can make our idea turn into reality. I am proud of gaining experience of hackathon, experience of android development, experience in Codex and capabilities of AI. I am proud of making an app which would definitely help the young generation for bright side of life and not waste their health, their intelligence for something addictive.

What I learned

This project taught me much more than Android development.

I learned how Android services interact with each other, including:

  • Accessibility Service
  • VPN Service
  • Background execution
  • Lifecycle management

I also gained experience in:

  • Application architecture
  • State management
  • User experience design
  • Performance optimization
  • Security considerations
  • Digital wellbeing research

One important lesson I learned is that solving behavioral problems requires more than technology. Blocking content is only part of the solution. Helping people build healthier habits is equally important.

What's next for Ruptr

Future versions of Ruptr may include:

  • Personalized intervention recommendations
  • On-device machine learning for relapse risk estimation
  • Improved accountability features
  • Community support
  • Better statistics and recovery insights
  • Enhanced blocking coverage through continuously updated blocklists

The long-term vision is to create an application that becomes a recovery companion instead of simply another content blocker.

Technical Perspective

The current recovery workflow can be viewed conceptually as:

$$ \text{Risk} \rightarrow \text{Detection} \rightarrow \text{Intervention} \rightarrow \text{Recovery} $$

Rather than optimizing only for the probability of blocking,

$$ P(\text{Block}) $$

the broader objective is to maximize the probability that a user successfully redirects their behavior toward a healthier alternative:

$$ P(\text{Recovery}) > P(\text{Block}) $$

because long-term habit change depends on what happens after an urge is detected, not only whether access is denied.

Conclusion

Ruptr began as a solution to a personal struggle, but its purpose extends beyond my own experience.

I hope it can help others who are trying to regain control of their digital habits by combining technology with practical recovery strategies.

Instead of simply saying "No", Ruptr aims to say:

"Let's build a better version of you."

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