Meet the Adorable App That Helps You Stop Doomscrolling
▼ Summary
– Focus Friend is a productivity timer app that prevents phone use by having an animated bean character knit, which unravels if the user interrupts the timer.
– The app was created by developer Bria Sullivan and YouTuber Hank Green and has recently ranked highly on mobile app stores.
– It is part of a trend of gamified focus apps that use timers and rewards to reduce phone distractions, similar to the Pomodoro method.
– The bean character has a designed personality and backstory to create emotional investment, including user-naming and humorous dialogue.
– Users and creators report that the app makes productivity more engaging but also reflects broader concerns about phone addiction and guilt over technology use.
Imagine a tiny digital companion whose happiness depends entirely on your ability to resist checking your phone. This is the simple yet powerful premise behind Focus Friend, a charming productivity app that has rapidly climbed download charts by transforming screen time discipline into an emotional connection. Rather than punishing users with alarms or lockouts, it invites them into a relationship with an animated bean character who just wants to knit in peace, but only if you let them.
The app assigns you a personalized bean, mine is named Poe, who sits quietly working on a knitting project while a timer counts down. Interrupt the session by switching to another app, and Poe’s progress unravels before your eyes. A small speech bubble pops up with gentle encouragement: “It’s ok, we tried.” That combination of subtle guilt and warmth makes abandoning the focus period feel surprisingly personal.
Created through a collaboration between developer Bria Sullivan and internet personality Hank Green, Focus Friend has recently surged in popularity, briefly outperforming giants like TikTok and ChatGPT in app store rankings. It joins a growing category of digital tools, including Forest, Focus Tree, and others, that adapt the Pomodoro Technique’s structured intervals of work and rest, but with an added layer of emotional incentive.
Where earlier apps might offer virtual coins or unlockable backgrounds, Focus Friend provides decorative items for your bean’s living space, a small, sparsely furnished room that grows homier with each successfully completed focus block. Sullivan and Green intentionally gave the bean a distinct personality, complete with humorous puns (“Beenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”) and existential wonderings about bean parenthood. This approach makes the experience feel less like a task and more like caring for a digital pet.
Even the bean’s design, a legume with what Sullivan describes as a “Hank Hill ass”, was a specific request from Green, meant to add charm and relatability. “He said the character should be a bean, and it should have a butt crack,” Sullivan recalls. That quirky authenticity resonates with users like McKenna, a 19-year-old who appreciates how the app blends function with fun. “I’ve been using it to help me get out of bed in the morning,” they shared. “It’s more motivating when there’s a character counting on you.”
Sullivan understands the struggle personally. During our interview, she multitasked while changing her baby’s diaper, acknowledging her own complicated relationship with technology. “I feel kind of addicted to my phone,” she admitted. “There’s guilt that comes with owning a phone these days.” It’s that self-awareness that shaped Focus Friend’s design, even the bean occasionally takes breaks to scroll, tongue out, reminding users that balance, not perfection, is the goal.
In a digital landscape filled with distractions, Focus Friend stands out by making productivity feel personal, playful, and strangely heartfelt. It’s not just about ignoring notifications, it’s about helping a little bean finish a pair of socks.
(Source: Wired)
