Rethought
A privacy-first iOS wellbeing app that turns opening distracting apps into a short mindful intervention.
Productivity / Mental fitness
Rethought intervenes at the moment a user opens a distracting app. Instead of hard-blocking, it asks short reframing questions and helps users pause, reflect, and continue with intention.
Challenge
- Strict blockers can create guilt, so the product had to preserve user agency.
- Screen Time permissions needed careful explanation before asking for access.
- Reflection prompts had to stay customizable, short, and useful over repeated use.
Solution
- Privacy-forward onboarding around Apple Screen Time, notifications, and app selection.
- A notification-triggered intervention flow with reframing questions, typed answers, and a mindful choice point.
- Custom questions, templates, reminder timing, entry history, manifesto content, and subscription plans.
Key features
- Screen Time permission onboarding
- Distracting app selection
- Guided intervention prompts
- Custom question templates
- Entry history
- Subscription surfaces
Stack
Outcomes
Open a distracting app, answer a short prompt, then continue or pause with more intention.
The onboarding explains access before the system request, reducing confusion around sensitive permissions.
Annual, monthly, and lifetime plans were built into the monetization surface.
Screens

Home state
Active app-blocking preview and Screen Time surface.

Intervention
A short question-led pause before distraction.

Timer
Reminder timing and intervention duration controls.
A privacy-first iOS wellbeing app that turns opening distracting apps into a short mindful intervention.
