NextEraSolutionsRethought
Next Era Solutions built Rethought, a privacy-first iOS wellbeing app, in Flutter, with a custom Swift plugin that connects Apple's Screen Time frameworks to the shared Dart code.
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. We built it in Flutter. Screen Time access goes through a custom plugin written in Swift on Apple's Family Controls, Managed Settings, and Device Activity frameworks, plus three app extensions (a Device Activity monitor and two for the Screen Time shield). The product logic stays in shared Dart code, and the sensitive system integration stays native.
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.
- A Flutter app with a custom Swift plugin that bridges Apple's Screen Time frameworks into the Dart code.
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.
Onboarding, interventions, history, and subscriptions are shared Dart code; the Screen Time integration and its three app extensions are native Swift.
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, built in Flutter, that turns opening distracting apps into a short mindful intervention.