Now on iOS
PATENT PENDING · US 64/078,590Willpower fails.
Your Totem doesn't.
Pick your favorite object — now it's the key to pausing distracting apps on your phone.
Lock your phone behind any object you already own. Snap a coffee mug, a plant, your dog. Apps stay dark until you walk back and snap it again.
Free & Pro · iOS only · two minutes to set up
For people who'd rather be doing literally anything else.
Why willpower will never work
You're not the problem.
The algorithm is.
You tried Screen Time limits. You tried app timers. You deleted Instagram three times this year. You said you'd close it in five minutes — and that was an hour ago. Same story every day.
The algorithm has thousands of engineers. You have willpower. That was never a fair fight.
This problem isn't you. The problem is friction. Social media spends billions making sure there isn't any.
Dayo gives you the friction the algorithm can't engineer around. A real-world step between you and the scroll. A specific object, in a specific place, that you have to walk back to. There's nothing to argue with. Finally you can win the battle with your phone.
to never let you stop.
In a real place.
Nothing to swipe past.
Nothing to argue with.
How it works
Three steps. That's it.
Snap a thing.
Pick any object — coffee mug, plant, roommate Greg. Snap three photos. That's your key.
Apps go dark.
Tap Activate. Real shielding via Apple's Screen Time framework. No notification to swipe away.
Snap it again.
Walk back to your Totem. Snap it. Apps come back. The walk is the friction that fixes the impulse.
Step one
Snap a thing.
Any thing.
PATENT PENDING · US 64/078,590
Coffee mug. Houseplant. Your dog. The rock from Big Sur. Anything you can point a camera at becomes the key. Three photos, ten seconds, done.
Any object, anywhere
Solid objects work best, but people enroll guitars, climbing holds, and "my roommate Greg." It's your Totem.
Your photos stay home
Apple's Vision API runs on-device. Your images never leave your phone — we store a number, never a picture.
Built on Apple Screen Time
Real shielding, not a workaround. Same framework Apple uses for Family Sharing.
Set it and forget it
Schedule Totems for bedtime, work hours, or the gym. They fire on their own.
Track the wins
Hours back.
Not minutes.
See what you reclaimed today — with a comparison metaphor that actually makes the number feel like something. "≈ a movie marathon." A streak counter to keep you coming back tomorrow.
Daily streak
Snap your Totem once a day to keep the fire burning. Miss a day, the streak resets — like Duolingo, but for putting your phone down.
Minutes saved, today and total
The number ticks up while your Totem is active. Seeing 2h 14m feels different than 134 minutes.
Real-world comparisons
"≈ a podcast episode" · "≈ a movie marathon" · "≈ a half day of focused work." Concrete things you got back.
Lock Screen + Dynamic Island
Locked-in,
every glance.
The active Totem stays on your Lock Screen, ticks live in the Dynamic Island, and lives in a Home Screen widget. Every time you reach for the phone, the reminder's already there.
Lock Screen Live Activity
Persistent at the bottom of your Lock Screen with a live timer. No app open required.
Dynamic Island
The lock icon and timer ride the pill. Long-press for the expanded view.
Home Screen widget
Two sizes. Shows your streak when idle, the live timer when locked.
Buddies
Lock in
together.
Invite up to 20 friends. See when they snap. Send a 🔥. Challenge each other to a goal. No chat, no public rankings — just lightweight social gravity.
Quiet status, never a feed
Their current Totem, when they locked, last unlock. That's it. No DMs, no group chats, no infinite scroll.
Cheers — one-tap 🔥
See a buddy lock in? Tap to send a 🔥. Rate-limited to one per pair every five minutes, so it never spams.
Pair streaks
Both of you snap your Totem on the same day? Pair counter goes up. Skip a day, it breaks. Light, mutual, honest.
Challenges
Propose a goal — "7 lock days in 10" or "4 hours saved this week." They accept or decline. Race together. Private to the two of you.
Mute without ghosting
Don't want pushes from one buddy this week? Mute them. They never know. Asymmetric and private.
Bring buddies in free. Pro users get a personalized invite link — your friend tries Dayo Pro free for 30 days. No card. No catch.
In week one
People picked…
Real Totems, enrolled by real people. The list got weird fast.
What will you pick?
First software solution
All the friction.
None of the plastic.
Hardware blockers got one thing right: physical friction works. They got everything else wrong. Generic plastic. Expensive to buy. Slow to set up. Easy to lose. Stuck in one spot.
Dayo is the first software solution. The same physical friction without any of the hardware tax. Any object you already own becomes the key. No shipping, no plastic, no expensive blocks of nothing on your kitchen counter.
Why you can trust it
We can't see your life. We don't want to.
Most screen-time apps are surveillance with a friendly icon. Dayo isn't built that way — and it isn't paid for that way either.
No surveillance
Dayo can't see your messages, your camera, or anything outside the apps you choose to track.
No data sold. No ads. Ever.
That's not a campaign promise — it's the business model. You pay for the app, not with your data.
Photos never leave your device
Totem matching happens entirely on-device with Apple's Vision API. We store a number, never a picture.
Built on Apple's own framework
The same Screen Time technology Apple uses for Family Sharing. Real shielding, not a workaround.
Less app.
More life.
Pick your first thing. Lock your phone to it. Two minutes, start to finish.
Download DayoFree · iOS only