Pause
Pause. Before you scroll.
Pause launched on September 25, 2026 with 20 votes, #808 of 8,095 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches.
What it does
Pause is a screen-time iPhone app that stops mindless scrolling before it starts. Solve a quick puzzle to unlock Instagram, TikTok, or any app — and give yourself a real moment to choose.
Pause is the iPhone app that stops mindless scrolling before it starts. Solve a quick puzzle to unlock Instagram, TikTok, or any app — and give yourself a real moment to choose.
You reach for your phone 96 times a day, and mostly on autopilot. Pause sits between you and your most distracting apps with a simple puzzle. A quick word puzzle. Not willpower — just a moment of intention. Solve and the app unlocks for fifteen minutes. You chose to open it, so use it the way you meant to. When the fifteen minutes are up, the pause comes back on its own. You may solve another puzzle if you wish, but the app is there to remind you that there are other things to enjoy outside of the scroll. See how many times you walked away, how much you reclaimed, and your streak. Yes — Pause offers a free, ad-supported version. You also get a 7-day free trial of the premium version, which…from try-pause.com
Does a similar job
all alternatives →
I built an app to block Shorts and Reels2025 · scrollguard.app · ▲690I wanted to find a way to use Instagram without ending up scrolling for two hours every time I open the app to see a friend's story. Most screen time apps I found focus on blocking the app itself instead of the addictive feed, so I created this app to allow me to keep using the "healthy" and "social" features and block the infinite scrolling (Reels) After implementing the block on Instagram Reels, I got addicted to YouTube Shorts and Reddit feed. So, I extended the app to cover these as well. To avoid replacing the scrolling for regular feeds, I also added a feature that shows a pop-up when…
ScreenBreakDec 2025 · screenbreak.app · ▲125Hi HN, I built ScreenBreak after realizing that most app blockers failed in practice. “Hard blocks” were too rigid — I either locked myself out entirely or tapped Ignore Limit and kept scrolling. There was no useful middle state. In reality, people still need to open apps like TikTok or Instagram for specific tasks: looking something up, replying to someone, checking updates, etc. The problem isn’t intentional use; it’s the unplanned, unconscious scrolling that follows. I wanted a system that interrupts the impulse without fully preventing access. ScreenBreak uses soft blocking plus…
MeditationLock: Pause Before You ScrollJun 2026 · meditationlock.app · ▲2Turn mindless scrolling into intentional choices.
More work this month
the category →
Endless lofi beats composed live in your browser, over pixel-art nights in Paris, Tokyo, New York, Hong Kong, Sydney, San Francisco and more. Free, no sign-up.
Work · 24d ago · loficities.com
Smooth Recorder▲257Mac screen recordings that look edited when you hit stop
Work · 18d ago · smoothrecorder.com
Work · 12d ago · readrare.com
Source: Product Hunt launch ↗
Launched alongside, September 2026
the whole month →
E-ink bird frame for Raspberry Pi - real-time bird detection by audio, fully local AI, rendered as real, hand-cut 1800s bird illustrations. - arnegiacomo/fugleramme
AI · Sep 2026 · github.com
- WI
Special relativity simulator in which light crawls along at a human speed, so Lorentz contraction, aberration and Doppler shift happen at walking pace.
Life & fun · Sep 2026 · rivendell.dmitrybrant.com
Start coding agents, control sessions, review PRs. Anywhere.
Dev tools · Sep 2026 · kilo.ai
