Amber LockSeal the apps that keep pulling you back, and let your steps be the only thing that melts them free.
There is an old gnomish legend where a distracted worker’s candied berries were sealed in magical tree sap until he plowed the fields. Amber Lock applies this exact friction principle to your phone. Seal your most addictive apps in digital amber. To regain access, you must put the phone down and physically walk.
6h 29m less on sealed apps, week on week. 
Your banked time sits in the tank. 
A widget keeps the tank in sight. 
The same on Android, counting steps.
How it works
Seal what keeps pulling you back
Pick the apps and categories that eat your evenings — Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, the news, whatever yours turn out to be. You choose them through your phone's own picker, so the selection never leaves your device; we genuinely do not learn what you sealed.
Reach for one and find amber
The next time your thumb goes where it always goes, the app is set in resin. Not a guilt-trip notification, not a counter telling you how long you have wasted. Just closed, and a reminder of what you said you wanted the time for.
Walk, and the resin melts
Your steps are the solvent, and walking fills a tank. When you want back in you decide how much of it to spend — a minute, five, the lot — and anything you do not use stays in the tank for later. Getting back in costs a walk around the block rather than a promise to yourself that you will stop after one more.
What makes it different
Friction, not willpower
Every focus and productivity app eventually asks you to be the kind of person who does not tap through. Amber Lock does not. It puts something real between you and the app — a distance your legs have to cover — and lets physics do the work that resolve keeps failing to.
You can see what it gave back
Amber Lock keeps a tally of how much less time your sealed apps took this week than last, app by app. A digital detox you cannot measure is just a good intention; this one comes with the hours attached.
A widget on the home screen
The tank sits on your home screen beside the apps it is holding shut, counting down what you have banked. On Android it shows the steps themselves.
It works offline
There is no account to reach and nothing to fetch, so Amber Lock works offline — on a plane, underground, or with the data switched off. Everything it needs is already on your phone.
We never learn what you sealed
The apps and categories you lock are chosen through your operating system's own picker. That selection is handled by your phone and stays there. It does not reach our servers, because it never reaches us at all.
Nothing to sign in to
Amber Lock has no accounts. It does not ask for your name, your email, or a sign-in, and there is no profile of you anywhere. Your settings live on your device, not on ours.
Your usage never leaves the phone
What you use and for how long is read on your device, used on your device, and stored on your device. So are your step counts and your banked balance. We hold no copy of any of it.
The steps you were already taking count
Amber Lock reads your step count from Apple Health on iPhone and Health Connect on Android, with your permission. You do not have to walk with the app open, or start a session, or tell it you are going — the walk you took counts on its own.
Questions
- How is this different from Screen Time or a normal app blocker?
- A timer or a limit ends with a button that says 'ignore for today', and the whole thing rests on you not pressing it. Amber Lock replaces that button with a walk. The cost of getting back in is paid in steps rather than in resolve.
- Does Amber Lock know which apps I blocked?
- No. You choose them through your operating system's own picker, which hands the selection to your phone rather than to us. We never learn what you selected.
- Can it block TikTok and Instagram?
- Yes, and anything else on your phone. You pick from your operating system's own app and category picker, so whatever it lists can be sealed — including whole categories, if you would rather seal Social outright than name apps one at a time.
- Can I just bypass it?
- Amber Lock is built as friction, not a cage. The point is not that getting back in is impossible — it is that the easy way in is a walk around the block rather than a tap, which is usually enough to break the reflex. Any app promising a lock that nothing can undo is overselling itself.
- Does it work with an Apple Watch?
- Yes, in the way that matters: an Apple Watch writes its steps into Apple Health, and Apple Health is where Amber Lock reads them. Steps you take wearing the Watch fill the tank like any others.
- What permissions does it need?
- On iPhone, Amber Lock uses Apple's Screen Time APIs to know when a sealed app is being reached for, and reads your step count from Apple Health. On Android it uses the usage access permission and Health Connect. All of it is granted by you, and all of it is used only on your device.
- Do I need an account?
- No. There is no account, no email address, and nothing to sign in to. Deleting the app removes your settings, because your settings were only ever on your phone.
- What actually leaves my phone?
- Three things, and they are the same three every one of our apps sends: your subscription status and a pseudonymous identifier, crash reports, and product analytics with a pseudonymous device identifier. None of them contain which apps you sealed, how long you spend in them, or your step counts.
- What happens to time I do not use?
- It stays in the tank. You choose how long to melt for — anything from a minute up to everything you have banked — and if you re-lock early, the rest is still there waiting for you.
- Is Amber Lock on Android?
- Yes. Amber Lock is on both the App Store and Google Play. On Android it reads usage through the usage access permission and steps through Health Connect.