Addicted to smartphone? Try this app to break the addiction
A new app called Siempo helps you prevent smartphone addiction by replacing your device's home screen and giving you more control over notifications. Its design interface reverses "some of the persuasive, psychologically addicting techniques that have been built into your phone by developers to increase user engagement." The app is available only on Android, at the moment.
Distance yourself from digital distractions
The app frees your home screen of badged icons and colorful corporate logos. It un-brands app icons and turns them to greyscale. The app also allows you to batch notifications. You can choose when your phone can send you group alerts: every half hour, every one hour, or once per day. You can also whitelist the apps you want instant notifications from.
Leveraging a number of design techniques to de-addict
Siempo organizes all the apps in your smartphone into a tiered menu system. It also keeps randomizing their location upon each visit so that you can't unconsciously open them for mindless usage.
Trusted, impactful tech that respects users' wellbeing
CEO Andrew Dunn said, "Siempo will be a unified layer across all your tools- smartphone, desktop, tablet, wearables- protecting your attention, preventing unconscious usage and improving mental health." "We are excited to build out an AI interface that can learn the user's behavior and adjust their digital world to support their goals and intentions," he added.
The start-up actually began as a hardware company
In 2015, original co-founders Andreas Gala and Jorge Selva developed a minimalist phone called Minium. Later, they pivoted to making a mindful smartphone called Siempo which was based on an existing handset from China. Unfortunately, when their Kickstarter campaign, to raise funds, failed in 2017, Gala and Selva made Dunn the CEO and moved on to other projects.
