i wanted to change the habit of reaching for my phone in the morning and doomscrolling away an hour so i built an app to help me. now i have to literally touch grass before accessing my most distracting apps
the app is built in swiftui, uses the screen time apis provided by apple and google vision to recognise grass or not
I like the idea but it will be hard to build a moat — if that's something you care about. How about making it more general? "touch grass", "feel sand between your fingers", "hug a tree" …
This is a hilarious concept and would probably genuinely help. Nicely done!
I used to have a similar issue with hiding inside all the time (during Covid times, of course) and to motivate myself to go outside, I started an Instagram of tiny little plants growing in cracks in the pavement. I tried to add a new tiny plant every day or two, which meant that I had to wander further and further afield to find a suitable specimen. It wasn't perfect, but was quite motivating.
Fun idea, but not the right way to end an addiction. Making it more difficult to get the dopamine (really epinephrine) hit will only lead to more frustration and reinforce the relief when you get your reward. In other words, it only makes the reward more pleasurable.
Great concept! However my mind started already coming up with ideas how to circumvent this like printing out a color picture of grass! Hope you can detect these fake attempts! :)
One sec was great for breaking my YouTube shorts habit but the safari plugin only works 90% of the time and in some way the "gambling nature" of hitting reload and getting in sometimes has made it worse.
I added reddit.com to uBlock Origin's filters list. I can still visit it, but there's now a screen asking me if I'm sure I want to go there. It's stopped me a few times, and it's breaking that muscle memory of "pick up phone & check reddit/etc"
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35 Comments
risquer
i wanted to change the habit of reaching for my phone in the morning and doomscrolling away an hour so i built an app to help me. now i have to literally touch grass before accessing my most distracting apps
the app is built in swiftui, uses the screen time apis provided by apple and google vision to recognise grass or not
i'd love to get your thoughts on the concept.
duxup
This is going to be rough up north where I am, too much snow.
ewalk153
Nice idea. Would be great to have a winter mode for us that can’t literally touch grass for 3+ months a year ;)
20wenty
I like the idea but it will be hard to build a moat — if that's something you care about. How about making it more general? "touch grass", "feel sand between your fingers", "hug a tree" …
camtarn
This is a hilarious concept and would probably genuinely help. Nicely done!
I used to have a similar issue with hiding inside all the time (during Covid times, of course) and to motivate myself to go outside, I started an Instagram of tiny little plants growing in cracks in the pavement. I tried to add a new tiny plant every day or two, which meant that I had to wander further and further afield to find a suitable specimen. It wasn't perfect, but was quite motivating.
mateusfreira
Can we change it to unblock only when I do 10 pushups? I would love to get that to my Nephew and Nieces phone
simondanerd
Is there an Android version coming soon?
Also it would be better if you kept Instagram uninstalled… I see it installing on the screenshot!
Baggie
my neighborhood is very low on grass
will tree support be added?
I like them better and we have a lot more of them
sincerely,
Lorax
basisword
Nice idea. I feel like we don't see as many fun/whimsical apps these days as we did 10-15 years ago.
blitzar
Not a Hot Dog.
FollowingTheDao
Fun idea, but not the right way to end an addiction. Making it more difficult to get the dopamine (really epinephrine) hit will only lead to more frustration and reinforce the relief when you get your reward. In other words, it only makes the reward more pleasurable.
andy_ppp
Okay this might help!
apriljo
What do you do in the winter, eh?
tsylba
I understand it's a meme, but you're not "touching grass" if you need the mediation of an app to do so.
It's engineer logic 101, when technically true does not mean ontologically true.
bloomingkales
What if someone tries to cheat and just touch a picture of grass? You need to understand that the no-touch-grass people are Machiavellian.
Waterluvian
I love it. And now I must make a “touching grass generator” to plug into the front of this.
jnajah
[dead]
Retr0id
See also: https://graas.easrng.net/ – "grass-touching verification service"
Chris2048
On a tangential note.. Best use of a "touch grass" reference goes to Noita devs:
https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/1bt7aid/streamer_sp…
baxtr
Great concept! However my mind started already coming up with ideas how to circumvent this like printing out a color picture of grass! Hope you can detect these fake attempts! :)
NalNezumi
Awesome idea.
But knowing myself, I'll probably just end up buying a plant and put it next to my table and end up using it
woadwarrior01
Why does the app need to collect location data?
obrhoff
Is Hacker News the new Product Hunt?
divan
Works fine in Finland in winter!
fandorin
great concept! out of curiosity – what tool
did you use to create the main UI app animation/video on the website?
api
Are there any good anti-procrastination Safari extensions for desktop? Sometimes it can be hypnotic.
diamondfist25
Wow what a great idea and all!
Mind if I ask what stack you used for this?
dev0p
That is fantastic. Should come preinstalled with every phone.
etothepii
One sec was great for breaking my YouTube shorts habit but the safari plugin only works 90% of the time and in some way the "gambling nature" of hitting reload and getting in sometimes has made it worse.
popol12
Very nice, but why does it require iOS 17 ? Jailbreakers are stuck on iOS 16 (and some are stuck even lower than that.. )
pcthrowaway
People are just going to carry a patch of fake grass around with them to bypass the checks. So I suspect the reviews will be astroturfed.
bloopernova
I added reddit.com to uBlock Origin's filters list. I can still visit it, but there's now a screen asking me if I'm sure I want to go there. It's stopped me a few times, and it's breaking that muscle memory of "pick up phone & check reddit/etc"
Lynix48
Funny how even the demo on their website has the annoying "rate this app" popup.
mclau156
I have had an idea like this but instead it is a few minutes of breathing exercises with a calm nature background, then it unlocks your other apps
lukeinator42
This is great! A mode for snow would be awesome, haha. Up here in Canada there isn't always grass around in winter.