For students · macOS and Windows
Exam week.
The feed
can wait.
The recording you need is on YouTube, next to everything else on YouTube. Start a Studying session: the lecture plays, Shorts and the home feed never show up. Same on Wikipedia, Reddit and Spotify.
Free for 7 days · no card · then 9.99 EUR a month, unlimited, cancel from the app
Pick Studying, pick the subject, switch Music on. That is the setup.
SESSION Studying: STEM
-
youtube.com/The lecture, on the subject you picked. verdict: Allowwatch?v=… -
youtube.com/The feed under it never shows up. verdict: Blockshorts
Same site. Different verdict.
The pages, not the sites
The good sites have rabbit holes too.
Block Wikipedia to stop the rabbit hole and you have also blocked the article your problem set is about. Under a Studying session the two pages get opposite answers.
SESSION Studying: STEM
-
en.wikipedia.org/The mechanism the problem set is about. verdict: Allowwiki/ Aldol_reaction -
en.wikipedia.org/Where the afternoon goes. verdict: Blockwiki/ List_of_Internet_phenomena
SESSION Studying: STEM
-
open.spotify.com/Music is on for this session. verdict: Allowplaylist/… -
open.spotify.com/Podcasts are off, so the interview stays out. verdict: Blockshow/…
SESSION Studying: STEM
-
reddit.com/People arguing about the same mechanism. verdict: Allowr/ chemhelp -
reddit.com/The front page is the scroll. verdict: Blockr/ all
The address is judged first. Where the address alone can’t tell one page from the next, the content of what you opened is judged too, as it loads. On feeds, each item is judged and off-intent items are removed before they render.
Once it is running
Close the window. It’s still running.
Start it and the app can go away. The filtering runs as a background service, so closing the window changes nothing, and neither does a reboot halfway through the afternoon.
Ending early is a hold, not a click: long enough to notice what you are about to do, and the length is yours to set.
“Keep the promise you made to yourself.”
For exam week: a lock, not a pause
Give the session no end time and a long hold before you start. From then on the app shows only the session screen: no settings, no account page, no off switch, and relaunching it lands you back on the session. Turn the laptop off, let the battery run flat, reboot it, let it sleep, log out: the filter is still on when it comes back. It also ends when your trial or subscription ends.
That session, running on your own laptop. Free for 7 days, no card.
One download before the first exam.
Free for 7 days, no card. macOS and Windows.
On your phone? Send yourself the link for your desk.
Focusing App runs on your Mac or PC, not your phone. The link opens the download buttons there.
Your subject, your switches
Tune it to the subject.
Studying on its own already works. Tuned to the subject it works better, because there are fewer close calls to make.
The subject
Studying takes one: STEM, Business & Finance, Humanities, Law, Medicine & Health, Languages, Arts & Design. Law and Arts & Design don’t get the same rulings, so say which one you’re in.
Three switches
Music, Podcasts and Messaging only ever let things through. Messaging off while you revise, on for the group project the week after.
The evening after the exam
That one is a Relaxing session, which runs the other way: everything loads except what you name. Name Doomscrolling and the feed stays out while the series you queued plays.
When it gets one wrong
The block page carries a Re-evaluate link. The page goes to a slower, smarter model and the block either lifts or stands, on the spot. No settings to dig through, nobody to ask.
Tomorrow, one click
Every session you have run sits under Your Focus Sessions with its length and when it was last started. Tomorrow it is one click to run it again, no wizard.
Price
Free for a week. Then one price for everything.
Try it on a real week of revision, then decide.
Free for 7 days
9.99 EUR a month after that
- Unlimited sessions and unlimited hours
- Studying, Working, Creative and Relaxing, every subject, every toggle
- macOS and Windows, the same download
- Runs in the background, survives a reboot
- Subscribe and cancel from the app
Free account, no card. Nothing is charged until you subscribe from the app, and when the free week ends the filter simply stops until you do.
Straight answers
The questions people ask before they download.
Does it block all of YouTube?
No, and that is the point. Focusing App judges each page against what you said you are doing. In a Studying session the lecture and the tutorial play, while Shorts, the home feed and the off-topic autoplay never show up. The same goes for Reddit, Wikipedia, Spotify, Instagram and X: same site, different verdict, one page at a time.
What if it blocks something I need?
Press Re-evaluate on the block page. The page goes to a slower, smarter model, and the block either lifts or stands. No settings dig, no ticket. If the same wrong block keeps coming up, be more specific about what it is judging against: Studying with Law chosen gets fewer close calls than Studying alone, and for a deployed policy, naming the tool gets fewer than naming the department.
Can I turn it off?
Yes: hold the orb. Stopping early is a hold, not a click, and you set the hold length before the session starts. The filter keeps running with the app window closed, through a reboot included. If you want it to feel like a lock rather than a pause, see “Can I lock myself in?”.
Can I lock myself in?
Yes. Give the session no end time and set the hold as long as you like before you start. From then on the app shows only the session screen: no settings, no account page, no off switch. Relaunch it and you land on the same session. Turn the machine off, pull the plug, reboot it, let it sleep, log out: the filter is still on when it comes back. A session also ends when your trial or subscription ends.
What does it cost?
Free for 7 days from the moment you create your account, no card. After that it is 9.99 EUR a month for unlimited use: unlimited sessions, every feature, macOS and Windows. Teams and schools pay 9.99 EUR per seat per month. You subscribe from the app, through a checkout page in your browser, and cancel from the app.
What leaves my computer, and what do you keep?
What leaves: the address, the session or policy in force, and, where the address alone can’t decide, the content being judged, such as a video’s title or the text of a post. What we keep: the ruling itself (the address, any content that went out with it, the verdict, when it was made, and the session or policy label), with no account, device or person attached. No profile is built, no per-person record exists, and nothing ties a ruling to you. A verdict comes back, and that is the whole transaction.
Is there a phone version?
No. Focusing App runs on macOS and Windows. The desktop is where the work happens, so that is where the filter lives. If you are reading this on your phone, send yourself the link and pick it up at your desk.
Will it slow my browsing down?
No. The check happens where you can’t feel it: the address is judged as the request goes out, the content as the page loads.
Which browsers and apps does it cover?
Every browser and every app on the machine, because it filters at the network layer rather than inside one browser.
Focusing App for macOS and Windows
The lecture still plays.
Start there.
Download, sign in, pick the subject. The first week is free.
Free for 7 days, no card. Then 9.99 EUR a month, unlimited, cancel from the app.