Sunscroll

An app blocker that asks for three breaths or a tiny game first

Sunscroll is an iPhone app blocker with a short pause built in. When your daily time is used up and you want Instagram, TikTok or YouTube anyway, the sun asks for one small thing first: three slow breaths, a quick sum, or a tiny game. Then you choose 5, 10 or 30 minutes.

Launch offer: new yearly subscribers get a whole month free instead of 7 days.

The day's deck of pauses

Each pause is the next card of the day's deck, shuffled every morning, so none turns into a reflex:

• Three slow breaths, four seconds in and five out.
• A quick sum.
• Where's the sun? It hides behind one of three clouds, and they shuffle.
• Count the clouds that drift by.
• Not a robot: tap every square with a cloud.
• Please hold: ten seconds in a very polite queue.
• Talk me into it: one tap says what it's for.
• Blow the cloud away, through the microphone.

Pauses this iPhone can't do, for example with VoiceOver on, are left out of the deck.

Then you choose how long

After the pause, choose 5, 10 or 30 minutes. All the apps you chose open together, and they rest again when the time is up. You can pause as often as you ask.

When there is no pause

A breeze is a focus session you start on purpose, for 20, 45, 60 or 120 minutes. During it every app rests except the ones iOS always allows, and there is no pause: ending the breeze is the way out. Finish one and a flower grows on your hills.

Price

Free to download, with a subscription: yearly or monthly. In the United States that is $39.99 a year or $7.99 a month; prices are lower in many countries. During the launch, new yearly subscribers get a free month instead of the usual 7-day trial. Cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings.

Questions

Is there an app that makes you breathe or play a game before opening Instagram?

Yes. When your daily time in Sunscroll is used up, the sun asks for a short pause before Instagram or any other chosen app opens: three slow breaths, a quick sum or one of six tiny games. Then you choose 5, 10 or 30 minutes.

Can I skip the pause?

No, the pause is how the apps open once the sky is full. It takes a few seconds, and you can take one as often as you ask.

Does the pause work at night?

Yes. With Night on, your apps rest from bedtime until 6:00 am, and the same pause opens them.

Does Sunscroll see what I do in my apps?

No. iOS gives Sunscroll anonymous tokens for the apps you choose, and your Screen Time data stays on your iPhone.

Updated 2026-10-11. Sunscroll is made by For Apps Sake, the studio that wrote this page.