Guided Growth · Screen-Time Coach

The screen-time coach, feature by feature

The best of the whole category, done the Guided Growth way. Eleven features, each a working mock you can tap. This is the quick tour. For how every competitor does each one, with their real screenshots, see the in-depth teardown.

SummaryIn-depth teardown
01

Onboarding and getting set up

Trust before the ask

The first few minutes of a screen-time app, before it has proven anything, when it is already asking to see how you use your phone. Every competitor treats this as a formality to click through. GG treats it as the first real conversation.

GG's version: three honest steps, then you are set

What GG does

  • Explains exactly what the coach can and cannot see before it asks for Screen Time access, not after, so the permission is a kept promise rather than a legal screen nobody reads.
  • Takes Jomo's instinct to hand you a preset, but the preset is your own reason in your own words, not an app category.
  • Takes Opal's fast first-run payoff, but the payoff is one small, visible boundary you can undo, not a manufactured "weeks saved" number.
  • Starts with one boundary, not a schedule to configure, because the category's own reviews show new users abandon setup screens that ask for too much before proving anything.
Best of all of them: one sec's honesty made prominent instead of buried, Jomo's preset ease, Opal's quick payoff, none of the batched permission grabs every reviewer above complained about. Tap through the phone.
02

Picking apps and your reasons

GG differentiator

Every blocker starts the same way: pick some apps from a list. The whole category treats that list as the setup. GG treats the next question, why you actually reach for them, as the real product.

GG's version: pick the apps, then the reasons you reach for them

First, which apps do you want to work on? Tap the ones that get you.
IG
Instagram
✓
TT
TikTok
✓
X
X
✓
R
Reddit
✓

What GG does

  • Uses the same system picker everyone already trusts. Table stakes stay table stakes, no proprietary app-discovery maze.
  • Then asks the real question once, at setup: what are the reasons you reach for these? You pick as many as fit, in plain words, not one label.
  • The reasons adapt to the kind of apps you picked. Social apps offer social reasons, a news or shopping app would offer its own.
  • Takes one sec's reason chips and Jomo's in-your-own-words intention, but asks it once, and saves it every unlock. Those reasons come back at the blocked moment, so the coach can ask which one is driving this and whether it is giving you that.
Best of all of them: the trusted picker, one sec's reason chips, Jomo's own-words intention, ScreenZen's personal voice, but captured as several honest reasons and used by a coach that brings them up at the exact moment you reach for the app. Tap a few apps, then pick your reasons.
03

The blocked moment

GG wins here

The instant a user opens an app they are trying to cut down on. Every app throws up a wall here. It is the most-hated screen in the category, and GG's biggest opening.

GG's version: the wall becomes a conversation

This is your pause point

You set this one because evenings are for winding down with Maya.

What GG does

  • Takes one sec's pause and ScreenZen's "why" prompt, but makes it a real, optional voice conversation, not a fixed ritual that wears off.
  • Quotes the user's own reason back, in their words, stored at setup. No competitor does this.
  • The override is honest and non-shaming. Five intentional minutes, logged, never a red failure. That fixes the number-one "prison" complaint.
  • The coach can ask one short question ("what are you hoping this gives you right now?") and route to a breath, a return, or a deliberate few minutes.
Best of all of them: one sec's interruption, plus ScreenZen's reason, plus an honest override, plus a coach that remembers the why and can actually talk. Tap "Talk to me" in the mock.
04

Schedules, limits, and focus sessions

a soft limit, not a wall

The structure a person sets up ahead of time, before the moment even shows up: a protected window, a daily cap, a committed focus block. Every serious blocker in this category has a version of this. Almost none of them make it feel like anything other than configuration.

GG's version: one window, one honest limit

Set a boundary

One window, one soft limit. I will let you know if it's crossed. I am not counting every tap.
Window
8:00 PM to 10:00 PM
The apps you are limiting
late-night feeds
Tonight so far18 / 20 min
Nothing crossed yet. I will only speak up if this one does.

What GG does

  • Takes Freedom's one-named-window idea and Jomo's soft limit, but skips the schedule-builder UI. "Protect my evening" sets both in one tap.
  • The limit is a tripwire the coach watches for a threshold crossing, not a live countdown of exact minutes. That is the honest, on-device model, not a claim GG cannot back up.
  • No score, no gems, no leaderboard. Opal's Deep Focus is the one mechanic people say actually worked, so GG keeps the real commitment and drops the cosmetics that draw the "bloat" complaints.
  • Crossing the limit is not a locked wall. It is a heads up, phrased the way GG always frames an override: honest, no shame, logged. Adjust the limit in the mock and watch it flip.
Best of all: Jomo's graduated limit, Freedom's one-window-everywhere simplicity, and Opal's real commitment device, without the gems, the leaderboard, or the paywall on the one mode people actually loved.
05

Usage insights and dashboard

Honest by design

The screen where a user checks how their week actually went. The category's answer is more charts. GG's answer is two honest views of the same week, one exact for the user, one plain about what the coach actually has.

GG's version: the same week, told two honest ways

This week, exact
Social, 11pm-12am window47 / 60 min
Entertainment today72 / 60 min
M
T
W
T
F
S
S

What GG does

  • Takes Opal's week-over-week delta and RescueTime's standing Goal, but attaches both to a boundary the user named, not a category label or a leaderboard rank.
  • Never claims Rize or RescueTime's exact per-app granularity for the coach itself, because on iOS it genuinely cannot have it. The tripwire model, category and window thresholds, is the honest ceiling, and GG says so out loud instead of implying more.
  • Skips StayFree's "wasted time" scoring language entirely. The week grid reads as kept or missed, never as a moral score.
  • The full exact report (RescueTime and Rize's whole pitch) still exists, it just lives in the user's own sealed on-device view, one tap away, not inside the coach's memory.
Best of all of them: Opal's delta framing, RescueTime's standing goal, and a second card, in plain sight, that tells the user exactly what the coach can and can't see. Trust replaces surveillance. Tap "What the coach sees" in the mock.
06

Motivation, streaks, and progress

Progress, not perfection

Every blocker in the category needs a reason to open it again tomorrow. Most reach for trees, gems, and streak counters, then watch a bug or a bad night turn that same counter into the reason a user quits.

GG's version: a week you can trust, not a streak you can lose

This week

5 nights held, 2 did not. Tap a red day to hear how the coach reads it.

Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Sun

What GG does

  • Takes Forest's felt weight and ScreenZen's timing, showing the week right where it matters, but nothing in the picture can die or reset to zero.
  • Skips Opal's gems, cosmetics, and stranger leaderboard entirely. Reviewers call that layer bloat, and comparing against strangers on a shame-adjacent habit demotivates rather than helps.
  • A missed night opens one short, optional question, not a red failure screen. The coach treats the miss as information about that night, not a verdict on the person.
  • The recovery line always lands on the same math, how many nights actually held, not how many in a row, so one hard night cannot erase a real week of progress.
Best of all of them: Forest's felt stakes, ScreenZen's timing at the decision point, and none of Opal's leaderboard or a single red failure state. Tap a red day in the mock.
07

Accountability and social

GG wins here

The category's answer to "will anyone notice" is a leaderboard or nothing at all. GG makes sharing a single optional choice, one person, one boundary, and lets the coach itself stand in as the accountability partner when there is no one else to tell.

GG's version: one person, by choice, or nobody

Evenings with Maya

Protected 7 to 9pm, kept 5 of 7 nights
By default this stays between you and me. Sharing it with one person is optional, and you can turn it off any time.
Share this boundary
Off. Just you and your coach know.

What GG does

  • Takes Jomo's Squads idea, share totals, not surveillance, and Opal's Focused Few, a visible boundary among people who matter, but shrinks both to one person, opt-in, and never a public leaderboard. No comparison against strangers, the exact thing Opal's own community calls "a little discouraging."
  • Grounds the design in the single clearest proof point in the whole research pass, a Clearspace user writing "I really like being able to track progress with my brother." A partner only helps when they are emotionally real to the user, so GG never auto-suggests a group. One person, or nobody, both are fine.
  • The share itself is one line, "Evenings with Maya, protected 7 to 9pm," never app names, never minutes, never a dashboard export.
  • For the user with no one to loop in, sharing being off changes nothing about the coaching. The coach already remembers why the boundary exists and will ask about it later, the same relationship Focusmate tries to manufacture with a booked stranger and a camera.
Best of all of them: Jomo's Squads for sharing totals instead of surveillance, Clearspace's proof that a partner has to be emotionally real, and a coach that is the accountability partner for anyone who doesn't have, or doesn't want, a person to loop in. Tap "Turn on" in the mock.
08

The reflection and coaching loop

GG only

What happens after a boundary is kept or missed. The category stops at the number. GG is the only one that asks whether the number meant anything.

GG's version: the boundary meets the reflection

Evening check-in. Quick note before anything else.
Late-night feeds boundary · kept, 3rd evening running
How are you feeling right now, in a word or two?

What GG does

  • Takes Opal's instinct to make progress visible, but replaces the lone number with the user's own words about how the evening actually felt.
  • Never says the boundary caused the feeling. It asks "does this fit?" and treats "not really" as just as useful an answer as "yes."
  • A missed boundary does not reset anything or turn red. The same check-in still runs, because the reflection matters more on a hard night, not less.
  • The coach only draws on what it already has, the boundary status and the user's own reflection and mood, never raw phone activity it was never given.
No competitor connects a boundary to how the user says they felt. GG takes Opal's instinct to show progress and RescueTime's instinct to measure honestly, drops the lone number, and asks the person instead. Tap a mood above to see it.
09

Recovery after a slip

GG wins here

What happens the moment after a boundary gets missed or overridden. Almost every blocker treats this as a failure to punish. GG treats it as information to use.

GG's version: the slip becomes a calibration, not a failure

Quick check-in on your evening boundaries, nothing urgent.
9:00pm feeds limit4 / 4 nights kept
7:00pm feeds limit1 / 4 nights kept
You kept the 9pm one every night, but the 7pm one only once. That's not a failure, just information. Want to move it later, say 8:30?
Override log, no shame
Tue 7:12pm, 5 min Wed 7:40pm, 5 min Fri 7:05pm, 5 min

What GG does

  • Takes ScreenZen's honesty about tracking a boundary and Roots' idea of a real commitment device, but drops the punishment: an override gets logged, never a red failure, and no streak resets for it.
  • Directly answers the gap the research names: when one boundary holds and a nearby one keeps slipping, the coach proposes moving the second one instead of locking harder.
  • The override log stays visible to the user in plain language, not a hidden violation record like Strict Mode or a setting that quietly vanishes like one sec's bypass.
  • Nothing here needs an unbreakable lock. The plan gets more honest instead of more strict, which is the actual fix for the "prison" complaints Opal and Roots both draw.
Best of all of them: ScreenZen's visible tracking, Roots' idea of a real commitment device, minus the wall that has no way out, plus a coach that turns a slip into a plan that actually fits. Tap "Yes, move it to 8:30" in the mock.
10

Privacy and what the coach knows

Shown, not promised

Every blocker in this category already claims to respect your privacy. GG's opening is not a new promise, it is showing that promise as something you can tap through, instead of a policy page nobody reads.

GG's version: the promise becomes a screen you can check

What I can see

For privacy, I see your boundaries and categories and the moments a limit came up, not every tap.
On your phone only

Your detailed report

Late-night feeds47 of 60 min
Messaging1h 12m
Exact minutes, every app, every pickup. Yours to look at, and it stays on this screen.
What your coach knows
  • You named this group "late-night feeds"
  • It crossed the 60-minute boundary tonight
  • You chose "five more minutes" at 10:52
  • You told me it was to avoid an email

What GG does

  • Takes Opal's and Jomo's on-device promise and one sec's identity-hiding architecture, but stops leaving the proof in a help article. It becomes a screen the user can actually open.
  • Shows two layers side by side on purpose: the same detailed report every blocker already renders locally, and a separate, honest card labeled with exactly what the coach uses.
  • The toggle answers the question every reviewer asks in different words, "what can this app actually see?", with a plain sees/never-sees list instead of a settings maze.
  • Nothing here is a moat a competitor could not also build. On-device handling is table stakes among serious iOS blockers. What GG adds is a coach that can talk about its own limits out loud, in the user's own moment, not bury them in a privacy policy.
Best of all of them: Opal and Jomo's on-device claim, plus one sec's identity-hiding architecture, made legible as a real toggle instead of a policy paragraph, narrated by a coach that is honest about its own limits.
11

Paywall and pricing

Priced honestly

The screen where a user finds out whether the thing that just helped them was ever really theirs. This is also the richest folder in the whole research set, real pricing pages exist for almost every app in the category.

GG's version: nothing to unlock, nothing to lose

Free to start. Paid to go deeper.

No safety feature is ever the upgrade.
Monthly Yearly, save 20%
Free, always
$0
  • Name your reasons, set your boundary
  • The blocked-moment orb, full conversation
  • Honest overrides, no shame, no streak reset
Coached
$9/month
  • The Weekly: your boundaries beside your own reflection
  • The coach remembers your "why," every time
  • Unlimited boundaries and voice check-ins
Cancel anytime. Nothing you already set up gets locked if you stop.

What GG does

  • Takes Jomo's rare one-time-purchase honesty and ScreenZen's free-core trust, then goes further: the free tier is not a stripped demo, every safety feature, naming your reasons, the blocked-moment orb, the honest override, works fully for free.
  • No feature that worked for free today gets pulled behind a paywall tomorrow, the exact complaint One Sec and Opal users make about their redesigns.
  • No paywall ever appears at a block hit or a vulnerable moment. The coaching layer is the upgrade, never the safety net.
  • One plain price, monthly or yearly, no $7/mo vs $50/yr vs $9.99/week confusion like Clearspace's, no "contact us" tier hiding the real number like Opal's Teams plan.
Best of all of them: Jomo's real free tier, ScreenZen's no-dark-pattern trust, and a paywall that only ever gates coaching depth, never the boundary itself. Tap the toggle in the mock.