Phone Vault

Tap a physical key to silence your distracting apps. Tap it again to come back.

An iOS app blocker built on physical friction, not willpower.

Coming soon to the App Store · now in beta

Every app blocker has the same weakness: the off switch is on the same glowing rectangle as the distractions. Phone Vault moves the off switch onto a physical object — a Vault: an NFC tag or a printed QR code — that you put somewhere deliberate. Another room. A kitchen drawer. Your office. Tap your phone against it and your chosen apps are silenced, shielded at the operating-system level by Apple's Screen Time technology, so they stay blocked across app kills and reboots. Unsilencing means standing up and walking back to the Vault. That walk is the feature: a physical act between impulse and action.

The core loop

Home screen, idle: mode chips, timer choice, Tap Vault to Silence — Pick a mode and an optional timer, then tap your Vault.

Active session: lock icon, elapsed timer, Tap Vault to Unsilence — Your chosen apps are shielded OS-wide until you tap the Vault again.

History tab: total focus time, session count, streak, session list — Every session lands in History — focus time, session count, streak.

You can also start a session without the Vault — starting is always easy. Ending is what requires the key.

Modes — decide what gets silenced

Modes list: Focus and Deep Work — Named blocking profiles — Work, Sleep, Study…

Mode editor: rule, session timer, break allowance, commitment toggles — Each mode has its own apps, rules, and commitment level.

Block selected apps, categories, and websites — or flip it and allow only what you need.
Per-mode session timers and break allowances.
Require the Vault to end, or allow ending in-app.
Strict Mode for the days you don't trust yourself.

App selection uses Apple's own picker, which hands Phone Vault anonymous tokens — the app never learns which apps you chose.

Physical keys — NFC Vaults and printable QR codes

Illustration of an iPhone tapping a physical Vault — The one gesture that matters: phone meets Vault.

Vault Keys list in Settings — Keys live in Settings → Vault Keys.

Key detail: printable QR code with Share / Print — Generate, print, and stick a QR key anywhere.

NFC Vaults — your iPhone writes the tag itself during pairing; taps are verified by the tag's serial number and work even with the phone locked.
Printable QR keys — no extra hardware at all; scan with the in-app scanner or your camera.

Only a paired key ends a session — unknown tags and codes are rejected.

Committed, not stranded

Timed session counting down to auto-unsilence — Timed sessions auto-unsilence at zero.

Break countdown until blocking resumes — Breaks lift blocking briefly, then re-arm themselves.

Strict Mode session with badge — Strict Mode: no breaks, no deleting the app, no clock tricks.

Timed sessions end themselves — and shields fail closed, never off early.
Scheduled silence: modes on a calendar — Work every weekday 9–5, Sleep overnight — enforced by the system even when the app isn't running.
5 emergency unsilences — ever. One charge unsilences everything, and they don't replenish. An escape hatch, not a revolving door.

Private by design

No accounts, no analytics, no data collection. Your app choices are anonymous tokens; your Screen Time stats are rendered by a sandboxed Apple extension and never reach Phone Vault's process, disk, or the network. What you use stays between you and Apple.

A home-screen widget and Live Activity keep your session in view — in the Dynamic Island and on the Lock Screen.

Set up in minutes

A first-run onboarding wizard walks through setup in six short pages — each step done in place, with the real permission prompt, the real pairing flow, and the real app picker. Every step is skippable, and a checklist on the final page shows exactly what's still pending.

What Phone Vault is, in two sentences.

Animated phone tapping a Vault — How it works: the tap.

Screen Time permission explainer with numbered steps — Why Screen Time access is needed — and the privacy fine print.

Vault paired confirmation — Pair a physical Vault — or create a printable QR key.

Choose what gets silenced page — Pick your distracting apps — your first mode.

Ready page with setup checklist — The checklist — and the door into the app.