Well, I said it would be fascinating to see how it works, and voila! The Creator of Breakfree has obliged us with an eye-opening interview.
When Mrigaen Kapadia, an Android developer in India, found that he and his wife were gravitating away from personal conversations over dinner in favor of electronic consumption of questionable cuisine, such as Whatsapp, Facebook and computer games, he decided that something has to be done about it.
Rather than opt for a methodology of avoidance such as going on a techno-diet, he chose to tackle the formidable app app-eal head-on, by pitting app against app.
“I started probing the idea of developing an app that would lurk inside the phone in the background and monitor the usage. Once I realized that the idea was feasible, my wife and I started our research and designed the functionality of the app. I then coded the app which took about two months.”
So how does Breakfree work exactly?
Well, it turns out to be a lot more than your common-or-garden monitor. It actually sounds like your own behind-the-scenes life coach who evaluates you and works for you, but at the same time has little time for your excuses.
“The first step is to make the user realize that he has an addiction. For this we display an addiction score based on the user’s phone usage. This comprises the number of unlocks, the frequency of unlocks and the time spent on the phone between unlocks. The addiction score is something we have developed after extensive online and hands-on research.
“The second step is to help him breakaway from his phone. For this we provide a set of optional tools which include:
1) Notifications – this tool notifies the user at certain thresholds, for example, if he uses a particular app for over 30 minutes or uses the phone for over an hour, etc.
2) Pop-ups – A pop up appears before he unlocks the phone. This prevents unnecessary unlocks. A pop-up can also appear after continuously using the phone for 10 minutes.
3) Disabling certain functions of the phone – The user has a choice to disable notification sounds, or mute the phone entirely, or disable the internet, or reject phone calls. The app can also send an auto text to the caller.
4) Scheduling the disabling of functions – the option of disabling functions can be scheduled by the user. For example, if one wants to spend quality family time every Sunday afternoon, one schedules the app to reject all calls from 2PM – 6PM every Sunday.”
And if you think that the idea of a lurking app-coach might sound a touch threatening to some, the numbers are clearly proving otherwise:
“We have had over 100,000 downloads and the app has been used over 3.5 million times since our launch in late Jan 2014. We continuously receive a lot of feedback on how the app has changed people’s lives, on how their phone dependency has reduced. This is all very encouraging and encourages us to keep making the app better.”
See more on breakfree-app.com
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