Focus Friend uses an animated bean named Poe that knits while users resist checking their phones. The app takes over phone functions during timed focus sessions so the bean's knitting progresses only if the user remains off the device. Cancelling a session unravels the knitting and visibly saddens the bean, creating mild guilt and attachment. Successful focus periods yield virtual socks that can be used as decorations in the bean's tiny living space, introducing gamified rewards. The app, created by Bria Sullivan and Hank Green, rapidly climbed app charts and joins a broader trend of Pomodoro-style focus apps.
With their back to me, Poe, the name I gave the animated brown bean in the Focus Friend app, is stitching up a little storm that will eventually become socks-if I can leave them alone. Unfortunately, I need to check my texts. I cancel the timer after six minutes, which warns me that Poe's knitting will unravel and "they'll be really sad."
Focus Friend, a productivity timer app designed to keep your off your phone by essentially taking it over to knit, has climbed the mobile charts over the last few days, and as of this writing sits at No. 2 on Google Play and No. 3 on the App Store. The brainchild of developer Bria Sullivan and YouTuber and author Hank Green, it briefly beat out apps like ChatGPT, TikTok and the now infamous Tea.
Like the Pomodoro method, the time management technique that breaks work into periods of focus and rest, these apps use a timer to encourage users to lock in and tune out everything else. Unlike the traditional, analog Pomodoro, apps have gamified the experience with rewards. For every successful chunk of time I allow the bean to knit uninterrupted, it makes me socks I can then broker for decorations.
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