Social Patch

How It Works

Social Patch opens the platforms you already use inside the app and adds its own layer on top. It doesn't block anything. It asks.

The short version

  • A plan before you open. Plan your way out before you go in, or decide not to open at all.
  • A pause before you act. Likes, comments, follows, and posts wait while you take a pause and make a choice. Go ahead, or let it go.
  • A tap on the shoulder, not a locked door. Time and scroll reminders come at your thresholds and step aside when you snooze them. They get firmer only if you keep waving them off.
  • A summary when you leave. One card per session, and a Progress report that sets your patterns against your own usual.
  • Private by design. What Social Patch reads is analyzed on your phone and never sent anywhere.

The big idea

Social Patch steps in at a few moments: before the feed loads, before a tap lands, when a reminder you set comes due, and when you leave. The rest of the time, it stays out of the way.

The design bar we hold ourselves to is Android's high-volume warning: a brief, proportionate, dismissible interruption, delivered at the moment it matters, that leaves the decision with you. Every Social Patch intervention has to clear that bar.

A session, start to finish

  1. A plan. Before a platform opens, Social Patch asks what the session is for: check in, then out (5, 10, or 15 minutes), find one thing, catch up with someone, or wind down. You can also just open it, or decide not to.

  2. The platform you know. It opens as its own mobile website, signed in as you. A small pill on the edge of the screen shows the session's time, and you can drag it out of your way. Tap it for the session so far, the platform's settings, to go back a page or reload it, or to end the session. Links that lead off the platform open in an in-app browser.

  3. A pause before you act. Before a comment posts, a like or vote lands, a save, a repost or share, a new post, a delete, a follow, an unfollow, or a mute, and before a like, save, repost, or mute is taken back, Social Patch pauses the tap and asks. Go ahead, and the tap goes through as if nothing happened. Change your mind, and it doesn't. Settings shows which pauses each platform supports, and you can turn any of them off.

  4. A breath first. Every prompt starts with a short breath in, three seconds by default, then the coach's message, then your choices a couple of seconds later, so you read before you answer. You can change the timings or turn it off in Settings.

  5. Reminders. A banner appears every 10 minutes and every 20 posts by default. Inside a timed plan they wait until your time is up, and then the question is simply: keep going, or head out? Leave two unanswered and the next one asks as a prompt instead. You set the thresholds, and the app goes by your answers, never by a rule about how much is too much.

  6. A summary when you leave. One card with the session's figures: time, posts seen, interactions, how the plan went, and your second thoughts. Then a short check-in: how do you feel now, and, if your plan had no time limit, did you stick to it?

How you use it, not just how long

The Progress report sets your own figures against your own usual, over 7, 30, or 90 days: how many sessions opened with a plan and how many plans you kept, how often you chose not to open, and how often you chose differently at a pause. Going ahead counts as a choice too. No streaks, no scores, no verdicts.

The coach

The coach writes its reminders and prompts on your phone, from your own session: the time, the posts you've seen, what you've tapped, and the tone of what you're reading and writing. That takes an iPhone with Apple Intelligence. Without it, you get the app's own written reminders, and everything else works the same.

What it changes, and what it doesn't

Social Patch changes one thing on the platforms' pages: it stops their prompts to open or install their own apps, hiding the banners and not following the links, so the page you came for stays usable. It never hides or changes ads or posts, never acts on your behalf, and never stores platform content. The friction it adds is entirely its own layer: plans, pauses, and reminders you chose.

Privacy is the product

All analysis happens on your phone. When Social Patch reads the tone of a comment you're about to post, your unpublished words never leave your device. Session history is counts and labels only, never what you read or wrote, and it stays on your device for six months. Clear it any time in Settings. The privacy policy has the details.

What you need

An iPhone with iOS 26 or later. The coach also needs Apple Intelligence turned on, which takes an iPhone 15 Pro or newer. Social Patch is free: no account to make, no ads, nothing to buy.