The blog

How the apps on your phone are built to hold you, what Linger does about it, and why none of that requires knowing anything about you.

• Why you cannot put the phone down, and why that is the design

  The feed is not testing your willpower. It is running four specific techniques, and they have names.

• What Linger actually does

  A calm timer, a breath, and something you already said you would rather be doing. No blocking, no streaks, and nothing you cannot dismiss.

• Privacy is not a feature here, it is the only way this works

  An app about your attention has to know what you open. Here is why that data never leaves your phone, and what we gave up to keep it that way.