Mado

Marcin Piechaczek — Wed, 26 Aug 2026 14:07:26 +0000

Mado is an app blocker for iPhone built on one observation: the problem is
rarely the app itself, it is opening the app without ever deciding to.

You pick the apps that pull you in. Instagram, TikTok, X, Reddit, YouTube,
news, whatever your list looks like. From then on, opening one of them does not
open a feed. It opens a shield, and the shield gives you two buttons and no
third. Close the app, or enter for fifteen minutes.

Fifteen minutes is the only unit Mado deals in, and every app gets its own
budget for the day. You set that budget by picking a focus mode: Shizuku
(滴, droplet) gives three sessions per app per day, Nagare (流, flow) gives two,
Izumi (泉, spring) gives one. Spend an app's sessions and that app is locked
until midnight. No extend button, no snooze, no five more minutes.

The part that makes it hold is what happens when you try to loosen your own
rules. Raising your session count or dropping an app from the list does not
take effect until the next midnight, while tightening applies immediately. The
version of you at 11pm cannot overrule the version of you that set the limit.
That is the loophole most blockers leave open, and closing it is the whole
product.

The shield is where the work happens. Doomscrolling is not usually a decision,
it is a reflex: the phone is already in your hand and the feed is already
loading before you notice. Mado interrupts the reflex, hands the choice back,
and counts what you decided. A hundred closed shields is roughly twenty five
hours that did not go into a feed.What is inside:

Shields on the apps and categories you choose, built on Apple's Screen Time
API. No VPN, no configuration profile, nothing rerouting your traffic.

Toki, a schedule that runs itself. Set work hours, a wind-down or weekend rules
once and stop thinking about it.

Deep Focus, an on-demand lock for the stretches when you want the phone out of
the way entirely.

Insights: pauses declined, sessions used, hours reclaimed, and a daily streak.

Seven achievements marked with Japanese kanji, from the first pause (一) to
mastery (道), drawn in sumi-e ink rather than confetti.

A Home Screen widget showing time saved and your current streak.

Everything stays on the device. Mado uses Apple's Screen Time API locally, has
no account and sends nothing to a server. It has no feed and no notifications
competing for the attention it is meant to protect.

Free to download with a free trial, then a subscription. Requires iOS 26 or
later.

Mado (窓) means window in Japanese. One window between you and the scroll, and
you decide what happens in it.

DEV Community: Marcin Piechaczek

Mado