Focus sessions that iOS enforces itself
Building Quietly on the Screen Time API, with no account and no data collection.
The idea
Focus apps usually ask you to be disciplined: a timer runs, and you promise not to open anything. Quietly lets the system do the enforcing. During a session the apps you picked simply will not open.
Screen Time does the hard part
Apple’s Screen Time frameworks let an app block other apps without ever learning which ones they are. You choose them in a system picker, Quietly receives an opaque token, and iOS applies the block. Quietly itself never sees your list.
No account
Because the system holds the sensitive part, there is nothing to sync and nothing to store on a server. Sessions and settings live on the phone. There is no sign-up screen, no subscription and no analytics.
What was hard
The Screen Time APIs are strict about what runs where. The blocking happens in small extensions with tight memory limits, and testing needs a real device. Most of the work was making the session timer, the blocking extension and the widget agree on when a session starts and ends.
