Clam: a fold-to-focus app blocker for iPhone
One-tap screen-time blocker built on Apple's Screen Time API, with a Live Activity countdown, a branded block screen and streaks. No account, no backend.
An AI experiment
Clam is one of two apps I’m building to test how far AI can carry a real product. Roughly 95 percent of the strategy, copy, Swift code, extensions and launch material was generated by Claude and Grok; I directed, tested on device and made the calls. The full process is on the Apps page.
The idea
Most app blockers make you set up schedules and then let you skip them. Clam has one button. Pick the apps that steal your time once, tap “Clam up”, choose 25, 50 or 90 minutes, and close your phone. Open Instagram before the timer ends and you get a block screen instead of a feed. Quitting early takes a ten-second hold and resets your streak.
It’s designed around the iPhone Duo, where the countdown sits on the outer display while the phone is folded, but it works identically on every iPhone through the lock screen and Dynamic Island.
What got built
- The SwiftUI app: a nine-step onboarding that sells the habit before the paywall, a StoreKit 2 subscription flow with a lifetime option, the home screen, active session, result and share card, settings, and a Siri and Action Button intent.
- A Shield Configuration extension for the branded block screen, a Device Activity monitor that clears the shield when a session ends even if the app was killed, and a Live Activity plus Home Screen widget.
- Real blocking through Apple’s Screen Time entitlement rather than a Shortcut you can bypass, with everything stored in an App Group and no server anywhere.
- Records and badges for personal bests and streaks, with Game Center planned for leaderboards so social features never require an account.
- The launch kit: App Store listing, entitlement request, screenshots plan, landing page and legal pages on GitHub Pages, and a creator outreach plan.
Status
In development. The core loop, extensions and launch kit are built; the App Store launch is planned around the Family Controls entitlement and the iPhone Duo release. Free for seven days, then a yearly, monthly or lifetime purchase.