Block distracting apps while you study.

Do Not Disturb isn't enough

Do Not Disturb stops your phone from interrupting you. It does nothing when you interrupt yourself: the quick look at Instagram between two questions that turns into twenty minutes. Most lost study time isn't a notification. It's a thumb opening an app out of habit.

Focus Shield deals with both. It quiets the phone, and it puts a wall in front of the apps you've decided you shouldn't open while you study.

What happens when a session starts

• Your phone goes quiet — Do Not Disturb switches on in priority-only mode, and notifications from the apps you've blocked stop sounding and vibrating.
• The apps you chose are blocked — open one mid-session and a "stay focused" screen steps in and points you back to studying.
• Your timer stays in view — leave the app and a small floating timer keeps the session in sight. This one is optional.
• It all switches off by itself — when the session ends, Do Not Disturb goes back to how you had it and your apps open normally again.

Tap the shield in the app at any time to see how many distractions it has blocked.

No schedule to set up

A separate blocker app works from a schedule you set up in advance, and it has no idea whether you're actually studying. When your day shifts, it blocks you at the wrong time or leaves you wide open at the right one.

Focus Shield has no schedule. It follows your study timer, so it switches on when a session starts and off when the session stops. It also switches on while you read the daily current affairs, because that's study time too. If you'd rather decide for yourself, turn off the automatic start in Settings and switch the shield on from its button when you want it.

The time it protects is the time that counts

Because the shield runs off the same session timer, every minute it guards adds to your study hours and your streak. Your wastage report then shows how much of each planned session you really studied, so you can see whether blocking the apps changed anything.

A one-time setup that explains itself

The first time you start a session on Android, a short walkthrough asks for the permissions the shield needs, one per screen, each explained before Android's settings open: Do Not Disturb access, notification access, permission to keep running in the background, Android's accessibility service (which is what blocks apps) and, if you want it, permission to show the floating timer.

If you ever reinstall the app, Android resets those permissions. The walkthrough simply comes back on your next session.

What it can and can't see

To block an app, Focus Shield has to know which app is on screen. That's all it looks at: the name of the app in front, checked on your phone while a session is running. It never reads your screen, your messages, the text of your notifications or your passwords. The list of apps you block stays on your phone, and nothing about what you opened is sent to us.

Android only, and why

Focus Shield needs to control Do Not Disturb, and on iPhone and iPad Apple doesn't let apps do that. A website can't control a phone at all. So on iPhone, iPad and computers the shield simply doesn't appear, and the timer, your plan, revision, mock tests and Lumi all work exactly the same.