Brick app logo VS
EvilEye amulet design

Brick blocks your apps.
EvilEye rewires your brain.

App blockers treat you like you can't be trusted. EvilEye builds the self-control muscle so you don't need a blocker at all. One smile. Five seconds. A completely different relationship with your phone.

Download EvilEye — Free
Rated 4.7 on the App Store
EvilEye user EvilEye user EvilEye user EvilEye user
Before EvilEye After EvilEye
Screen time before EvilEye Screen time after EvilEye
The Inconvenient Truth

Blocking apps is the diet culture
of screen time

Crash diets don't work. Neither does locking yourself out of your own phone. Here's why the abstinence model fails — and why most people quit their app blocker within months.

🔒
It's a crutch, not a cure

The moment you un-brick, you're right back where you started — with zero new skills for managing impulses. You're outsourcing your willpower to a plastic square. Indefinitely.

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The forbidden fruit effect

Research on restrictive dieting shows that hard prohibition intensifies cravings. When apps are blocked, the desire to use them actually increases. Binge-scrolling rebound is real.

⚡
Life doesn't follow a schedule

Need to check Instagram for a work DM? Either walk to the device or burn one of your 5 emergency unbricks. Frustration and resentment lead to abandonment.

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"You can't be trusted"

Brick's entire premise is that you're incapable of good decisions, so it takes the choice away. This undermines self-efficacy and reinforces learned helplessness around technology.

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$59 for extra friction

Buy a device. Keep it charged. Keep it accessible. Remember to brick and unbrick. The people who need the most help are the least likely to maintain a complex system.

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High abandonment, low growth

Physical products create adoption friction. When novelty wears off and real life gets complicated, the path of least resistance is to leave the Brick in a drawer.

How EvilEye Works

Three steps. No hardware.

EvilEye doesn't fight your apps. It changes how you relate to them — so you're the one in control, not the algorithm.

EvilEye is Active
Smile to unlock your protected apps
😊 Smile To Unlock

Choose your protected apps

Select the apps that steal your time — Instagram, TikTok, X, Reddit. EvilEye creates a checkpoint.

Person smiling to unlock phone
5 sec

Smile for 5 seconds

A neurological pattern interrupt that activates conscious decision-making and shifts your emotional state.

Smiling person
Reopen Instagram Instagram for
5min
15min
30min
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Stay Protected
EvilEye user
Reopen Instagram Instagram for
5min
15min
30min
60min
Stay Protected

Set your own time limit

You decide how long. 5 minutes? 30? Your call. When time's up, EvilEye checks in again.

The Science Behind the Smile

Why five seconds of smiling
changes everything

This isn't wellness fluff. EvilEye's mechanism is grounded in established behavioral psychology and neuroscience.

Cognitive Behavioral

Pattern Interruption

Habitual behaviors run on autopilot neural pathways. A smile requirement inserts a deliberate action between trigger and response — the same mechanism used in CBT to break compulsive loops.

Neuroscience

Facial Feedback Activation

The facial feedback hypothesis shows that smiling activates neural pathways associated with positive emotion — even when forced. This shifts your emotional state before you open the app.

Behavioral Design

Implementation Intentions

Research shows "if-then" plans dramatically increase follow-through. EvilEye creates a built-in intention: "If I want to open this app, then I smile first and choose my time."

Self-Determination

Autonomy Preservation

Autonomy is fundamental to lasting motivation. Blocking removes autonomy, creating resentment. EvilEye preserves your sense of choice — making healthy behavior feel self-directed.

Harvard

Grounded in Harvard-researched behavioral science. Pattern interruption, facial feedback, and implementation intentions are all established mechanisms with decades of peer-reviewed research.

References Wegner, D. M. (1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 101(1), 34–52. Wang, D. et al. (2020). Ironic effects of thought suppression: A meta-analysis. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(3), 778–793. Daniel Wegner — Wikipedia Harvard Gazette — Remembering Daniel Wegner
The Real Change

Stop managing a problem.
Start outgrowing it.

"I don't feel disciplined enough" → "I'm building real self-control"
"I can't trust myself with my phone" → "I choose when and how I use it"
"I need something to block me" → "I just need a moment to decide"
"I waste hours without realizing" → "Every session is a conscious choice"

Brick asks: "How do I stop you from using your phone?"
EvilEye asks: "How do I help you become someone who doesn't need to be stopped?"

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"The goal isn't to use your phone less. The goal is to use it on purpose."
— The EvilEye philosophy
FAQ

Common questions

Everything you need to know about making the switch.

You can — but that's actually the point. Even a forced smile requires conscious effort, which breaks the autopilot cycle. Research on facial feedback shows that even a deliberate smile activates positive emotional pathways. The magic isn't in the sincerity — it's in the interruption.
They solve different problems. Brick is for those who want a hard boundary — an abstinence model. EvilEye is for the much larger population who want a healthier relationship with their phone without extreme measures. If you've tried blocking and it didn't stick, EvilEye's mindfulness-based approach may be a better fit.
EvilEye builds a transferable skill — conscious decision-making. Unlike blocking, which only works while active, the awareness habit persists even when you're not using the app. Over time, many users naturally reach for their phone less.
Smile, set a short timer, do what you need to do. It takes 5 seconds. With Brick, you'd need to walk to your device or use one of your limited emergency unbricks. EvilEye is designed for real life.
Yes. The core smile-to-unlock feature is completely free. No device to buy, no subscription required. We believe the tool that helps people build healthier phone habits should be accessible to everyone — not just people willing to spend $59.
Any app on your phone. Most people protect social media (Instagram, TikTok, X, Reddit, YouTube), but you can add anything — dating apps, news apps, games. You choose what gets the smile checkpoint.
EvilEye

One smile. A completely different relationship
with your phone.

No device to buy. No apps to block. No willpower to white-knuckle. Just a 5-second smile that puts you back in control.

Download for iOS — Free
Rated 4.7 on the App Store