Ready to lock in?
Download free on iOS or Android
Lock in as a squad.
Lock In Squad is a free app blocker for iPhone and Android, with no subscription. Pick the apps that distract you and start a timer or stopwatch. Those apps stay blocked until you hold the Lock Out button, early or after the timer reaches zero. Squad features, so you can lock in with friends, are rolling out next.
Focus is easier when your friends are in it too.
The next update lets you make a squad, invite your friends, and lock in together. Everyone picks the apps they want blocked, and you can see who is locked in right now and how long everyone has put in this week.
Don't be that person
The Virgin Doomscroller
- ✗Constantly distracted by phone notifications
- ✗Scrolls social media for hours instead of working
- ✗Doesn't use Lock In Squad even though it's free
- ✗Misses deadlines and feels guilty
- ✗Zero self-control, zero productivity
- ✗Wishes they could focus but does nothing about it
The Chad Locked In
- ✓Uses Lock In Squad to block distracting apps
- ✓Builds daily streaks and tracks progress
- ✓Actually gets work done on time
- ✓Earns rewards for focused time
- ✓Takes control of their productivity
- ✓Locks in and achieves their goals
How It Works
Get started with Lock In Squad in 5 simple steps
Download Lock In Squad
Get Lock In for free on iOS or Android from the App Store or Google Play.
Grant Permissions
Grant the iOS or Android permission needed to block apps from the Block or Settings tab.
Select Your Apps
Choose which apps to block when you need to focus. The guide inside the app will walk you through it.
Start Your Timer
Set your focus duration and lock in. Your selected apps will be blocked during this time.
Stay Focused
Work without distractions. Build streaks, earn rewards, and track your productivity stats.
Lock In Squad uses conscious friction to help you resist distractions without completely locking you out. You can end a session early by holding the Lock Out button for 1 to 10 seconds, however long you set in Settings (1 second by default). The hold gives you a moment to reconsider before the whole session ends.
In 2025, the internet started talking about the great lock in
Get serious about focus and productivity
"You can feel it in your bones... something is shifting"
"Will be talked about for generations"
Whether you're studying for exams, building a business, or just trying to be more present, Lock In Squad helps you stay focused on what matters most. Download for free and start your own lock in journey today.
Real Users, Real Results
See what Lock In Squad users are saying about their productivity transformation
"Actually motivates me to lock in and get stuff done"
App Store review, 11/27/2025
"...a lot easier to actually stay off the apps that you're avoiding, rather than the soft suggestions that you see in competitors' apps"
App Store review, 11/28/2025
"Gamifies focusing on tasks and turns it into a rewarding experience. Great for my ADHD."
App Store review, 12/03/2025
Features
Focus Lock
Block selected apps and stay on task with a stopwatch or countdown timer. On iPhone you can block whole categories like Social, Games, and Entertainment, while on Android you pick apps one by one. Simple start and stop, plus a customizable hold-to-unlock delay that keeps every unlock a conscious decision.
- ✓Block whole categories (iPhone) or single apps (iPhone and Android)
- ✓Timer or stopwatch mode
- ✓Adjustable hold-to-unlock delay
Blacklist & Whitelist Modes
Android: Choose your blocking strategy with Blacklist mode to block specific unproductive apps, or Whitelist mode to allow only productive apps and block everything else.
iOS: Apple's Screen Time blocks the apps, categories, and websites you pick. The next update brings Whitelist mode to iPhone: pick up to 50 apps to keep open, and every other app and website stays blocked during a session. Phone, Settings and anything under Always Allowed in Screen Time stay open.
- ✓Blacklist: Block specific distracting apps
- ✓Whitelist: Allow only productive apps (Android now, iPhone in the next update)
- ✓Color coding on app lists for visual feedback
- ✓iOS uses Screen Time integration for blocking
Earn Currency & Customize
Earn "minutes" for every focused session. Spend your earned currency to unlock vault and safe graphics, backgrounds, button colors, and borders. The next update adds four safes to buy with minutes: a Piggy Bank, a Vault Door, a safe hidden behind a painting, and a Pumpkin sold only in October. Make the app truly yours while staying motivated to focus more.
Toggle between dark and light mode in Settings to match your preference.
- ✓Earn currency for focused time
- ✓Watch rewarded ads for 10 bonus minutes
- ✓Unlock vault graphics, backgrounds, and button styles
- ✓Switch between dark and light mode
- ✓Personalize your experience
iOS Notes: If a second rewarded ad won't load in the same session, force close the app and reopen it. If your apps are still blocked after you lock out, lock in again and then lock out right away, which clears the block.
Streaks & Stats
Open the Statistics tab to see your streak, focus charts, your peak hours, and a heatmap of the days you locked in, laid out like a GitHub contribution graph.
- ✓Build daily streaks
- ✓Heatmap of your focus days, like GitHub's
- ✓Streak and focus totals on the Statistics tab
- ✓Miss one of your chosen work days and the streak resets
- ✓Share your streak as an image
See the app
Screens from the next update.
Lock in with friends, rolling out next
The next update adds friends: see each other's streaks and stats, lock in together in a group session, and build focus habits as a squad.
- Find friends by username
- Send & accept friend requests
- View friends' profiles, streaks, and commit graph
- Privacy first, with your stats gated until you accept
In the next update, refer a friend and you both get 1,000 minutes
The update adds a referral code to your profile. When a friend signs up with it, you each get 1,000 bonus minutes to spend on customization.
Simple, Fair Pricing
No subscriptions. No hidden fees. All features free forever.
Everything you need to stay focused
- Unlimited focus sessions
- App blocking (whole categories on iPhone, single apps on both)
- Detailed stats, streaks, and analytics
- Customizable hold-to-unlock (1-10s)
- Biweekly productivity digest newsletter
- Earn in-app currency for cosmetics
- Dark and light mode toggle
- An ad when you end a stopwatch session or quit a timer early. Finish your timer and there is no ad.
Pay once and it is yours forever
- Everything in Free
- Remove all ads forever
- A Premium badge next to your name (next update)
- A Diamond safe (next update)
- That's it. We don't believe in paywalling features. Focus should be accessible to everyone.
Unlike apps that charge a monthly subscription of up to $19.99, Lock In Squad gives you everything free, with one optional $4.99 payment to remove ads.
Questions
Is there a free app blocker for iPhone?
Yes. Lock In Squad is free on the App Store, listed as "Lock In - App Blocker" until the next update, and blocking, stats and streaks cost nothing. It blocks through Apple's Screen Time, so your iPhone needs iOS 16 or later. Screen Time's own limits are free as well, though by default you can ignore them once reached.
What is the best free app blocker?
It depends on where you get distracted. For a phone, Lock In Squad keeps every feature free on iPhone and Android, with unlimited sessions. Opal's free plan, by comparison, allows 1 rule, and Freedom's runs only sessions you start on the spot. For a computer, Cold Turkey's free version blocks websites.
Can app blockers on iPhone actually prevent you from opening apps?
Yes. Blockers built on Apple's Screen Time framework have iOS put a block screen over a chosen app, so you can't use it until the block ends. What differs is how hard that block is to lift early, from a single tap to no way out at all, and Lock In Squad sits between the two with its hold.
Do app blockers work?
They can. In a 2025 randomized trial in PNAS Nexus, blocking mobile internet for two weeks improved sustained attention. In a 2023 PNAS study of the one sec app, a pop-up with a 10-second wait before a chosen app opened made people back out about a third of the time, and after six weeks they opened those apps 57% less.