Lock your apps behind a real key.
Key is a small NFC token that locks the distracting apps on your iPhone. To unlock them, you walk over and scan it. That walk is the whole point.
Set it up once. Use it in one tap.
- 01
Choose your apps
One list, set once. Apple’s Screen Time does the enforcing — Key never even learns which apps you picked.
- 02
Lock
Hold the button, or tap your phone against any Key. The screen floods black and your list goes behind the shield.
- 03
Walk to unlock
The only way back in is a physical scan. If your Key lives in the kitchen, your feeds live in the kitchen.
Locked · since you opened this page
0:00
Locked is a mode, not a setting.
When you lock, the whole app fades to black — every screen, every sheet. No dashboard, no streaks, no red badges. Just a quiet clock, counting the time you got back, until you walk to your Key.
- App timers
- End in an ignore button.
- Grayscale
- You scroll anyway, in grey.
- Deleting the apps
- Reinstalled by Friday.
- Key
- Ends in a walk across the room.
Why a physical object?
Every software blocker ships with its own undo. The limit ends in a button, the button is always one tap away, and the tap always wins at 11pm.
Key moves the undo into the physical world. The apps on your list stay shielded until you stand up, walk to wherever your Key lives, and scan it. Willpower isn’t the mechanism. Distance is.
The object.
| Interface | NFC — tap to scan · no pairing, no Bluetooth |
|---|---|
| Power | None · the chip is passive, nothing to charge |
| Setup | None · sealed at the factory, works on first scan |
| Account | None · no sign-up, no server, nothing leaves your phone |
| Subscription | None · one purchase |
| Emergency unlocks | A small, fixed number · for the day you leave your Key at home |
| Works with | iPhone |
Questions.
Screen Time asks you to negotiate with yourself — every limit ends in an ignore button, and the button always wins at 11pm. Key uses Apple’s same blocking machinery, but the way out isn’t a tap. It’s standing up and walking to wherever your Key lives.
Any Key unlocks any phone — they’re interchangeable, so a spare in a drawer is a real backup. And the app includes a small, fixed number of emergency unlocks for the day you’re caught without one.
No. It’s a passive NFC chip — no battery, nothing to charge, nothing to update. It will outlive your phone.
By default, yes — Key is a tool, not a warden. If you want it stricter, turn on Hard lock and your phone will refuse to delete apps while a lock is running.
Almost nothing. Apple’s Screen Time does the blocking, and by design Key never learns which apps you picked. There’s no account, no server, and nothing leaves your phone.
Not yet. Key is built on Apple’s Screen Time framework, which only exists on iPhone.
Put a walk between you and the scroll.
Get your Key