Key Please

For iPhone

Key Please

You choose what to block. Someone you trust decides when it opens.

Not in the App Store yet. The link goes here the day it is approved.

The Key Please mark: a shut switch above, an open one below, and a thread running between them.

How it looks

Two phones,
one key.

Yours says whose name is on it. Theirs asks one question and takes five seconds to answer.

The block screen on an iPhone. It reads: Not without asking Dave. Below it, first you have to do 20 press ups, a button that says Ask Dave, and plain words underneath saying Not worth it.
Your phone
The keyholder's screen on an iPhone. Jonah has asked for 15 minutes of a game after tea, with the reason he typed. Two answers at the bottom: Allow, and Not now.
Theirs
A key fob drawn in outline only, never picked up, and a thread that turns back and stops.

The bit nobody expects

Most nights you
just close it.

The block is not the point. Seeing whose name is on the screen and deciding it is not worth the message is.

Under the ask button, in plain words with no button around them: Not worth it. That is the count this app keeps.

How it works

Three things, then
you forget about it.

  1. First

    Pick what to block

    Apps and the websites behind them, because blocking one and leaving the other open blocks nothing.

  2. Then

    Pick who holds the key

    One person. Nothing is blocked until they have read what they are agreeing to and tapped yes.

  3. After that

    Ask them when you want it

    They tap yes or no. If nobody answers, it opens on its own after eight hours.

Your side

A few people, holding
a bit of your phone.

One block and one person is enough for most. If you want more, a different person can hold each.

Holding a key is free, for ever. No accounts, no passwords, anywhere in this app.

The home screen on an iPhone. It reads: 3 people hold a bit of your phone. Below, three blocks with the name of the person holding each and what has not been spent.
Three blocks, three people

What you can block

Everything on this list
leaves a receipt.

It is about the money and the hour, not screen time.

  • Food delivery
  • Alcohol
  • Shopping
  • Betting
  • Crypto and trading
  • Games
  • Spending inside games
  • Social
  • Video
  • Dating
  • Adult sites
A shut switch with its track cut clean through, and the thread running on out of the cut to the keyholder's plate.

Being straight about it

You cannot get
past it quietly.

Anybody can delete an app, and deleting this one takes the block with it. What we promise is that the other person finds out, because their phone notices when yours stops checking in.

Stand your keyholder down
24 hours
The escape hatch
18 hours
Emergency unlock
Now, once a month
Locked out for good
Never

Every one of them tells your keyholder what happened, and none of them says what it thinks you meant by it.

The keyholder's list of keys, with a record underneath of what has happened: the app was removed and put back, and a phone has not checked in for 36 hours.
What the keyholder is told

What reaches them

One short list, and
one much longer one.

They are shown

  • What you asked for
  • The reason you typed
  • How long you asked for
  • Whether your phone is still checking in

They are never shown

  • Your messages
  • Your browsing
  • Where you are
  • Which apps and sites you picked
  • How long you spend on anything
  • When you last opened the app

The last one is a gap, not a policy. Apple hands the app a sealed token and the names of what you picked are not inside it. The privacy policy writes it out in full.

Or hold the key on your child's phone.

Same app, and the wording changes to match: conditions become chores, and no money figure appears anywhere. Nothing is counted about a child's phone.

What this app knows about you

What it costs

The person holding
your key pays nothing.

Free for the first week, then a subscription on the phone being blocked. Cancel it in your iPhone's own settings.

Holding a key
Free, for ever
Accounts or passwords
None
Adverts and trackers
None
The blocking, with no network
Still works
Every way out
Never behind a payment

The figure is shown in the App Store and in the app before you buy anything. It is not printed here, because a price written on a web page is wrong in some country the moment it is typed.