Show HN: Limit Phone – Hardcore social media blocking for Android (opens in new tab)

I've tried all the app / website blockers on iOS and Android to try and help encourage healthy use of my phone - I particularly wanted to stay away from feeds and doom scrolling.

I needed something that could not easily be circumvented by 'impulsive me' but also didn't block the utility of my phone (e.g. reading a single Reddit post or watching a YouTube video).

In the end I built my own hardcore blocker for Android: Limit Phone.

Features that are different from mainstream blocking apps:

* Blocks apps using Android's 'Device Owner' APIs (like a work profile) - it's impossible to disable the blocks via workarounds.

* Granular blocking of websites, e.g. youtube.com can be blocked, but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyz is allowed.

  * This is done using a custom build of Firefox and blocking all other browsers.

* It comes with a default block list that blocks: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn and a few others.

  * These come with sensible defaults for allowing individual Reddit posts, YouTube videos etc.

* Unblocking requires waiting for a delay, and anything you unblock is automatically re-enabled afterwards.

Limit Phone just launched in beta and works best on 'stock' google android phones (e.g. Pixel). The install process currently requires a factory reset.

A small group of us have been running this system on our phones for a few a months and it's surprising just how effective it is once you set it up.

I built Limit Phone because I wanted something like this to exist as a mechanism for impulsive people like myself to fight back against larger companies optimizing algorithmic feeds to deliberately increase screen time.