Android
Your phone takes more of the day than you think. OnCrest keeps count, notices when you've drifted past what you meant to do, and steps in to bring you back. It runs entirely on your phone and asks for nothing in return except your own honesty about why you opened the app.
01 / THE SIGNAL WHAT IT READS
OnCrest reads how long your phone's been on, how often you unlock it, when in the day you tend to slip, and which apps pull hardest. All of that comes from the system's own usage figures, and all of it stays on the device. When your day crosses the line you set, or you open an app you've asked it to watch, that's when it says something. It never needs to know what you're doing inside an app to know you've been in there too long.
01-dashboard-ring.png
The usage ring — time against today's budget — with unlock count and the "what I'm noticing" card. Crop tight to the ring.
phone portrait · 1080 × 2160 @ source
02 / HOW FIRM YOU HOLD THE DIAL
Three settings, and you hold the dial. The default is the lightest touch that still works. It only locks you out if you've told it to.
A quiet banner, nothing that takes over the screen.
A pause and a check-in when a watched app opens.
It'll breathe with you and check in, but it won't lock you out unless you ask.
02-firmness-control.png
The Gentle / Firm / Severe control with its explanation line.
phone portrait · settings screen
03 / THE INTERVENTIONS HOW IT STEPS IN
Five ways to land, lightest first. The phone only reaches for the heavier ones once the lighter ones haven't held.
A pause when a watched app opens. A breath first, then a check-in: write why you're here, and a meter tells you in real time how clear that reason is.
03a-breathing-room.png
A clean Breathing Room overlay — the core shot. Capture before launch.
Set a note and a time box before you go in. Say what you came for, pick how long, start the clock. When the time's up it taps you on the shoulder. No auto-lock.
03b-the-deal.png
The "Let's make a deal" sheet — intent, time box, "Start the clock."
A quiet banner, no full screen. The lightest nudge it has.
03c-ambient-banner.png
An ambient banner frame. Capture before launch.
A word about how that felt, once you've come back out.
03d-check-in.png
The check-in overlay. Capture before launch.
When you've asked it to hold the line, it holds it and sends you home. Lifts at midnight, or from settings.
03e-lockdown.png
"That's enough for now… I'm taking you home" — intent quoted back, "Back to home screen."
04 / THE THINKING UNDERNEATH
OnCrest scores how clear your stated intent is, remembers how your days tend to go, clocks the hours you usually drift, and shifts which nudge it reaches for based on what's actually worked on you before. The longer you use it, the better it reads you.
05 / PRIVACY ON-DEVICE
Your usage counts, the intent you write, your settings — all of it lives on the device. The only time OnCrest reaches the network is to check a Pro license, and even that's cached so the app keeps working offline. No analytics. No server reading your day. No account to use it.
Your phone
counts · intent · settings
Server
license check only
cached for offline
06 / HONEST LIMITS WHAT IT WON'T DO
No app on Android can see inside another app, and OnCrest doesn't act like it can. It won't claim to know your scroll speed or whether you finished a video. It knows time, frequency, and timing — and that turns out to be plenty for catching the drift that costs you. Anything past that would be a guess wearing the costume of data, which isn't what this is for.
07 / WITH THE EXTENSION BETTER TOGETHER
If you already run the OnCrest extension on your laptop, the phone app picks up the same habit of mind and covers the screen the extension can't reach. Neither one needs the other. Install whichever fits the device you keep losing time on, or both, and they each hold their own ground.
08 / OUTRO
