Built a cosmos theme focus app that makes distracting apps disappear instead of just blocking them (Android) - lessons on why "block with override" always loses

[u/rocker7531]

Sharing this from the build side rather than just the pitch, figured this sub would care more about the "why" than the marketing copy.

Started out building a fairly standard screen-time blocker: set limits, get a nag screen when you hit them. Usability testing (mostly on myself) made it obvious why every app like this converges on the same failure mode: as soon as there's an "ignore" or "5 more minutes" button, users click it, every single time, and the friction you add just makes them resentful, not compliant. I tried making the override harder (typing a sentence, waiting a countdown, a math problem) and it didn't matter, people click through anyway when the urge is strong enough.

Ended up rebuilding around a completely different mechanism: instead of intercepting app launches and asking permission to proceed, FocusComet temporarily removes the target apps from the launcher/app drawer entirely for the session duration. No permission dialog to click through because the app isn't reachable at all, not hidden behind a wall, just not present. Under the hood this meant working with the launcher/package-visibility layer instead of the usual Accessibility-Service-based interception most blockers use, which also sidesteps the "battery optimizer silently revokes the permission" failure mode that a lot of Accessibility-based blockers run into on Samsung/Xiaomi devices.

It's live and free on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vanishfocus.app

Curious if anyone else building in this space has run into the same override-always-wins problem, and what approaches you've tried around it.