About and manifesto
I built the focus app I wished existed.
By one person with an ADHD brain, for people told to just try harder.
Why I made this
I have an ADHD brain. I lost too many evenings to a feed I did not even enjoy.
You know the moment: you surface from a scroll and cannot remember why you opened the app. The phone was in my hand before I had decided anything. "Just one more" became an hour, and the hour became the night.
I tried the blockers. They put up a wall. I sat there, still wanting something, then found my way around it within a day.
The wall was never the point. The craving on the other side was. So I built friction, not a wall: it catches the reach, answers the craving in 60 seconds, then lets me back in if I still want it.
I am one person, not a growth team. I left out the streaks and the spins that would have kept you hooked, because I wanted the thing I actually needed, not a new compulsion.
I am still building it, in the open, and I read every email myself.
Raymond, the maker of Mote
The promise underneath everything
I built Mote for my own brain first. Every choice in it is a choice I needed: a catch instead of a wall, a better 60 seconds instead of a guilt trip, and no streak waiting to punish me when I slip.
Raymond, the maker of Mote
And I will not sell you a lie about control. No app on an iPhone is truly unbeatable, so Mote does not pretend to be a wall you cannot climb. It gives you friction: a catch, a better 60 seconds, then back in if you still want it. The only hard stop is the daily limit you set yourself.
Friction, not a wall.
What I refuse
Every one would lift retention and revenue. They are left out on purpose, so one compulsion is not quietly traded for another.
Honest about what Mote is
iPhone only, iOS 26+
It uses Apple's Screen Time and Family Controls.
It depends on Apple
Billing runs through the App Store. The catch leans on Apple's frameworks.
It can be turned off
A determined person can always switch it off. Mote is a gentle catch, not a cage.
In TestFlight public beta. Coming to the App Store.
Answer the next urge.
Or just say hello: hello@mote.applover.top. A real person reads it.