Hi folks, This update comes with some useful new features, design improvements, and under-the-hood improvements. Hide Distracting Elements - Each of your own picks now has a tick box, like the built-in options. Untick a pick to show that part of the page again without deleting it. - Editing a pick has a new design. On iPhone it fills the extension sheet at its current size, and the help icon next to Selector shows a short tip with a link instead of leaving the page. - Long lists of picks show the first four, with "Show more" for the rest. Picks without a name show their selector, cut short at the end. - Facebook: fixed hiding Stories, Reels and People you may know in the feed, and the Reels carousel and Reels button in search, and added Suggested groups. - Google: fixed the sponsored products background - Instagram: Reels now also hides the Reels tab and reels in the posts grid on profiles, and the remaining posts close the gaps. - LinkedIn: fixed hiding notification dots on small screens. - Reddit: fixed Popular, which no longer leaves an empty gap in the sidebar, and the feed now stays hidden when you switch to Best, Hot, New, Top or Rising. - WhatsApp: fixed hiding message previews, profile pictures, and the Status, Channels and Communities buttons. - X: fixed Who to follow, and added Grok AI selector. - YouTube: fixed the voice search button, which now hides with the search bar, and the thumbnail setting, which now also covers Playables, and added Playables and Explore more topics on the home page. Accountability - While settings are locked, your ticked picks can't be unticked or removed, and only their name can be edited. Undo in pick mode is greyed out. Remember that the app is open source — keep your feedback and suggestions coming at https://github.com/digitalhabits/dh-focus Cheers, Ulrik & all of us at Centre for Digital Habits

Hi folks, This update comes with some design improvements and under-the-hood improvements. Hide Distracting Elements - Greyscale now greys the whole page, including things a site keeps on top such as chat bubbles and cookie banners, while Focus's own picker bar and delay screen stay in colour. - Pick… now only affects the tab you are in, not every open tab on that site or your other computers. - Picking no longer dims the page on some sites, and the highlight stays on the element as you scroll. - Undo on the picker bar only appears when there is something on the page to undo. - The picker bar now fits its text, and its count of hidden elements updates when you change your picks in the popup. Delay Opening Websites - Turning Delay off during a countdown now ends the countdown straight away. Redirects - Editing a redirect is more reliable: moving between fields keeps your place, and an emptied field no longer looks saved when it isn't. Accountability - Lock in is only offered when there is something to lock; otherwise Focus tells you so. - After you lock in, a short message explains how to unlock. Privacy - Digital Habits: Focus now sends one anonymous count a day, only on days it has a rule on a site you visit, so we know how many people use it. It contains nothing about the sites you visit or your settings, and you can turn it off in Settings under "Send anonymous usage count". The welcome screen explains this under "Private by design". Fixes & Polish - The popup has been redesigned, with Greyscale, Delay and Redirect as compact cards at the top that show their current setting. - The welcome screen has been simplified around a short "Private by design" note. - The design of the Settings screen has been improved. Remember that the app is open source — keep your feedback and suggestions coming at https://github.com/digitalhabits/dh-focus Cheers, Ulrik & all of us at Centre for Digital Habits

Hi folks, This update comes with some helpful improvements! - Meet Digital Habits: Focus! Renamed from ReDD Focus (also formerly Viking Focus / MindShield) as part of the move from the Reduce Digital Distraction (ReDD) Project to Centre for Digital Habits (digitalhabits.org). - "Digital Habits: Blocker": In-app references to the companion desktop blocker now use its new Digital Habits: Blocker name. - "digitalhabits.org protected": The Centre for Digital Habits site is treated as a protected host so Focus does not hide or redirect it. Please keep suggesting improvements to the app - you can do so at https://github.com/ulyngs/digital-habits-focus We hope you're enjoying Digital Habits: Focus! - Ulrik, Tiago, & the Centre for Digital Habits Team (digitalhabits.org)

Hi folks, This update comes with some exciting new features and helpful improvements! Delay opening distracting websites: - "Delay before a site opens": Take a breath and consider your intention online by choosing to delay opening certain websites. Toggle it per site from the Custom section. - "Configurable delay length": Choose a delay between 5 and 600 seconds (default 10). - "Shared unlock / delay message": The Settings “Unlock / delay message” appears on both the unlock countdown and the delay screen (default: “What's your intention?”). Redirects to another page / website - "Redirects when you open a website": Redirect yourself to either another page on the website via a relative link (e.g. /feed/subscriptions) or to another website (e.g. wikipedia.org). Toggle and add a redirect for the current website from the Custom section. - "Redirects at a glance": See active redirects to your current page. Edit or delete them as you wish. - "Infinite redirect protection": Redirects from site A to site B will not be allowed if there is already a redirect from site B to site A. Other improvements: - "Accessibility improvements": Extension-wide improvements for keyboard-only users. - "Collapsible Custom section": Custom collapses by default on sites that already have pre-configured hide options, and expands by default on other sites; the open/closed state is remembered per site. - "Custom section chrome": Eyebrow and chevron alignment cleaned up for the collapsible Custom header. - "Theme (was Appearance)": Settings rename Appearance → Theme, with a chevron control and a tighter hit target on the selector. - "UK greyscale spelling": Greyscale uses the UK spelling consistently. - "Secondary text spacing": Line spacing and size for helper copy (e.g. YouTube preview tips) are easier to read when text wraps. - "Numeric keyboard for number fields": Delay and similar numeric inputs use the numeric keyboard where appropriate. - "Sheet no longer jumps to full height": Typing in popup inputs no longer forces the iOS sheet to expand to its maximum height. Please keep suggesting improvements to the app - you can do so at https://github.com/ulyngs/reddfocus-open-source We hope you're enjoying ReDD Focus! - Ulrik, Tiago, & the Centre for Digital Habits Team (digitalhabits.org)

Hi folks, This update comes with some key improvements: - fixed the footer design in the extension popup - restored and improved scroll behaviour when selectors have visual overflow - improved design of the popup throughout - "Leave a review" now correctly opens up the App Store - when installing the app, initialisation opens YouTube in Safari instead of opening the YouTube app Remember ReDD Focus is open source - keep the feedback coming at https://github.com/ulyngs/redd-focus-web Cheers, Ulrik, Tiago, & the Centre for Digital Habits Team (digitalhabits.org)

Hi folks, This update comes with some exciting new features and improvements: - Settings lock is now available on any website, not just predefined platforms - Redesigned the lock confirmation and improved functionality - Fixed misleading "needs to initialise" copy on unsupported pages (e.g. chrome://) — the popup now shows a clear message instead Remember ReDD Focus is open source -- keep the feedback coming at https://github.com/ulyngs/redd-focus-web Cheers, Ulrik & the ReDD Team

Hi folks, This update comes with some exciting new features and improvements: - Grayscale: on any website, there is now a button to turn that website into grayscale, reducing its allure and how distracting it can be - 'Lock' mode: instead of having a delay to hold you accountable when opening the extension, you can now 'Lock' a website's settings. This means that any elements hidden will not be able to be shown again unless 'unlocking', which requires waiting for the customisable accountability delay to end. - Several design improvements on iOS - Improvements to how hiding custom elements work on iOS, making it more stable Remember ReDD Focus is open source -- keep the feedback coming at https://github.com/ulyngs/redd-focus-web Cheers, Ulrik & the ReDD Team

Hi folks, This update comes with some design improvements and styling tweaks! Remember ReDD Focus is open source -- keep the feedback coming at https://github.com/ulyngs/redd-focus-web Cheers, Ulrik & the ReD Team

Hi folks, time for a spring update! This version does three things: - gives the extension a style refresh -- we hope you like the new look! - fixes a number of things that had broken due to website changes (e.g., LinkedIn now works again) - makes it possible for the extension to work in tandem with our blocking tool ReDD Block in the future, for website blocking - more on this soon! :) Cheers from all of us, Ulrik and the ReDD Team

Hi folks, happy new year! To celebrate the beginning of new year, we've painstakingly worked through as many of your GitHub requests and other feedback to fix the million little things the app needed. Below you'll find the full list of updates. Please enjoy and keep the ideas coming at https://github.com/ulyngs/reddfocus-open-source/issues or email us at team@reddfocus.org New features: 1. added dark mode! 2. redesigned custom-selector, button, and progressive feedback on hidden elements 3. make google ads highlighting colour more red and account for dark mode on browsers 4. YouTube: add ability to hide the "You" section in the menu bar 5. YouTube: thumbnail styling now includes ads and sponsored posts 6. Facebook: add ability to hide "People you may know" on the feed 7. Facebook: add ability to hide "Contacts" on right sidebar on desktop 8. Instagram: add ability to hide suggested posts 9. Instagram: add ability to hide notification badges 10. X/Twitter: add ability to hide "Explore" section 11. WhatsApp Web: add ability to hide "Status", "Channels", and "Communities" tabs 12. WhatsApp Web: add ability to hide chat profile pictures 13. Reddit: add ability to hide left and right sidebars on desktop 14. Reddit: add ability to hide AI Related Answers/Posts sections on mobile Bug fixes and improvements: 1. fixed all functionalities 2. element hiding, reappearing, and renaming works fluidly across all states (session-only, saving as default, auto-save ON) 3. Instagram: renamed "instagramSuggestions" as "instagramSuggestedFollows" and fixed functionality 4. YouTube: hiding "Subscriptions" now hides all subscribed-to channels and all buttons related to the Subscriptions 5. YouTube: fixed issue where "Explore" section wasn't being hidden 6. YouTube: removed "Entire right sidebar" as functionality replaced by Cinema mode 7. YouTube: view numbers now hides everywhere 7. Facebook: rename "Chat" to "Group chats" to mirror functionality and add "Community chats" to it 8. Facebook: separate "Stories" and "Reels" into their own toggles and fix functionality 9. Instagram: "Reels" now hides Reels in feeds ## perhaps look to separate out "Reels in feed" and "Reels tabs" ## can remove if people find this to be too much 10. LinkedIn: feed is now hidden everywhere except when viewing a specific post 11. Reddit: "Feed" now only targets home feed and not community/popular feeds 12. Reddit: rename "Popular communities" to "Best of Reddit" to mirror functionality and hide entire "Best" section in sidebar Cheers, Ulrik, Tiago, Konrad, and the Reduce Digital Distraction Project (reddfocus.org)

Hi folks, this update brings some quality-of-life improvements: 1. **Clearer instructions**: When you first open ReDD Focus, we have made some visual instructions that hopefully will you get you instantly up and running with the extension! 2. **Name & edit your custom selectors**: Custom elements previously was only shown with whatever mysterious CSS selector was used to hide them. You can now provide your own name to any hidden element (e.g. 'Instagram Reels') and it'll be shown instead of the CSS. You can also make direct adjustments to the CSS if you're a power user! 3. **Various minor improvements**: The google ads background highlighting is now nicer to look at. Please note that in this update we've also deprecated the direct ability to hide ads on Google --- this app is not meant to undermine developers' business models, it is only meant to help you hide elements that does not work for your attentional vulnerabilities. If you look up how to inspect the elements on a web page, you can still make any modifications you would like, using the new ability to edit CSS selectors directly. - Cheers from Ulrik, Konrad, Tiago, and the Reduce Digital Distraction Team (see what we're up to at reddfocus.org) P.S: Keep the suggestions for improvement coming at https://github.com/ulyngs/mindshield-open-source

Hi folks, this update... drumroll ... changes the name to 'ReDD Focus' and gives it an even cooler ship icon! ('ReDD' stands for 'Reduce Digital Distraction) Also, fixes a number of pieces of functionality that had broken over time, due to various website changes. As always, remember that the extension is open source. Keep your suggestions coming at: https://github.com/ulyngs/reddfocus-open-source Enjoy! - Ulrik, Konrad, Tiago, and the Reduce Digital Distraction Team (see what we're up to at redd-project.org)

Hi folks, this update introduces site-specific accountability features. What does *that* mean? Well it means that you can e.g. add delay to change settings on YouTube.com, without adding delay to change settings on google.com. # NEW ACCOUNTABILITY FEATURES ## Site-specific accountability The settings for delay or auto-saving settings are now site-specific, so your settings for e.g. YouTube.com can be different from google.com. ## Makes it possible to show/hide features without it becoming the default By default, the extension automatically saves your settings when you change them. However, you might want to temporarily show e.g. recommended videos on YouTube without that becoming your new default. This is now possible: In settings you can now disable auto-saving of settings. If you do, you will need to explicitly click 'Save settings' before settings are saved. MINOR IMPROVEMENTS & BUG FIXES - YouTube: auto-playing previews are now (finally!) automatically disabled if you hide recommended videos - LinkedIn: hiding the feed now (finally) only hides it on the landing page - Settings popup: added a 'close' button to the settings popup for more intuitive navigation - On/off switches: these have been removed as they serve little purpose in practice - Nicer styling of delay timer settings Cheers, Ulrik & the ReDD Team redd-project.org

Hi folks, this update makes it possible to hide google's AI Overview. Cheers, Ulrik & the ReDD Team

Hi folks, this minor update makes design tweaks to the new app icon. Cheers, Ulrik & the ReDD Team

Hi folks, this version... *drumroll*... changes the name! Welcome to... VikingFocus! :D Also a number of bug fixes: - you can now again blur / black out video thumbnails on YouTube - improves FB newsfeed selector on mobile Cheers, Ulrik & the ReDD Team

Hi folks, this update improves the app's usability and brings important code improvements that improves the reliability of the app (the under-the-hood improvements are so big that we're calling this 3.0 even though you might notice much difference... :) All praise @kasnder!). Enjoy! - Ulrik & the ReDD Team

Hi folks, this update adds a much-requested feature and fixes a few things that were broken by changes on the Instagram and LinkedIn website structure: - NEW: on Instagram's Search page you can now hide the distracting content grid - FIXED: Instagram feed & story-hiding now works again; LinkedIn feed & notification count hiding now works again Remember that the extension is open source -- keep the suggestions coming on https://github.com/ulyngs/mindshield-open-source Enjoy! - Ulrik

Hi folks, this update 1. adds a help button with FAQs, including what to do if the extension becomes irresponsive. 2. fixes a few bugs, including ensuring that the checkboxes with pre-configured options are only shown on the correct URLs, and removing the superfluous refresh button for custom selectors (the list is updated automatically). Enjoy! - Ulrik

Hi folks, this update - fixes a bug that caused the extension to sometimes become unresponsive - adds the ability to temporarily show a custom element you've hidden, so it's easy to see what effects your custom hiding has Enjoy! Best, Ulrik

Hi folks, two minor improvements in this update: - comments-hiding on YouTube now works again! - adds a prompt that if the settings aren't loading, MindShield needs to initialise by closing down Safari fully and re-opening it Keep the feedback coming on the open-source GitHub repo: https://github.com/ulyngs/mindshield-open-source Enjoy, Ulrik

Hi everyone, this update  1. fixes a critical bug where the extension sometimes did not work until you closed and re-opened Safari 2. makes it possible to exit selection mode for hiding custom elements by simply clicking the selection button one more time. Remember the extension is open source - flag issues & submit suggestions for improvement here: https://github.com/ulyngs/mindshield-open-source/issues Enjoy! - Ulrik

Hi folks, this update makes it easier to select custom elements to hide: you can now hide multiple elements one after another, easily undo, and simply mark 'done' when you're done. :) Also improves font size in the delay message. Enjoy! - Ulrik

Hi folks, this update fixes a bug which could cut off part of the displayed YouTube window. Keep the feedback coming at https://github.com/ulyngs/mindshield-open-source Cheers, Ulrik

Hi folks, follow-up update that fixes a few bugs introduced in version 2.0. Also updates the extension description shown in settings. If a website is not immediately responding to the upgraded version, just refresh the page and it should work! (Version 2.0+ manages the hiding functionality slightly differently, so a page you're already using may require a refresh the first time you use the new version of MindShield. Any trouble, let me know on the GitHub repo or at ulrik@redd-project.org) Cheers, Ulrik