Instagram notifications, without Instagram. Your Instagram messages and notifications now arrive from Fluid Friction, even with the real Instagram replaced or deleted. Tap one to land in calm Instagram. It turns on by itself once you're signed in to Instagram in Fluid Friction, and you can switch it off any time in Settings, Notifications. Friends. Add friends with a code and see how your screen time compares, week by week. Share as much or as little as you like, and see where you sit on the global leaderboard under an anonymous name. Keep a replaced app's notifications. A short guide in Settings, Notifications sets up a Shortcuts automation that keeps any replaced app's own notifications, while every open still lands in its calm version. Liquid Glass. A new theme for the whole app. Block screens, your way. Pick Midnight or Daylight in Settings, Appearance. A replaced app's block screen now shows its own icon and how many real opens you have left today. You choose what scrolling out does. The first time you hit your scroll limit, pick what comes next: add more scrolls, take a pause, or close the app. Sharper NFC keys and alarms. Scan the wrong tag and the sheet stays open for the right one. A snoozed alarm counts down on your Lock Screen. Fresh app icons. A new Layered icon set for Pro, and the classic set for everyone. Plus fixes and polish throughout.

Our biggest update yet. Replace your apps. Pick the apps that pull you in, like Instagram, TikTok or YouTube, and tapping them on your Home Screen opens their calm versions in Fluid Friction instead, with your feeds, your friction and your limits. On iOS 26.5 the block screen takes you straight there, no notification to tap. The real app stays installed with your account. Keep it one pause away (breathe, wait, type a phrase, or solve a problem), or let only the calm version open. Blocks that keep their word. A schedule, a bedtime hold, an NFC lock or a focus session that starts while an app is already open now covers it right away. When the real app's window ends, it locks again on time, every time. Time Limits. Give Reels, Shorts, For You and other feeds a daily allowance. When it is used up, that part of the app closes until tomorrow, while messages and search stay open. A feed that ends. Instagram can show just the people you follow, and stop once you're caught up. A simpler setup. Onboarding asks which of your apps should open calm, on one screen. Tap the ? on Home any time to see what's new. Plus: swipe up from any app to reach Fluid Friction Home, a Home banner you can close once you're set up, and fixes throughout.

Block Reels, and scroll the ones you keep without losing an hour. Reels blocking, cleaner. Turn on Block Reels and Instagram opens with no Reels tab, no reel rows in the feed, and nothing pulling you toward the infinite one. The switch no longer makes the setup list jump under your thumb, and every scroll friction control for a site now lives in that site's own settings under Advanced. Scrolling Reels is better than it has ever been. For the reels you do watch, one full drag through the friction wave moves exactly one reel. A half drag now leaves the reel where it is instead of stranding you between two. Captions, usernames and the audio line stay visible the whole time. And the comments read and scroll freely, because friction belongs on an endless feed, not on a conversation you chose to have. A faster, clearer first run. Setup is streamlined into two honest questions instead of one tangled one: which apps get scroll friction, and which feeds you want gone. Reels, Shorts, For You, Explore and Spotlight can each come out of an app without that app getting friction, and picking nothing at all is a real answer. The spoken setup moves about a fifth quicker, so the first three minutes feel like a tool starting up rather than a video playing at you. Invite a friend and you are both rewarded. Referral codes work properly now and credit both sides: your friend climbs a rung, and so do you. You can enter a code at the end of setup, and the app tells you when a friend joins instead of leaving the reward sitting there unannounced. Got a code? Settings now has one row that redeems it, so a gifted month of Pro takes one tap. Plus browser navigation that sits clear of the home indicator, reel captions that stay put whether or not you use scroll friction, and fixes throughout.

Blocking you can trust. Screen Time access can be switched off in iOS Settings at any time, and when it goes, every app block and schedule dies with it, silently. Fluid Friction now catches that and tells you, instead of showing blocks as active when nothing is being blocked. Choosing which apps to block works the first time now too: no more empty app picker and no idea why. Strict Mode is now genuinely strict. Turning on Strict Mode ends any Quick Disable already running, so a timer you forgot about can no longer unlock your blocked apps behind your back. A first run that actually lands. Setup is shorter, clearer, and straight with you about privacy in three plain claims. The scroll friction demo now coaches you through the drag until it clicks, so you feel what makes this app different before you have even finished setting up. Plus faster sharing, a calmer landing when you arrive from a widget, and fixes throughout.

New: QR codes and barcodes as interventions. Turn any QR code or barcode into a physical key for your commitments. Scan it to manage blocked apps, focus sessions, scroll limits, and alarms. Save a key once, reuse it across every tool, and manage them all in Settings under Your Keys. The scanner even helps in the dark with a torch hint. New Home Screen icon. Fluid Friction now wears a hand sculpted clay icon: a hand pressing the orb, the same gesture you make every time you choose focus over the feed. Pro members can still switch to the classic orb icons that follow their theme. Rate us in Settings. If Fluid Friction helps you stop scrolling and win back your screen time, you can now say so in one tap. It genuinely helps. Plus small fixes that keep every scroll calm and intentional.

New: Block Story Ads for Instagram. Stories now flow friend to friend. Turn on Block Story Ads and sponsored stories are skipped for you, so you watch the people you follow and get out. Find it in Instagram's settings under Ads & Clutter. Off by default, on in one tap, always your choice. Plus small fixes to keep every scroll calm and intentional.