Cairn: Screen Time Blocker
Be where you are. Pay once.
Only for iPhone
Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPhone. Not verified for macOS.
iPhone
New: block times now follow your phone's clock, the trail reads aloud with
VoiceOver, and a block set in stone keeps the clock honest too.
You make the promise. Cairn helps you keep it.
Cairn blocks the apps that pull you away, and you decide in advance how hard it
is to get back in. Not a dashboard, not a report on how bad last week was. A
commitment device.
THE UNLOCK LADDER
Every block has a price you set when you're clear-headed, and pay when you're
not:
• Confirm — one tap to say you mean it.
• Cooldown — wait it out, then a short window.
• Effort — a puzzle, a long passphrase, or ten pushups.
• In stone — no way through. It opens when it was always going to open.
The top rung is only offered where a block ends on its own: a schedule that
closes, a daily limit that resets, a place you can walk out of. A hard block
that never lifts isn't a commitment, it's a trap with app deletion as the only
key, so Cairn won't offer it.
The same price applies to every way out. Turning a block off, deleting it, and
editing it all cost what opening it costs. A lock you can undo by flipping a
switch isn't a lock.
FOUR WAYS TO BLOCK
• Hard block — on until you turn it off.
• Scheduled — a window on the days you choose.
• Daily limit — after 30 minutes, it closes for the day.
• At a place — holds while you're at the gym, the office, the dinner table.
Plus Focus sessions and a Vacation mode that stands everything down.
THE TRAIL
One stone for each day you keep every block. Seven stones make a week.
Cairn counts the day you resisted, not just the day you slipped, and a day it
can't be sure about stays blank rather than being awarded to you. A quiet day
under your limit earns its stone like any other.
WE CAN'T SEE A THING
Cairn has no account, no servers, and no analytics. Not "we don't sell your
data" — there is no data. You pick apps in Apple's own Screen Time picker, and
Cairn only ever receives an anonymous token. It can't read which apps you chose.
Neither can we.
If you set a daily limit, iOS counts the minutes on your device and tells Cairn
only that a limit was crossed. Never how long, never which app.
PAY ONCE
One payment. No subscription, no ads, no upsell. Free for a month first, and
when the month ends nothing is held hostage: every block you made is still
there, and nothing on your phone stays blocked because you didn't pay.
WHAT CAIRN WON'T DO
It won't stop you deleting it. That's deliberate. iOS lets you remove any app,
and a blocker that pretended otherwise would be lying. Cairn is a commitment
device, not a cage — pair it with iOS Screen Time restrictions if you want that
door closed too.
Be where you are.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
The developer, Dennis Hodgson, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Dennis Hodgson
- Size
- 23.5 MB
- Category
- Productivity
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 18.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 18.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 15.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 2.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- In-App Purchases
Yes
- Cairn Unlock $19.99
- Copyright
- © 2026 HYTimes Group, LLC
