BePresent: Screen Time Control 4+

Worth every penny!

I was told there was a free trial on this app that I should check out. My intentions going in were just to check it out and cancel. I’m here to stay and happily so! I love that you can individually tailor the apps you want to use less of. As most of these reviews state, the disappointment when the app won’t open, or when it shuts down is such temporary frustration. Getting hours of your life back per day, and taking control of your social media instead of letting it control you, is such a powerful feeling. My only complaint is, due to the price, I’m using it to break the doom scrolling addiction, but don’t plan on paying for it for life. I wish the company would consider a significantly cheaper monthly fee after the initial year of subscription as it doesn’t appear to take much on their part to maintain. Please consider a quick nickel subscription for life vs. a slow dime approach for a season of life.

It’s Okay

I’ll probably continue looking for an app that works better. 1) Having to unblock whole categories of apps is not helpful. For instance, I need to listen to things while working. Sometimes music, sometimes podcasts that are only available on certain streaming platforms. But I don’t want to unblock all entertainment because then I’ll have access to things like Instagram and Reddit, which I really do want to block. I don’t want my streaming to count against my screentime because I’m not even looking at my phone. Allegedly this is an Apple issue, but the app still made it seem like if I paid for it, I would have control over what I block. 2) There aren’t actual rewards. There are advertisements. The only “reward,” besides enhanced productivity and reduced reliance on my phone, is the accrual of points, which is skewed due to item 1 above. 3) The schedules don’t work well. Sometimes they block apps, sometimes they don’t. I do all of my blocking manually. 4) There aren’t extra points for going over your blocking session. This actually ENCOURAGES me to interact with my phone more because if I want to maximize points, I have to start a new blocking session as soon as one finishes. Why not check a few apps while things are unblocked, right?!
The app has promise, but definite room for improvement here.

Developer Response ,

Hi Ghanisbuli - thank you for your feedback! It's very helpful. To respond to your points 1) you can unblock specific apps! To do so, you need to go to your phones Settings > Screen Time > Always allowed and add any apps you want unblocked there. However, if you're referring to apps counting towards screen time (not blocking) then you're right. 2) Valid. To some people these rewards are still motivating, but we are working on creating better partnerships. 3) This should be fixed in the newest release! If you haven't updated please do. 4) Interesting!! That makes sense and is something we'll probably change to alter user behavior! Again thanks for the feedback. If you have any additional questions please don't hesitate to reach out to us at contact@bepresentapp.com

Only works some of the time

This app is amazing… when it’s functioning. When it isn’t, which has been at least twice a week lately, it’s the most obnoxious app on my phone. It will massively overcount screen time (when no other devices are even in use to mess it up) and send notifications every ten minutes as it ticks up hours - “you have reached two hours” then 10min later “you are approaching three hours” 10min “you have reached three hours” 10min “you are approaching four hours” etc. Meanwhile screen time on my phone never broke two hours. This morning I woke up to 22 notifications it had sent between 1-3 in the morning, counting up screen time (an hour every 20min or so) when none of my devices were in use. It’ll say I spent two hours on Instagram when that’s literally impossible because it shows three 7min unlocks, and native screen time shows 21min.

The worst part is there is ZERO customer support. The help section is just FAQs that don’t apply, and the feedback email feels like throwing complaints into a black hole - no responses and the problems don’t get fixed.

I regret spending so much money on this one. I wish it worked well all the time, because it’s great when it does.

Developer Response ,

Hello there, We’re really sorry for the trouble you’ve experienced — this is not the experience we want for our users.
You can turn off notifications by going to your BePresent settings. The issue you encountered is a known Apple software bug, and we recently released an update that has fixed it for most users.
Please contact us at contact@bepresentapp.com so we can assist you and help resolve this as quickly as possible. Thank you for you patience and understanding :)