Hold Focus
Focus reminder, never blocks
Only for iPhone
Free · Designed for iPhone. Not verified for macOS.
iPhone
Hold Focus is a reminder, not a blocker.
You name the one thing you are working on and how long it should take. Then you put the phone down. When you pick it up again, the task is already on the Lock Screen with the time left on it. At intervals it asks you one question.
Nothing is ever blocked. Every question has a way through, and taking it costs you four seconds and nothing else. There is no streak to lose, no score, and no red.
WHAT IT DOES
One task, one sentence. Not a list, not a project, not a backlog.
The task and the time left on the Lock Screen, in the Dynamic Island, and on the Home Screen — wherever you happen to look first.
Reminders that arrive with the app closed, and that still reach you when a Focus mode is on, because that is exactly when you are trying to concentrate.
Optionally, choose which apps count as a distraction. Hold Focus then notices when you have been in one and counts what actually broke the work, so the session ends with an honest picture rather than a guess.
A Shortcuts action, so an automation can put your task in front of you the moment a chosen app opens.
PRIVACY
Nothing leaves your phone. There is no account, no server, no sync, no analytics, no ads and no third-party code.
If you choose apps to watch, Apple hands the app anonymous tokens. Hold Focus never learns which apps you picked — when it shows you what interrupted you, iOS is drawing those names itself.
Your history stays on the device and you can erase all of it with one tap.
WHAT IT WILL NEVER DO
Hold Focus never blocks, restricts, hides or delays access to anything. It has no parental mode and no employer mode. It cannot be pointed at another person.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
Two fixes, both about seeing the thing you asked to be reminded of.
The session screen now counts down the work. A 30-minute task starts at 30:00 and runs to zero; it used to show the reminder interval instead, which was 20 minutes no matter how long you had given yourself. When the time runs out the screen says so and the session keeps going — finishing is still yours to declare.
The Lock Screen card is back. A finished session's card stays in iOS's list until the system clears it, and the app was mistaking one of those for a live card, so a new session got no Lock Screen at all. Nothing to do with your Live Activities setting.
The developer, Erdem Durak, 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
- Erdem Durak
- Size
- 2.3 MB
- Category
- Productivity
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 17.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 17.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 14.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
English and 11 more
- English, Arabic, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Turkish
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Copyright
- © 2026 Erdem Durak