Every room has its own rules.
Anchored blocks different apps depending on which room of the house you’re in. And nobody manages their own screen time alone, parents included.
A small beacon in each room. No tapping in or out. Calls, texts, maps and music always work.
Willpower isn’t a plan.
Every screen time tool you’ve tried depends on the person it’s meant to stop. Anchored changes the environment instead, the idea behind James Clear’s Atomic Habits.
Timers get dismissed
“Five more minutes” is one tap away, and you’re the one tapping.
Blockers get turned off
If you hold the key to your own lock, the lock is a suggestion.
House rules go unenforced
“No phones in the bedroom” is great advice that nothing actually enforces.
Walk through the house.
Each room gets its own blocklist. It switches on when you walk in and off when you leave. Tap a room to see what changes on the phone.
Every family sets its own rules, and each person can have different ones. A teenager’s bedroom rules can differ from a parent’s while sharing the same beacons.
Calls, texts and music only.
Set it up once. Then forget it’s there.
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Put a beacon in each room
A small Bluetooth beacon on a wall, plug-in or battery. One per room is enough for most homes.
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Walk the house once
The app learns each room’s signal “fingerprint” as you walk through it with your phone in hand, in a pocket and on a table.
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Live normally
Your phone works out which room it’s in on its own. If it ever gets one wrong, a tap teaches it, so it gets better in your home over time.
Hard blocks, not speed bumps.
Some apps make you wait ten seconds or ask “are you sure?” Anchored doesn’t. A blocked app just won’t open, until someone else says yes.
- Essentials always work. Calls, texts, maps, music and emergency apps are never blocked, in any room.
- Automatic. No tapping in or out. Changing rooms takes a few seconds, and standing in a doorway won’t make it flicker.
- Time only tightens. A schedule can make a room stricter (no feeds after 9 pm), but never looser.
- When in doubt, it’s strict. Bluetooth off, airplane mode or a dead beacon? The phone falls back to the strictest rules. “Nowhere” counts as a bedroom, not a living room.
Nobody manages their own screen time.
Most parental controls only point one way. In Anchored, parents hold each other accountable as well as the kids, and everyone can see everyone’s usage. If a parent spends three hours on social media, the kids see it too.
Who can say yes to extra time
- Approve from anywhere. Requests arrive as a notification, so the approver doesn’t need to be home.
- Tighten alone, loosen together. Anyone can make their own rules stricter instantly. Loosening one takes an approval.
- Grants expire. Every yes covers specific apps for a set time, then the block comes back on its own.
- No quiet exceptions. Requests and approvals are visible to the whole family.
Today, everyone
An example family. Kids see this screen too.
- RequestLeo asked for 20 min of games in the living room.
- ApprovedMom approved Dad’s 30 min of email in the bedroom, until 10:15 pm.
- AlertThe bathroom beacon went silent at 8:02 pm.
Same rules, different circle.
The rules engine doesn’t care who’s in the house. Each group is just a different setup of who approves whom.
Couples
Each partner holds the key to the other’s phone, from anywhere. Phones stay out of the bedroom unless you both agree.
Roommates
Pick a roommate or friend as your approver. The home office stays for work; the couch stays for whatever you like.
Students
One beacon on a dorm desk or by the bed. Study apps only at the desk, and a friend signs off on any extra scrolling.
Visibility, not spying.
Accountability means seeing the rules and the time spent. It doesn’t mean reading anyone’s messages.
- Approvers see rules, requests, screen time and tamper alerts.
- Approvers never see messages, photos or browsing.
- Your room stays on your phone. Anchored is designed so the room-by-room history doesn’t need to leave your device.
A bypass can’t happen quietly.
No app can make itself impossible for an adult to remove on an iPhone. So instead, Anchored makes sure the family knows right away.
| If someone… | What happens |
|---|---|
| Turns off Bluetooth or uses airplane mode | The phone falls back to the strictest rules. |
| Unplugs a beacon | The app notices it went silent and tells the family. |
| Is an adult and deletes the app | The family is alerted right away. |
| Is a kid on an Apple child account | Locked down properly through Family Sharing. |
| Leaves the phone in another room | Rules follow the phone, not the person. We’d rather say that plainly. |
One set of rules, wherever you are.
The same rules can follow you to school or work using your iPhone’s location: no social at school, study apps only at the library. Everything stays under the same family approvals.
Frequently asked
When can I get it?
Anchored is in development now. The first prototype is being built over the winter of 2026–27, followed by testing with a small group of real families. Join the waitlist and you’ll hear first when testing opens.
Does it work on Android?
Not yet. Anchored is launching on iPhone first, with Android planned for later.
How does my phone know which room it’s in?
Each room has a small Bluetooth beacon. During setup you walk through the house once, and the app records the signal pattern in each room. After that it matches what it hears against those patterns. Walls blocking the signal are actually what make rooms easy to tell apart.
How accurate is it?
Room changes should take a few seconds, occasionally up to about 30. The app waits until a new room is clearly better before switching, so doorways don’t cause flickering. If it ever guesses wrong, one tap corrects it and teaches it for next time. Accuracy is the first thing we’re testing in real homes.
What about emergencies?
Calls, texts, maps, music and emergency apps are never blocked, in any room, at any time.
Can a parent just delete the app?
Yes. On iPhone, an adult can always remove a screen time app, and no app can change that. What Anchored can do is make sure it never happens quietly: the rest of the family is alerted. Kids on an Apple child account can be locked down properly.
Do the beacons need charging?
No. They come in plug-in and battery versions, and the battery version should last a year or more.
What will it cost?
The plan is a one-time beacon kit plus a yearly subscription. Approvers who only approve requests will use the app free. Pricing will be announced at launch, and the waitlist will hear first.
Be one of the first homes.
We’re looking for families, couples and students to test early versions in their own homes. Join the list and we’ll email you when testing opens. Nothing else.