ScrollSense: your attention, protected
ScrollSense is an app for Android and iPhone that helps you scroll sensibly: it catches doomscrolling as it starts and gets you back to what you meant to do. It costs €3 a month or €20 a year, with 14 days free, and the price is the same on both.
How it works
- Notice. Attention Mode on Android counts each new short video you scroll to in TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts and Snapchat. It steps in after 5 videos in one minute. Comments, profiles, ads, live streams, going back to rewatch, small accidental scrolls and long videos never count. If you keep going it gets firmer: first a check-in asking if this is helping, then the screen turns grey, then a 2 second breather that also pauses the sound. Stop for 3 minutes and it resets.
- Fade. Keep going and the feed slowly turns greyscale. In studies, people who switched their phones to greyscale used them about 20 to 40 minutes less a day.
- Pause. Still going? The screen goes black for 2 seconds and other apps' sound stops, to break the loop.
- Slow down. Scroll at a normal pace and the colour comes back. Insights shows your attention span: roughly how many seconds you stay on each video, week by week. Fast scrolling can drag it down to about 8 seconds a video; scrolling sensibly brings it back to 24 seconds or more. It is a scrolling-pace estimate, not a medical measure.
Focus Mode
Plan a focus session, choose the apps that distract you, and pick an app to open instead. On Android, opening a picked app can bring up a focus check, a quick sum or a scrambled word, that wakes your mind up and reminds you of your task. An optional daily limit on scrolling apps keeps Focus Mode on for the rest of the day once it is used up.
ScrollSense compared with app blockers
App blockers lock whole apps on a timer and popular premium ones cost up to about €100 a year. ScrollSense’s Attention Mode on Android interrupts fast scrolling and leaves long videos alone. Focus Mode keeps you off selected apps during planned sessions. ScrollSense costs €20 a year.
What is the best app to stop doomscrolling?
ScrollSense is built for exactly that. Attention Mode on Android notices fast scrolling through TikTok, Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts and introduces greyscale and short pauses. Focus Mode keeps you off distracting apps when you plan to. It is on Android and iPhone for €20 a year, with 14 days free.
How do I cut screen time without blocking my apps?
Make mindless scrolling less rewarding instead of banning apps. In studies, people who switched their phones to greyscale used them 20 to 40 minutes less a day. Attention Mode on Android applies greyscale during short-video scrolling loops and does not count long videos.
How do I stop doomscrolling on TikTok, Reels and Shorts?
Break the loop the moment it starts. Attention Mode on Android catches fast scrolling, introduces greyscale and short pauses, and helps you get back to what you meant to do.
Privacy
Your scrolling and focus history stays on your phone. Limited data supports sign-in, weather, purchases and crash reports. We don’t sell your data. Read the privacy policy.