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The free iPhone app that makes Instagram, TikTok & Reddit boring.

Before. after.

Colors, contrast, motion — tuned to keep you watching. Strip them out, nothing left worth scrolling.

BeforeDragAfter

01Escalation

It gets worse. On purpose.

Scroll past your free time and the feed starts to change. Color drains. Sound dies. The screen dims below minimum brightness. Colors invert. Each tier stacks.

Color
Grayscale
Dimmed
Inverted

Not punishment — removal. The engineering that made it irresistible gets stripped out, layer by layer.

02Diff

You've tried the other way. It didn't work.

them
Time Limit
You've reached your limit for today.
uglify
“Ignore Limit.” You tap it on autopilot.
No button. The screen just gets worse.
A pause screen. That's a speed bump.
The feed goes flat. That's a wall.
Hard lockout. You override. Feel worse.
Nothing is locked. The feed is just gray and quiet.
Grayscale toggle. Adapted in a week.
Escalation. Four tiers. Brain never catches up.

03Research

38 minutes a day. Just from going gray.

38min / day

less screen time with grayscale alone. Peer-reviewed, 161 participants.

16%

more effective than hard lockouts. Escalating friction beats all-or-nothing.

“These systems are designed to be addictive because there is so much economic pressure put on these companies to have you stick around.”— Aza Raskin, inventor of infinite scroll

Based on Holte & Ferraro, 2020 · InteractOut, CHI '24

Colors come back. Sound doesn't.

Leave the app and your screen returns to normal. But your phone stays muted.

Reaching for the volume button — that one physical act — is the most effective intervention we've found. One second of awareness you can feel in your hand.

04Install

Three taps. Then it runs itself.

01

Pick your apps. Set your time.

Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit — whatever owns your time. Default: 15 minutes before the filters start.

02

Two quick automations.

We walk you through every tap. Under 5 minutes. Apple's built-in Shortcuts — no VPN, no profiles, no sketchy permissions.

03

Done. It runs itself.

Filters fire when you hit your time. No daily check-ins. Need everything back? Triple-click your side button.

iPhone · iOS 18.2+ · free · no account · no data

Built for brains that can't just put the phone down.

No streaks. No shame. No reliance on willpower or executive function.

The screen goes flat. You put it down. Not because you decided to. Because there's nothing left worth watching.

Live on the App Store

On the App Store. Always free.

No account. No data leaves your phone. No ads selling you back to yourself. Built by one person who couldn't stop scrolling either — if Uglify doesn't help, delete it and lose nothing.

iPhone · iOS 18.2+ · 100% on-device

Get Uglify

Frequently asked.

Nothing is blocked. The feed goes gray and quiet. You decide when to leave. DMs still work. Notifications still work.
It runs via iOS Shortcuts — Apple's native automation. When you launch a monitored app, a Shortcut enables Color Filters and Reduce White Point — built-in accessibility features. No VPN. No device management profile. No sketchy permissions.
Yes — that's hedonic adaptation. It's why the experience escalates. Grayscale → dimmed → inverted → near-dark. Your brain never adapts because the target keeps moving.
It was designed for brains like yours. No streaks. No shame. No reliance on willpower. Automatic environmental friction so your brain doesn't have to fight alone.
Zero data collected. Your usage stays on your phone. No cloud sync. No analytics. No ads. No account required.
Yes. No trial. No account. No data collected. Core features will always be free.
Field notes

Read before you install.

Research, protocols, and field notes from building a screen-time tool that actually changes behavior.

Read every guide →

They made it addictive. You don't have to keep losing.

Free. No account. No data. Just a boring feed.

Get Uglify

iPhone · iOS 18.2+ · On the App Store