BlockOut Lite: App Blocker

BlockOut Lite is a free app blocker and website blocker that helps you focus by blocking the apps and websites that steal your time. Block apps, block websites, and put a real barrier between you and the distractions that break your concentration.

HOW IT WORKS
Add any app or website to your blocklist. Once blocking is active, BlockOut overlays a reminder screen whenever you try to open a blocked app or visit a blocked site. Blocking is a one-way ratchet: you can add new blocks and tighten protection anytime — any moment of any day — but loosening anything is only possible during one settings window per week. A moment of weak willpower can never undo the commitment you made when you were thinking clearly.

This isn't a timer you can dismiss. It's a real barrier between you and the apps that waste your time.

HOW BLOCKOUT USES ANDROID'S ACCESSIBILITY SERVICE
BlockOut Lite uses the Android AccessibilityService API, and blocking is the only thing it uses it for. To block an app or a website, BlockOut has to notice when one is in front of you. The service lets it read the name of the app currently on screen and, in a browser, the web address shown in the address bar. Those two things are compared against the blocklist you wrote, and when they match, BlockOut shows its reminder overlay. Android offers no narrower permission that can do this: nothing else lets an app see the web address open in a browser, and without that a website cannot be blocked at all. Nothing else on the screen is used for anything, BlockOut does not read what you type, and nothing the service reads ever leaves your device - there is no analytics, no tracking and no server that receives it. The app explains all of this and asks you to agree before the service is switched on, and you can switch it off in Android settings whenever you like.

KEY FEATURES
- Block any app installed on your device
- Block websites across all major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Brave, Edge, Samsung Internet, and more)
- Add blocks & tighten protection anytime; loosening waits for one settings window a week
- Clean, distraction-free blocking overlay
- Basic blocking stats to track your focus and screen time progress
- No ads. Ever. (That would defeat the purpose.)

WHY "LITE"?
BlockOut Lite gives you powerful app and website blocking for free. Lite keeps the one-way ratchet and resumes blocking after a restart. The full version of BlockOut (available at getblockout.app) adds two things Lite cannot have: uninstall prevention and anti-tamper protection, for people who want blocking they truly can't get around.

One honest limit worth knowing before you rely on it: Android's battery settings can put Lite to sleep, and that switches its protection off. Turning it back on does not always restore protection by itself. Opening BlockOut will always show you whether protection is currently active, and the full version can prevent this from happening at all.

Both versions are free. The full version also offers optional premium features like detailed insights, focus sessions, and custom themes.

WHO IT'S FOR
- Students who lose hours to social media during study sessions
- Professionals who need deep work time without phone distractions
- Anyone fighting doomscrolling, phone addiction, or compulsive checking
- Anyone who's tried "just putting the phone down" and knows it doesn't work

BlockOut doesn't track your browsing data, doesn't show ads, and doesn't sell your information. Your blocklist stays on your device.

Download BlockOut Lite and start taking your time back.