How do I stop doomscrolling?

Change the cost rather than relying on intent. Remove the trigger where you can, make the alternative easier than the scroll, and track what late scrolling actually costs you in sleep — a concrete personal cost is harder to argue with than a general belief that phones are bad.

Does Crescendo track my screen time automatically?

No. You log the habits you care about; the app does not read a device-level usage report or an inventory of installed apps. That is a deliberate limit — which apps someone has is among the most revealing things a tool like this could collect, and it is not needed to do the useful part.

Will reducing screen time improve my mood?

Possibly, and the app is built to tell you whether it did for you specifically rather than assuming it. Some people log twenty paired days and get a null result, which is a genuine answer: the thing costing them sleep was something else.

Can it block social media apps?

Not today. The scheduling and unlock policy is implemented server-side, but nothing is currently enforcing it on a phone because there is no native client yet. The app blocker page sets out precisely what exists and what does not.

Digital wellbeing

Screen time is a symptom. Measure what it costs you.

Everyone knows the number is too high. Knowing that has never once been the thing that changed it.

How does Crescendo help with digital wellbeing?

Crescendo approaches digital wellbeing by measurement rather than shame: you log screen-related habits alongside sleep and mood, and the app tests whether they are actually related for you — reporting a finding only when it clears 20 paired days, a correlation of 0.25 or stronger, and a corrected p-value of 0.00625 or lower.

Why a screen time number does not change behaviour

A weekly screen time report tells you a quantity you already suspected and attaches no consequence to it. It is information without a decision attached, and the reliable response to it is a moment of guilt followed by nothing.

What does carry a decision is a cost you can see. "Four hours a day" is abstract; "the weeks you scrolled late correlate with the weeks you slept worse, and here is the test" is a claim you can act on — or reject, if the test comes back null for you, which it sometimes does.

What is actually measured

Habits you define — a late-night scrolling habit, a phone-free first hour, a reading habit that competes for the same time — logged against sleep and mood. The correlation analysis then runs on pre-registered hypotheses rather than trawling for whichever pair looks most dramatic.

This is deliberately not device-level surveillance. The app does not read an inventory of what is installed on your phone, and there is no endpoint anywhere that would accept one.

Who this is for

People who have tried a screen time limit, dismissed it within a week, and concluded the problem was willpower. It is usually not; it is that the limit arrived with no argument attached and was trivially dismissible.

What this does not do yet

It does not block anything on your phone today. The policy engine that decides when apps should be restricted is built, but the native client that would enforce it is not — see the app blocker page, which explains exactly where that stands rather than implying otherwise.

At a glance

Approach: Measurement, not device surveillance
App inventory collected: None — no endpoint accepts one
Minimum data before a finding: 20 paired days
Null results: Reported as null
On-device blocking: Not yet — see the app blocker page

Common questions

How do I stop doomscrolling?: Change the cost rather than relying on intent. Remove the trigger where you can, make the alternative easier than the scroll, and track what late scrolling actually costs you in sleep — a concrete personal cost is harder to argue with than a general belief that phones are bad.
Does Crescendo track my screen time automatically?: No. You log the habits you care about; the app does not read a device-level usage report or an inventory of installed apps. That is a deliberate limit — which apps someone has is among the most revealing things a tool like this could collect, and it is not needed to do the useful part.
Will reducing screen time improve my mood?: Possibly, and the app is built to tell you whether it did for you specifically rather than assuming it. Some people log twenty paired days and get a null result, which is a genuine answer: the thing costing them sleep was something else.
Can it block social media apps?: Not today. The scheduling and unlock policy is implemented server-side, but nothing is currently enforcing it on a phone because there is no native client yet. The app blocker page sets out precisely what exists and what does not.