Focus Timer App That Locks Your Apps Until It Ends

A focus timer should do one thing well: keep you on the task until it rings. Beyond Alarm's Phone Block is a focus timer app that locks your distracting apps — or the whole phone, on Android — until the countdown ends, so the timer is the only thing that can end the session.

Most focus timers only count. This one closes the door while it counts.

The short version:

• Beyond Alarm's Phone Block: pick a length (15 minutes to 2 hours, or custom from 5 minutes to 8 hours), pick the apps, start. Android and iPhone.
• Strict mode removes the stop button until the timer ends — free after one short ad. Regular mode lets you leave early with an ad and a five-second hold.
• One countdown, one session. There are no built-in break cycles; start a new block when you start the next piece of work.
• Calls always come through, even in Strict mode.

What makes a focus timer actually work

A countdown on its own is a polite suggestion. The moment it fails is not the start of the session — it's minute eighteen, when a notification lights up or you hit the hard part of the task.

So the useful question about any focus timer is: what happens when you try to leave? Here's how the common options answer it, at the time of writing.

Forest's details come from its own site: Deep Focus "blocks you from other apps or redirects you back to Forest", and to open another app "you'd have to tap 'Give Up' — which kills your tree." Android's Focus mode buttons are from Google's Digital Wellbeing help.

How to use Beyond Alarm as a focus timer

Phone Block lives in its own tab in Beyond Alarm. The screen you set it up on is literally called Focus session.

1. Tap Block now.
2. Choose a length. 15m, 30m, 45m, 1h, 1h 30m, 2h — or Custom, from 5 minutes to 8 hours.
3. Choose what to block. The whole phone (Android), a saved list, or a one-off pick. On Android the Social, Video, Games and Shopping lists are filled from what you have installed. On iPhone you tick Apple's own categories in Screen Time's picker.
4. Choose how strict. Nothing is pre-selected, on purpose — you decide each time. Strict mode asks for one short ad before it starts; paid Pro users skip it.
5. Start. The countdown shows, with the exact clock time it unblocks.

Mid-session you can add time (+5, +15, +30 minutes or +1 hour), add more apps, or on Android switch to locking the whole phone. Nothing makes a session shorter.

How long should your focus timer be?

Shorter than you think, at first. A session you finish teaches you that focus is possible; one you abandon at minute 40 teaches the opposite.

If you prefer short rounds with breaks between, use whatever rhythm works for you and start a fresh Phone Block at the beginning of each round — the app runs one countdown at a time. For students, our study timer app guide and best study timer length go further.

Beyond Alarm

Beyond Alarm does this part for you: the alarm will not switch off until you have actually moved, and the apps you pick stay locked afterwards.

Strict mode or Regular mode?

Regular mode is for focus sessions where you might genuinely need the apps — waiting on a message from work, for example. Leaving early costs one ad and a five-second hold, and lifting your finger resets it. On Android you can also unblock for 5 to 10 minutes; the block resumes on its own and still ends at the original time. On iPhone, leaving early ends the session.

Strict mode is for sessions you've already decided about. There is no stop button. Restarting the phone doesn't help either: Phone Block saves the clock time it ends, so it picks back up and finishes on schedule. Android's optional Prevent power-off setting closes the power menu while it runs.

Most blockers charge for their strict mode. Beyond Alarm's costs one short ad — the reason we built it that way is in free app blockers.

Focus timer on Android vs iPhone

On Android, Phone Block can lock chosen apps or the whole phone. A whole-phone session covers the screen with the countdown and keeps a button to make a call. See also our app timer for Android guide, which compares it with Digital Wellbeing.

On iPhone, Phone Block uses Apple's Screen Time to shield the apps and categories you choose for the session. Locking the whole phone is an Android option, so on iPhone you block what distracts you — which, for focus, is usually all you need. If games are the distraction, the game timer app guide shows the one-tap setup.