About Cursed Screen

Cursed Screen was built out of frustration with the same cycle everyone knows: install an app blocker, use it for a week, then disable it when you "just need to check one thing." Willpower-based solutions don't work because they treat the symptom (too much screen time) without changing the experience.

Cursed Screen takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of blocking apps or setting timers you'll bypass, it makes your phone's screen progressively uglier the longer you use it. Hellfire creeping in from the edges. Glass cracking across your display. Bugs crawling over your feed. Nothing is blocked — you can keep scrolling. But you won't want to.

Hellfire overlay burning across a social media feed

Hellfire creeps in the longer you scroll.

That's the push. There's also a pull. Positive mode flips the whole thing — instead of dread, your screen flashes aurora borealis and warm sunlight between scrolls, with nudges like "the world misses you." Same idea, opposite direction: a reminder of the life waiting off the phone. Negative, positive, or a mix of both — you choose.

Aurora borealis washing over a social media feed

Positive mode: aurora between scrolls. Somewhere, music is playing.

And it rewards the days you win. Stay under your limit and a streak grows, next to how far below your average you landed. Not points for using the phone — points for putting it down. Leaderboards are coming.

A one-day streak screen showing zero minutes in cursed apps, well below the 14-day average

Zero minutes today, well below your average. The streak grows.

The app is built by Akhil Puri, an independent developer focused on building tools that help people take back control of their attention.

Why This Approach Works

Traditional app blockers assume you lack discipline. Cursed Screen assumes you lack awareness. By making the cost of excessive phone use visible in real-time, it aligns your instincts with your intentions. You don't fight the app — the app reveals what you're fighting.

Privacy First

Cursed Screen's screen-time tracking runs entirely on your device, and it collects no personal data — no account, no sign-up, no contacts, no location. It does send anonymous usage analytics and crash reports to Firebase (a Google service) to help fix bugs and improve the app. No ads, and no data is ever sold or shared.