Our mission
Screens pulled us apart mid-sentence. We make being together the most powerful button on your phone.
Every attention app fights for you alone, one mind against an industry. Tethr starts from the opposite idea: distraction is easier to beat together. When two people lock their feeds as a team, unlocking early stops being a private lapse and becomes a conversation. Our mission is to hand partners, couples, friends and families a tool where presence — not willpower — does the heavy lifting.
The product
One tap locks. One tap frees.
Tethr pairs exactly two phones. Each of you chooses the apps that steal your time; a physical tap between the phones locks them on both — and only another tap, together again, unlocks.
The tap is the key — hold them together and the lock turns on both phones at once.
01
Pair
One partner shares a short-lived invite link. Tap it, and your two phones are a pair — no email, no phone number, no account to create.
02
Choose
Each of you picks your own list of distracting apps. Your list is yours; your partner never has to match it.
03
Tap to lock
Hold the phones together. One NFC tap proves you're in the same place, and the chosen apps lock on both phones at once.
04
Tap to unlock
The apps stay locked until you're physically together again. Meet, tap, and everything opens — for both of you.
Safety by design
Strong enough to matter.
Never strong enough to trap.
A commitment device you can't get out of isn't commitment — it's a cage. Every Tethr lock ships with independent, always-on escape routes, and bypasses are made visible to your partner rather than impossible.
This is the lock screen itself, exactly as it ships: it covers the app you promised away, offers the way back — and the escape hatch is printed right on it. Calm, not shouty. Friction and a little conscience.
Escape routes, always
Break-lock (your partner is told), offline unlock, an auto-release dead-man switch, and an optional hard time limit. Emergency calls are never blocked. Ever.
Honesty you both can see
If a locked phone quietly stops enforcing the block, the other person is alerted within minutes. No silent bypasses.
Private by design
No email, no real name, no ads, no analytics. Your data stays in the EU and lock history deletes itself after 90 days.
Philosophy
Friction, not a prison.
Three commitments shape every line of Tethr — and we'd rather state them plainly than oversell.
Co-presence is the product
The unlock isn't a password or a timer; it's the two of you in the same room. The obstacle between you and the feed is a reason to see each other. That inversion — presence as the key — is the whole point.
Honesty over theatre
A tap proves the phones were together, not that both people agreed. The blocking is friction, not a prison — and we say so on the box. Escape hatches are deliberate features, not weaknesses: a tool for voluntary commitment must never become a tool for control.
Know as little as possible
Tethr runs on a display name you invent and nothing else. We don't want your identity, your contacts or your browsing — a focus app that harvested attention data would be a contradiction we're not willing to ship.
Questions, answered honestly
What about the day it goes wrong?
A lock you'll trust is one whose edge cases are written down. These are the questions we'd ask before installing it, too.
What if the other person isn't around and I genuinely need an app?
Press Break lock. It always works — even with no data or wifi — and it unlocks everything immediately on your phone. The honest part: the person you paired with gets a notification that you broke the lock. Friction and accountability, never a cage.
What happens when there's no signal or you're offline?
Unlocking is built to survive it. Your phones carry short-lived unlock passes, so a tap together still unlocks with no data or wifi at all. And if the app can't check in for hours, it releases the lock by itself — nothing on our end can ever hold your apps hostage.
Can the other person lock my phone while I'm not there?
No. Locking requires the two phones physically together — the NFC tap only works within a few centimetres, and your phone must have Tethr open. Nobody can lock you remotely, and nobody can add apps to the lock while it's running.
What if my phone dies or gets force-stopped mid-lock?
Blocking on that phone stops — Android gives the owner the last word, and we don't fight it. Instead, the person you paired with is alerted within a few minutes that enforcement went dark. When the phone comes back, the lock resumes on its own, including after a reboot or an app update.
Does it ever block calls, maps or emergency numbers?
Never. Emergency calling and the dialler are excluded at the deepest level, navigation apps are allow-listed by default, and you can keep any app you rely on out of reach of the lock entirely.
Is it a subscription?
No. Tethr will be a one-time €1.99 on Google Play. No trial that flips into a plan, no premium tier, no ads.
What do you learn about me?
Almost nothing, by design: a display name you invent, an anonymous device token, and the lock events needed to keep both phones honest — auto-deleted after 90 days. No email, no phone number, no contacts, no browsing data, no analytics SDKs. Your data stays in the EU.
Which phones does it work on?
Two Android phones with NFC — that's almost every Android sold in the last decade. iPhone isn't supported yet: Apple restricts the NFC and app-blocking abilities Tethr is built on.
Coming to Google Play.
Tethr for Android is in closed field testing with real partners and friends right now, launching as a one-time €1.99 — buy it once, no subscription. Want in on the beta, or want to hear when it ships? One email is all it takes.
Write to us — hello@usetethr.appWe read everything. No list, no spam — just an answer.