Decafly: Block Apps & Shorts

Decafly is an app blocker for the apps that pull you in. It turns off YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels inside the real apps. Stop doomscrolling, keep what you need.

WHY DECAFLY NEEDS THE ACCESSIBILITY PERMISSION

Decafly uses Android's Accessibility Service to see which app is open, and which screen is open inside YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, X, LinkedIn and Reddit — for example the Shorts player, the Reels tab or Instagram Stories — for each screen you have not set to Off.

While YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels or Facebook Reels is not set to Off, it also reads the address bar of Chrome, Chrome Beta, Samsung Internet, Firefox, Edge, Opera, Opera Mini, Brave and DuckDuckGo, only to tell whether the page is a YouTube Short, an Instagram Reel or a Facebook Reel, and never while you are typing in it.

It uses that to show its block screen over an app you chose to block, to close a short video or Stories screen or cover the button that opens it, or to count the time you spend there. If you turn on Open in Messages, it also taps Instagram's Messages tab once when Instagram opens on its home feed. It only watches the apps you choose. It does not read your messages, passwords or what you type. All of this happens on your phone: nothing about what is on your screen or in the address bar is stored, logged or sent anywhere, and a layout report never includes the address bar. You are asked first, on a screen of its own, and can take it back at any time.

THE BLOCKER

• Block any app on your phone, chosen from the apps you have installed.
• A block screen with a short breathing countdown. The wait grows with each open you take today.
• Screen time limits: five opens of five minutes a day by default, or your own. An open ends on time.
• Schedules with your own start and end times, on the weekdays you pick.
• Block now holds every blocked app for as long as you set, also from a Quick Settings tile.
• A PIN that guards the way out, not the door: it asks only when a change weakens your limits.

THE CLEAN VERSION

• Turn off YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, Explore and Stories, each with its own switch.
• Set each one to Block, a daily limit or Off. Limited screens share one daily budget, fifteen minutes by default.
• When the budget runs out, a full-screen notice offers Leave, one more minute, or a pause.
• From an app's block screen, "Clean version" opens it with its short video screens closed, and uses none of your opens. A home screen shortcut opens Instagram on Messages.

SEE HOW IT GOES

• Your last seven days: block screens, and the times you stayed out.
• A home screen widget with your own reason and the opens you have left today.
• An optional weekly summary. Every number is counted on your phone.

DECAFLY PRO

• Strict mode: choose how hard it is to loosen your limits.
• Reels on a schedule, or a set number of reels per visit.
• More schedules, a separate limit for one app, and rest days with a looser pace.
• Insights: twelve weeks of your own numbers and a week in review.
• More colours for the block screen.

WHAT DECAFLY DOES NOT DO

• No account and no ads. Nothing on your screen ever leaves your phone.
• Blocking is free. So are the clean version, the widget and your seven days.
• It does not block ads, download videos, play video in the background, or skip anything.
• It does not stop you turning it off or uninstalling it.

GOOD TO KNOW

• Android shows the same strong warning for every app that uses the Accessibility permission.
• If your phone stops background apps, Decafly shows how to fix it.
• Leave out the apps you need in an emergency: phone, banking, security codes.
• When an app changes its layout, new rules arrive without an update.

Support: https://decafly.com/support/
Privacy policy: https://decafly.com/privacy/android/

Decafly is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any company whose app or browser is named here. Those names are used only to say which apps this app acts on.