Toughlove

ToughLove is an app blocker that actually works because it doesn't trust you to do it yourself — and honestly, that's the point.

You set a daily screen time budget. ToughLove enforces it. Open a blocked app during your high-risk hours and you'll be met with a wall. You can take a short pass or walk away, but once your time is up for the day, there's no getting around it.

The budget shrinks a little each week. Six weeks in, you're spending a fraction of what you used to — and you barely noticed the change happening.

No account needed. Nothing uploaded. Everything stays on your phone.

Most screen time apps show you charts and hope you feel guilty enough to change. ToughLove doesn't hope. It acts.

You already know you have a problem. This is what doing something about it looks like.

WHAT YOU GET

• Schedules — pick the hours your problem apps stay shut
• Daily budget — one shared time limit across everything you've blocked, and a hard stop when it runs out• Focus mode — lock everything out for a stretch of deep work
• A 6-week taper — your budget drops gradually instead of cold turkey
• Reports — seven days of where your time actually went
• Emergency unlock — five minutes when you genuinely need it, five times a day

HOW TOUGHLOVE BLOCKS APPS

ToughLove uses Android's AccessibilityService API, and this is the core of how blocking works. The service tells ToughLove which app has just come to the foreground, so the instant you open a blocked app, the blocking screen appears. Without this permission ToughLove can still track your usage and show your reports, but it cannot block anything.

ToughLove reads only the package name of the app currently in the foreground. It does not read your screen contents, the text you type, your messages, your passwords, or your browsing. That app name is checked against your block list on your device and then discarded. It is never uploaded, never shared, and never sold — ToughLove has no server to send it to.

The permission is optional. You are asked for it explicitly, with a clear choice to decline, and you can turn it off at any time in Android Settings > Accessibility > ToughLove.

ToughLove is not an accessibility tool and is not designed to assist users with disabilities. It uses the AccessibilityService API solely for app-launch detection, exactly as described above.

No VPN. No device admin. No root.