Soft-Off — a night that ends

Phones have no end. Set the time you mean to stop, and for the half hour before it the screen warms and dims — until at that time it is black.

Set the time you mean to stop. For the half hour before it, the screen warms and dims. At that time it is black, and it says good night.

Warming the screen is something your phone already does. It does not end the evening.

■ What the half hour actually does

Say you set bedtime for 11pm. It begins at 10:30.

10:30 Warm — blue goes first, and brightness starts down from wherever you had it 10:45 Dimming — the light keeps draining. Noticeable, still readable 10:55 Lights out — the last few minutes fade to black 11:00 Done — fully black, and it says good night

It finishes at the time you picked — not the time it starts finishing.

Move the brightness slider in Control Centre mid-routine and the app takes your value as its new starting point and carries on from there.

■ The dimming follows you out of the app

The brightness Soft-Off brings down is the one in Control Centre. It stays down after you leave — whatever you go read next is already dark.

To be straight with you about the rest: the amber wash and the final black veil are drawn inside Soft-Off's own screen. iOS does not let any app draw over other apps. Settings › About says so in a page of its own.

■ Getting back in takes a moment

To bring the screen back you press and hold. A tap will not do it.

Staying up until 1am when you meant to stop at 11 is not weak will. It is the absence of a place to stop. The friction sits there, at the moment you change your mind.

· Gentle — a short press and hold · Firm — 5 seconds (Pro) · Set — 15 seconds (Pro)

Friction, not a lock. The side button, the Home gesture and calls all pass straight through. This is not an app that locks you in. It is one that asks once more.

■ Starting it

A silent notification arrives when the wind-down window opens. Tap it and the routine begins. Set the phone face-down and it skips to the end after 90 seconds.

If you would rather not touch it at all, add a personal automation in Shortcuts — "at 10:30pm, Start wind-down". An app should not be able to take your screen on its own schedule; on your own authority it can.

■ And once in the morning

At your wake time the held screen releases itself. Nothing to press. A silent notification is waiting at the same time.

Your body clock is set more strongly by morning light than by evening dark. Not an alarm; a line for someone who is already up.

■ Every night, by how many minutes

The time you actually put the phone down, kept. The streak is free. On Sunday morning you find out how the week went.

The morning after a late one it asks once — video, messages, work, could not sleep. A month of that says something a slider cannot.

■ Pro

· A different bedtime for every day of the week · Locks that are hard to talk yourself out of — 5 and 15 seconds · Two months of nights, scored and trended · What keeps you up, counted · Wind-down length from 10 to 120 minutes · Set your own floor brightness

Setting a bedtime, the dimming and the streak cost nothing.

■ Subscription

Soft-Off Pro — Monthly: an auto-renewable subscription, US$4.99 per month, with the first week free. It renews unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the period ends. Manage or cancel in Settings › Apple Account › Subscriptions. Soft-Off Pro — Lifetime is a one-time US$49.00 purchase, not a subscription.

Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://elturing.github.io/soft-off-privacy/

■ Worth knowing first

· The amber filter does not reach the Lock Screen or other apps — iOS does not allow it. The lowered brightness stays. · It does not measure sleep. It measures when you put the phone down. A record of a bedtime habit, not sleep tracking.

■ Nothing is collected

No account, no sign-in. No ads. Settings and records live on the device and leave with the app when you delete it. Nothing is collected and nothing is sent anywhere. There is no server.