Abstract

With the increasing prevalence of smart phones, and the many features they have designed to gain and retain attention, many people struggle to regulate the amount of time they spend on their phones. The current apps in this space do not address the root causes that keep people addicted to their phones. HourGuard is an Android app that utilizes psychology-backed features to help users break unhealthy screen habits. It does this by enabling the user to set time limits that when they expire, intentionally break the user's attention and force them to think about what they are doing. Unlike many parental-controls solutions, HourGuard focuses purely on its user. Where parental-controls solutions have the user set screen time restrictions for their child, HourGuard is non-restrictive and instead focuses on helping the user break their own bad habits.