Set daily limits and a breather
Reminders after a number of opens, hard blocks that hide an app until tomorrow, and a pause you have to sit through first. Set per app, so only the one you have a problem with fights back.
- You will end up with
- A phone that pushes back
- Takes about
- 5 minutes
Every app in a Smile widget can carry its own rules. You can put a reminder on one, a hard block on another, and leave the rest alone.
Read this first
None of this is a lock. You configured it, so you can open Smile and switch it off in about four seconds. It works as a speed bump, and a speed bump stops most unthinking taps. It will not stop a determined one, and anything promising otherwise is lying to you.
Open the app you want to limit
In Smile, open the widget, then tap the app to edit it. The limit settings live under Usage Limits and Launch Controls.
At the top you will see today's count, a button to reset it, and the time the count rolls over.
Set a daily reminder
Turn on Enable reminder and pick a number from 1 to 100. Once you pass it, opening the app shows a message and asks whether you want to continue. You can continue. That is the point of a soft limit.
Write your own message if the default does not land. Something specific works better than something stern, in our experience.
The reminder fires after the number you set, so a reminder at 5 first appears on the sixth open.
Set a hard limit
Turn on Enable hard limit and pick a number, again from 1 to 100. Past that, the app stops opening for the rest of the day. There is no continue button, only an acknowledgement.
Reminders and hard limits work together. Set the reminder lower than the block and the reminder tells you how many opens are left before the wall.
Decide what happens at the limit
Two independent switches, and you can use either, both, or neither.
Hide until next day removes the app from the widget entirely. The word disappears off your home screen and comes back at your reset time. This is the strong one, because you cannot tap what you cannot see.
Disable but keep visible leaves the word there, greyed out and unresponsive. Some people prefer this. Seeing that you hit the limit is itself useful information.
Add a breather
A breather is a black screen that sits between the tap and the app. Turn on Enable breather and pick a type.
Simple holds the screen for anywhere from 3 to 300 seconds, with a message you write.
4-7-8 breathing walks you through the breathing pattern instead, one to ten cycles at roughly nineteen seconds each, prompting you to breathe in, hold, and breathe out.
Either can show a skip button. Leave it off and you sit through the whole thing. Backing out of Smile during a breather cancels the launch completely, which is sometimes the outcome you wanted.
Ten seconds is enough for most people. Long breathers tend to get uninstalled rather than obeyed.
Choose when the day resets
Counts reset at midnight by default. If your day genuinely ends at 3am, set the reset there instead. It is per app, so a work app can roll over at 9am while everything else uses midnight.
Just a confirmation, nothing more
If limits feel heavy-handed, turn on Require confirmation before opening on its own. You get a plain "Open Instagram?" and nothing else. It is remarkably effective against the tap you did not decide to make.
When a reminder or a block fires, the confirmation prompt is skipped, so you never get two dialogs stacked on each other.
Seeing whether it worked
Smile keeps counts per shortcut, viewable for today, the last seven days, the last thirty, or all time. It is the quickest way to find out whether the app you assumed was the problem actually is.
A setup that tends to work
Reminder at 3, hard limit at 6, hide when blocked, and a ten-second simple breather with no skip button. Strict enough to notice, loose enough that you do not resent it by Wednesday.
Stuck on a step?
Someone in the Discord has almost certainly hit the same thing. It is the fastest way to get unstuck.