What do you need?

Motiv is a focus app for iPhone. It does three things: shields distracting apps and websites, helps you run the routines that shape your day, and rolls both into a single daily Focus Score.

The score is the part that makes it stick. Only what you did counts — showing up adds to it, and a quiet day simply doesn't. There's no red state and nothing you skip is ever deducted, so a rough week never becomes a reason to give up.

Motiv is built for iPhone. There's no iPad, Android, Mac, or Apple Watch version.

Blocking is built on Apple's Screen Time frameworks, which only exist on Apple's mobile platforms — so an Android version wouldn't be a port, it would be a different product with different guarantees. We'd rather do one thing properly.

Of the four, iPad is the near miss. The frameworks are there, but the layout isn't: every screen in Motiv is drawn for a phone, and a stretched phone screen on a 13-inch display isn't something we're willing to ship. It's on the list rather than in progress, so there's no date to give you.

Nothing syncs between devices either — iPad or otherwise. If you replace your iPhone, your setup doesn't carry over: see what happens on a new device.

No. There's no sign-up, no password, and no Motiv sync backend. You open the app and start.

That's a deliberate design choice rather than a missing feature: with no account, there's no database of your routines and blocks for anyone to leak, subpoena, or sell. The trade-off is that your setup doesn't follow you between devices.

Motiv Plus is tied to your Apple Account, not a Motiv account, so a subscription restores on any device signed in to the same Apple Account.

Yes — the free plan is a real plan, not a countdown. It includes one block profile, three routines and reminders between them, schedule and instant blocks, the Focus Score, and the day view in Insights. You can stay on it indefinitely.

Motiv Plus lifts the limits and unlocks location blocks, daily app limits, Holiday Mode, and more. See the full comparison.

Motiv doesn't replace Screen Time — it drives it. iOS does the actual shielding; Motiv decides when.

What you get on top of Apple's own controls:

• blocks that switch by schedule, place, or daily usage limit, or with one tap;
• friction you choose when you try to bypass your own block, instead of a two-tap override;
• routines and reminders that give the protected time something to be for; and
• a Focus Score that turns all of it into one number that only climbs.

Motiv needs iOS 26.5 or later, on iPhone.

The requirement is high because the blocking is built on Apple's most recent Screen Time frameworks, and the older ones can't do what Motiv asks of them. If your phone can't update that far, Motiv won't install.

Not yet. Motiv is light-only today, and English-only with it.

Neither is a statement of intent, just where the app currently is. The palette is drawn to be readable rather than bright, so it isn't a wall of white, but if you use your phone in the dark you will notice.

Yes, and it is treated as a requirement rather than a nice-to-have.

Every screen is built to hold together at the largest Dynamic Type sizes, controls carry VoiceOver labels, and Reduce Motion turns the animation off rather than merely shortening it. Tap targets have a floor that tests enforce.

If you find somewhere it falls down, tell us — that's a bug, not a limitation.

Yes, and they're all free.

There are widgets for your Focus Score, for what's currently protected, and for your routines, plus combined ones that carry two of those at once and a larger dashboard that carries the lot.

The routine widgets are interactive: you can tick a task straight from the Home Screen without opening the app.

A Live Activity — the panel that sits on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island while something is running. Motiv can show one for a block or focus sprint counting down, and one for a routine you can tick straight from it.

It's a Motiv Plus feature, each surface has its own switch, and you can turn the lot off in Settings.

There are no Lock Screen widgets, which is a different thing — what you see there is the Live Activity.

Yes. Once a block is on, iOS is doing the shielding, not Motiv. You can close Motiv, swipe it away, or leave it untouched for a week — the block holds.

They also self-heal. After a restart, an iOS update, or a permission blip, Motiv re-registers its schedules and geofences with the system so protection comes back on its own rather than waiting for you to notice.

You can shield individual apps, whole categories, and websites. There are four ways to decide when:

• Schedule — a recurring weekly window, like weekday mornings or every evening after nine.
• Location — on arriving at, or leaving, a saved place. (Plus)
• Usage limit — once you've passed a daily time cap you set for that app. (Plus)
• Instant — right now, for as long as you choose.

You can combine them, either way round. A block can need a schedule and a place, so it only holds at the office on a weekday morning, or it can start on either one, whichever happens first.

The free plan includes one block profile. Motiv Plus raises that to 20.

Twenty isn't a commercial limit we chose — it's the number of monitors iOS lets an app register at once. We won't promise more than the operating system can actually enforce. In practice, twenty profiles is a lot: most people settle on two or three that cover work, evenings, and weekends.

Yes, on purpose. A block you genuinely can't escape becomes a block you delete in frustration at the worst moment. Motiv makes escaping deliberate instead of impossible.

When you hit a shielded app you can bypass it after clearing the friction you set:

• wait out a countdown;
• write down why you need the app;
• type an exact phrase; or
• enter a code from your authenticator app (Plus).

Bypasses are capped per block, per day: three on the free plan, and anywhere from one to twenty on Plus. Two blocks means two separate allowances, and an instant block you start yourself doesn't count against the cap at all.

Choosing never bypass means a shielded app stays shielded. It isn't a device lock, though, and Motiv doesn't pretend otherwise: you can still turn that block off or delete it from the Blocks tab, and it asks you to type out a phrase first so it stays a deliberate act rather than a reflex.

They come back on their own.

Restarts, iOS updates, and permission resets can all clear the registrations an app holds with the system. Motiv checks its own state against what iOS actually has registered and repairs any gaps — so a block you set months ago is still a block, not a setting that quietly stopped meaning anything.

Almost always a permission, and Motiv will normally have warned you already. Check in this order:

1. Screen Time access — iOS Settings → Screen Time. If it's off for Motiv, nothing can be shielded. Motiv shows this on the Protect tab too.
2. Location — a location block needs "Always" with precise accuracy to switch while Motiv is closed. See why iOS asks for this twice.
3. Notifications — if these are off, you won't have received the warning that something stopped enforcing.

If all three look right, email support and we'll dig in.

Shared. When you set a daily limit on a block, the time you allow is one allowance across everything that block covers, not a separate allowance for each app. Spend it all in one app and the whole block starts shielding.

If you want two apps to have their own budgets, give them their own blocks with their own limits.

Per-app limits may come later; today the allowance belongs to the block.

iOS replaces the app with a screen from Motiv. It names what's blocked, says "Stay with it — this can wait", and offers Stay Focused as the main button.

The second button opens Motiv, so you can deal with the block properly rather than fighting it from behind glass. If you'd rather not have that door at all, you can hide it — see can I get past my own block.

Turn on Take a break in Settings and the shield can also offer a short pause. Choosing one opens Motiv and runs that block's friction first; the shield never hands out free time on its own.

Not without going through the friction you chose. Disabling a block, deleting it, and editing the teeth out of it all run the same gate, and the switch stays on until you clear it.

That's the part that makes the friction worth setting. A bypass you have to earn is no use if the block has an off switch beside it.

If you picked never bypass, teardown asks you to type out a phrase instead, so a block can never become something you're locked out of. See can I get past my own block.

Yes. A block can be written either way round: the hours it holds, or the hours it lets through.

Written as allowed time, a block protects the whole day and stands down only inside the windows you name — so "social media, but only between six and seven" is one block rather than a fence built out of several.

Motiv describes it back to you in plain words when you save it, so you can tell at a glance which way round you built it.

Thirty minutes unless you change it, and you can set anything from one minute up to twenty-four hours.

Instant blocks are the ad-hoc kind you start yourself when you need to concentrate now. They end on their own when the time is up, and they don't count against your daily bypass allowance.

Yes, and there are two halves to it. A block can switch on Apple's own adult-content filter, which works in every browser on the device and keeps its own list current, so there is nothing for you to maintain. It is free, and it sits alongside whichever apps that block already covers.

The second half is a list of websites you name yourself, which is part of Motiv Plus. You type an address, Motiv tidies it up, and that site is held for as long as the block is running. Both live in the same place as apps, on the "What to block?" step, so a block covers whatever mix of the two you want.

Websites follow the block, exactly as apps do. When the block stands down for the evening, or you pause it for the day, or you go on holiday, the websites come back with everything else.

The site shows Apple's own restricted page rather than Motiv's blocking screen. That is because websites are held by iOS itself, through the same filter Screen Time uses, and Motiv never gets to draw over it.

One thing follows from that, and it is worth knowing before you build the block: a block's unlock options cover apps. The countdown, the copy-out phrase, the authenticator code and your daily unblocks all reach the apps a block covers, and none of them reach its websites. There is no way past the page itself.

So a blocked website stays held until the block stands down on its own, or you stop the block from the Protect tab. For most people that makes websites the firmer half of a block, which is usually the point.

iOS filters a limited number of websites at a time, and the limit is shared across every block you have running rather than being per block. Motiv holds the list below that ceiling so you never reach it by accident.

The reason for the caution is how iOS behaves at the limit: it gives no warning and shows no message. It simply stops filtering, all of it, including the sites that were working a moment ago. A limit that fails quietly is worse than one that says no, so Motiv says no first.

You will see how much room is left once you are close to it, and adding a site beyond the limit is turned down with a note rather than accepted and dropped. Apple's adult-content filter costs nothing against this, so you can leave that on however long your own list is.

One number, each day, for the focus you actually put in. Protected time from your blocks and completed routine and reminder work both feed it.

The rule that shapes everything else: only what you did counts. Doing something adds to it; doing nothing simply doesn't add, and nothing you skip is ever deducted. Two deliberate acts do cost you — pausing a block, and ending one early — and both are capped. Consistency over time raises the ceiling.

Never. A quiet day simply doesn't add points — nothing is deducted, the day isn't marked as a failure, and there's no red "failed" state anywhere in the app.

A below-target day reads as "Good." That's the whole philosophy: an app that punishes you for a hard week is an app you delete during a hard week.

Your success streak is the one thing a quiet day does end, because a streak counts consecutive good days — the same rule Duolingo and Apple Fitness use. That's a separate number from your score, and it never costs you points. If you know you'll be away, Holiday Mode freezes the streak instead of breaking it.

Five things:

• protected time — blocks that actually held;
• routine tasks you completed, with a bonus for finishing the whole routine;
• reminder items you ticked, scored more quietly;
• today's tasks you completed; and
• shields you walked away from — closing one and staying out is worth a point each, up to five a day.

Routine-derived points are capped per day, so one enormous checklist can't dwarf everything else. Day and streak bonuses sit outside that cap.

Your streaks, your trends over time, a daily breakdown of what fed your score, and Apple's Screen Time report for your actual usage.

All of it is computed on your device from your own activity, and none of it is sent anywhere to be analysed.

On the free plan you get today and yesterday; the weekly and monthly views are Plus. Your patterns over the last 28 days and your all-time records stay free either way.

Turn on Holiday Mode and Motiv stops expecting anything of you. Your streak is held rather than broken, the day multiplier freezes, and routines stop nudging.

It exists because "don't lose your streak" is exactly the kind of pressure Motiv is trying not to apply. A week off should feel like a week off. (Plus)

No. Running a focus sprint earns no points and adds nothing to your Focus Score, on purpose.

If you switch on "block apps during focus", the protected time that creates does count, the same as any other block. Scoring the timer on top of that would count the same minutes twice and make a sprint worth more than the focus it protected.

So the timer is a tool, not a target. Use it because it helps, not because it moves a number.

Because a day you haven't acted on doesn't get a score at all. Motiv shows a dash rather than a nought, and calls the day Rest.

That's deliberate. A zero would read as a mark against you for a day you may simply have spent away from your phone, which is the opposite of what the score is for. The number arrives when there's something to count.

Because Home and the widgets carry your last real score forward rather than showing an empty circle while the day is still young.

The carried number eases down over a few idle days and never drops below a neutral middle, so it reads as "here's where you were" rather than as today's verdict. It stops carrying after several idle days.

Insights always shows the truth of each day, and a carried number is never stored as your score.

Points are the running total behind the daily score. You earn them for the same things the score counts, and unlike the score they only ever go up.

Enough of them moves you through seven levels, from Starter to Master. There's a daily multiplier that grows as you keep showing up and freezes rather than resetting when you take a holiday.

Points are deliberately a slower, longer story than the score. The score is how today went; points are the fact that you kept turning up.

Around 70 is the mark of a day that went well.

Your ceiling isn't 100 on day one, though: it starts lower and climbs towards 100 as you build consistency. A perfect day is something you unlock rather than something handed to you at the start, which is also why the number keeps meaning something after a fortnight.

Real protected time puts a floor under the day, so an afternoon that held is never worth nothing.

Once there's enough of a pattern to be worth acting on, Insights names the hour you most often reach for something you've blocked, and offers to build a block for it. Tapping through opens the block editor with the times already filled in.

It's free, and it's the one thing in Motiv that makes a suggestion rather than reporting. It stays quiet until the pattern is clear enough to be more than noise.

Yes, and structurally rather than as a promise. There's no account and no Motiv backend, so there is nowhere for your routines, tasks, blocks, saved places, or Focus Score to be sent. They live on your device.

Apple processes some things on its own terms — App Store purchases, and map searches if you use place search. Optional analytics and crash reporting are off unless you deliberately turn them on.

The Privacy Policy sets out every category in detail.

By default, nothing that belongs to Motiv. The exceptions are Apple's own services: an App Store purchase, and Apple Maps if you search for a place to use in a location rule.

If you opt in to analytics or crash reports, what's sent is deliberately narrow — event types, counts, durations, app version and device model. Never task titles, notes, place names, coordinates, or which apps you've blocked.

Both are off until you actively switch them on, and either can be withdrawn in Settings → Privacy at any time.

They start off, and stay off unless you choose otherwise — during onboarding or later in Settings → Privacy. Each is a separate choice.

Turning one off stops the provider immediately and deletes what it had stored. While they're off nothing accumulates either: the events simply aren't recorded, rather than being kept on your device in case you change your mind. Motiv also keeps a local record of the choices you've made, viewable under Settings → Your consent record, so you can see exactly what you agreed to and when.

Two ways:

• Reset Motiv, in Settings, clears everything you've created — routines, blocks, saved places, score history, settings, and consent records — and stops any active analytics or crash reporting.
• Deleting the app removes its data from that device.

Neither cancels a subscription; that's handled separately in your Apple Account. If you'd previously enabled analytics or crash reporting, email us and we'll help with anything a provider may still hold.

Motiv doesn't have its own backup or restore, and no cloud copy of your data exists anywhere. That's the direct consequence of having no account. Its database is deliberately kept out of your device backup too, so there really is nothing to breach.

You can still take a copy: Settings → Export my data writes everything Motiv holds on this device to a file. It's a record rather than a restore — there's no import to read it back — but a setup you're happy with doesn't have to exist in only one place.

So if you delete the app or move to a new phone, treat your setup as something to rebuild. It's the honest trade for a product with nothing to breach — and it's worth knowing before you delete the app to test something.

Yes. Settings → Your consent record lists every privacy choice you've made, when you made it, and which version of the wording you were shown.

It's kept on your device, it's append-only, and it records withdrawals as well as grants — so turning something off leaves a trace of the fact, not a gap where a choice used to be.

Yes, and some of it already is. The numeric Focus Score is kept off the Lock Screen unless you ask for it, and StandBy starts at the most private setting.

You can also keep block names out of notifications, so a block starting doesn't announce which apps it covers to anyone glancing at your phone. Reminders default to a generic title for the same reason.