I want to read more books, but my phone keeps stealing my reading time. Validating an app idea around this.
I’m testing an app idea that came from a personal problem I keep running into.
I genuinely want to read more books, especially before bed, but my “reading time” constantly turns into me scrolling on my phone instead.
The weird part is that my doomscrolling usually isn’t completely mindless. A lot of it is finance videos, real estate content, architecture, graphic design, business, productivity stuff, etc. So it feels educational enough that I justify it to myself.
But at the end of the night, I still didn’t actually read.
And I’m starting to realize there’s a big difference between constantly consuming short-form content and sitting down to deeply read something.
So I started thinking about an app specifically designed to help people transition from scrolling into reading.
The idea is simple:
You choose the apps you tend to get sucked into like TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, X, etc.
Before opening them, the app nudges you into a short reading session first. Maybe 5, 10, or 15 minutes.
You could either:
- Read a physical book while the app runs a calm reading timer
- Read directly inside the app using saved articles/passages
After the session, you “earn” your scroll.
The goal isn’t to shame people or create another hyper-productive self-improvement app. I also don’t want to build another Goodreads clone or generic reading tracker.
I’m more interested in creating a small daily ritual that helps people reclaim some of the time their phone quietly steals from reading.
Curious if this resonates with anyone else or if it would feel too annoying in practice.
Brutal feedback welcome.