u/ComplaintCandid7182

For a long time I thought the only real solution was deleting social media completely.

But that never worked for me because I still needed Instagram for friends and DMs.

The problem was not always “Instagram exists.”

The problem was the default path:

bored → open Instagram → Reels → 40 minutes gone

Same with YouTube Shorts, Explore, For You pages, recommendations, etc.

What helped me was separating useful social media from feed social media.

My current rule is:

1. Keep the useful part

DMs, posting, search, friend-sent content.

2. Remove or block the loop

Reels, Shorts, Explore, For You, Discover, home feeds.

3. Add a hard fallback

If I still open the native app too much, set a daily limit or block it.

This worked better for me than relying on willpower.

I actually built an iOS tool for myself around this idea because I could not find something that fit the middle ground. It helped me go from around 5h/day phone usage to around 30 min/day. Reels went from about 2.5h/day to basically 0, except if a friend sends me one.

The app recently got its first 2 monthly subscribers and 6 yearly trials, which is a small but real signal that other people have the same problem.

But even without the app, I think the principle matters:

Do not only ask “how do I stop using this app?”

Ask “which part of this app is actually useful, and which part is the trap?”

For me, Instagram DMs are useful. Instagram Reels are not.

Once I treated those as different things, my phone use dropped a lot.

Small side hustle update.

I’m 18, still in high school, and I launched my first iOS subscription app.

It’s not making big money yet, but I got my first tiny signal:

- 2 monthly subscriptions

- 6 yearly trials started

The app came from my own problem.

I was wasting around 2.5h/day on Instagram Reels, but deleting Instagram completely didn’t work because I still needed friends and DMs.

Most blockers felt too binary:

- block the whole app

- allow the whole app

- set a time limit, but the infinite feed is still there when you open it

So I built an iOS app around a more specific idea:

Don’t delete social media. Remove the parts that cause the loop.

The app lets users open social platforms through a controlled browser where they can remove Reels, Shorts, Explore, For You-style feeds, recommendations, Discover/Spotlight, etc.

Useful parts can still stay:

- DMs

- posting

- search/watch

- account/login flows

- content friends send you

There is also optional native iPhone app blocking using Apple’s Screen Time APIs.

What I learned so far:

1. “App blocker” is a weak description.

People have seen too many of those. “Block Reels/Shorts but keep DMs” explains the product much faster.

2. The first version does not need huge traction to teach you something.

Even 2 paying users and 6 trials showed me which copy people understand.

3. Pricing is still a test.

The normal yearly price is around $50 depending on region, but I’m testing a $30 yearly launch offer for early users.

4. The distribution problem is harder than the product problem.

I spent around 2 months building it. Now the real work is finding the right communities without sounding like spam.

5. Apple review wording matters.

I got rejected around 10 times at first because of screenshots and wording. I had to clearly explain that the app does not modify native social apps. The selective blocking works inside the app’s controlled browser.

My next goal is simple:

get the first 100 serious users, then study what made them convert.

If people are interested, I can post a follow-up with installs, trial conversion, paid conversion, and which launch channels actually worked.

I’m 18, still in high school, and I recently launched my first iOS subscription app.

Not making crazy money yet, but I wanted to share the early numbers because most posts only show the “after it worked” part.

The app is called Sociano.

I built it because I had my own problem: I wanted to stop scrolling, but I didn’t want to delete social media completely because I still needed friends and DMs.

Instagram Reels was the worst for me. I was averaging around 5h/day on my phone and about 2.5h/day on Reels.

Most app blockers felt too extreme:

- block the whole app

- allow the whole app

- set a limit, but once you open it, the same Reels/Shorts loop is still there

So I built something more specific.

Sociano lets people use social platforms through a controlled browser where they can remove the parts that waste time: Reels, Shorts, Explore, feeds, For You-style pages, Spotlight/Discover, etc.

Useful parts can still stay: DMs, posting, search/watch, account flows, and content friends send you.

It also has optional native iPhone app blocking using Apple’s Screen Time APIs.

Early numbers so far:

- 2 monthly subscriptions

- 6 yearly trials started

- yearly plan has a 3-day trial

- launch code SOCIANO20 makes yearly Pro $20 instead of about $30

What I learned so far:

1. The product has to be explained very clearly.

If I say “app blocker,” people compare it to every generic blocker.

If I say “removes Reels/Shorts but keeps DMs,” people understand it much faster.

2. The founder story helps.

People care more when I explain that I built it because I personally wasted 2.5h/day on Reels.

3. App Store screenshots matter a lot.

Apple rejected me around 10 times at first because of screenshots and wording. I had to be very careful not to imply that the app modifies native Instagram/TikTok/etc. The selective blocking works inside Sociano’s controlled browser.

4. The first paid users feel more important than big vanity numbers.

Seeing 2 people actually pay monthly and 6 people start yearly trials made it feel real.

I’m still very early, but the goal now is to test Reddit, short demo videos, and student/productivity communities.

If anyone is building a small app or online product, I’d say the hardest part is not always coding. It’s explaining the problem in one sentence.

This is not passive income yet, but I’m sharing the experiment because I just launched my first iOS subscription app.

The app is called Sociano.

I built it because I was wasting around 2.5h/day on Instagram Reels, but I did not want to delete Instagram completely because I still needed friends and DMs.

Most blockers felt too extreme to me. They either block the whole app, or they still leave you with access to the same endless scrolling once you open it.

Sociano takes a different approach.

It lets you use social platforms through a controlled browser where you can remove distracting surfaces like:

- Instagram Reels / Explore

- YouTube Shorts / recommendations

- TikTok-style scrolling surfaces

- X For You

- Snapchat Spotlight / Discover

- Facebook Reels / feed surfaces

while keeping useful parts like DMs, posting, search, login/account flows, and content friends send you.

It also has optional native iPhone app blocking using Apple’s Screen Time APIs.

Current monetization:

- free download

- Pro subscription

- monthly plan

- yearly plan

- yearly has a 3-day trial

Early numbers so far:

- 2 monthly subscriptions

- 6 yearly trials started

Nothing crazy yet, but honestly it feels good to see real people starting trials/subscriptions for something I built around my own problem.

The hard part now is not the app itself. It is figuring out distribution without sounding like every other “productivity app.”

App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/cz/app/sociano/id6760568406?l=cs

Website:

https://sociano.app/

I’ll share more numbers later if people are interested: installs, trial-to-paid conversion, code redemptions, churn, and what launch channels worked.

I’m curious how people here think about this as a product wedge.

Most app blockers are binary:

block Instagram, block TikTok, block YouTube, etc.

But for a lot of users, the problem is not the entire app. It is specific surfaces:

- Reels

- Shorts

- Explore

- For You

- home feed

- recommendations

- Discover/Spotlight

The useful parts are still needed:

- DMs

- posting

- search/watch

- friend-sent content

- business/social communication

I built an iOS app around this idea because it was my own problem. I was wasting around 3.5h/day on Instagram Reels, but deleting Instagram did not work because I still needed DMs.

The app uses a controlled in-app browser for surface-level controls and optional native app blocking through Apple’s Screen Time APIs.

The question I’m thinking about:

Is “selective social media control” a strong enough wedge, or does the market just see all of this as “app blocking”?

The difference feels obvious once you have the problem, but I’m not sure if the category is clear enough for cold users.

I wanted to share something that helped me because maybe someone else is stuck in the same loop.

For me, deleting social media completely never lasted. I still needed messages, friends, school/work stuff, and sometimes useful content. So every time I deleted the apps, I eventually came back.

What helped more was separating “useful social media” from “scrolling social media.”

I made a simple rule:

Before opening an app, I had to know why I was opening it.

Examples:

• “I’m replying to a message”
• “I’m checking one profile”
• “I’m posting something”
• “I’m searching for a specific video”
• “I’m watching something someone sent me”

But if the reason was just “I’m bored,” then I tried to pause and do literally anything else for 5 minutes.

The other thing that helped was removing the easiest triggers. For me that meant avoiding Reels, Shorts, Explore pages, For You feeds, and recommended content as much as possible.

Not because those things are evil, but because I personally don’t use them intentionally. I open them automatically, then lose time.

The biggest mindset shift was this:

I don’t need to become a perfect person with unlimited willpower.
I just need fewer traps in front of me when I’m tired.

Maybe this is obvious, but it helped me a lot. Curious what has helped other people reduce scrolling without completely isolating themselves?

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For a long time I thought the only way to fix my phone usage was to delete social media completely.

But that never worked for me.

I still needed Instagram for friends. I still needed messages. Sometimes I needed YouTube search. Sometimes people sent me things I actually wanted to see.

The problem wasn’t social media itself.

The problem was the infinite-scroll parts:

• Reels
• Shorts
• Explore
• For You feeds
• recommended videos
• random suggested content
• the stuff you open “for 2 minutes” and leave 40 minutes later

So I started thinking about it differently:

What if I could keep the useful parts, but remove the loop?

That idea helped me reduce my scrolling way more than normal app blockers, because I wasn’t fighting myself all day. I was just making the bad path less available.

I eventually built an iOS app around this idea called Sociano. It opens social platforms in a controlled browser and lets you remove distracting surfaces like Reels, Shorts, feeds, Explore, Spotlight/Discover, etc., while keeping useful things like DMs, posting, search, and friend-sent content.

I’m not saying an app magically fixes discipline. It doesn’t.

But I do think your environment matters a lot. If your phone is designed to pull you into short-form content, then relying only on motivation is a losing game.

The biggest thing I learned:

Don’t only ask “how do I become more disciplined?”
Also ask “what am I making too easy for my worst self?”

I’m 18 and still in high school. I recently launched my first iOS app, and the main thing I learned is that the problem I was solving was slightly different from what I first thought.

At first I thought my problem was “I use social media too much.”

But that was not specific enough.

I did not actually want to delete Instagram. I still needed it for friends and DMs. I did not want YouTube gone either, because search/watch can be useful. The real problem was the default path into endless content: Reels, Shorts, Explore, For You pages, home feeds, recommendations, etc.

I was around 5 hours per day on my phone, with about 3.5 hours per day going into Instagram Reels. Normal blockers felt too extreme. They either blocked the whole app, or they still left the infinite scroll available once I got inside.

So I built my app around a different idea: keep the useful parts of social media and remove the loop.

It took me around 2 months to build. I almost dropped the idea because I thought iOS would make it impossible. The final app uses a controlled in-app browser for social surface blocking, plus optional native app blocking using Apple’s Screen Time APIs.

Apple rejected it around 10 times at first because of screenshots and wording. The wording was important because I had to be clear that the app does not modify native social apps. The surface controls work inside my app’s browser, and native app blocking is separate.

My own result after using it: my phone usage dropped from around 5h/day to around 30 min/day, and Reels is basically 0 except when a friend sends me one.

The app is paid subscription, so now I’m trying to figure out the hard part: positioning and distribution.

Do you think this should be marketed as a productivity app, digital wellness app, or app blocker? I’m leaning toward “controlled social media,” but I’m not sure if people understand that quickly enough.

If anyone wants to try it, comment and I’ll share the link/code.