أمانة — a trust you keep

Make the bad habit hard to reach.

Amana is a pocket accountability partner for the habit that keeps pulling you back. It locks the apps you can't stop reopening — and the only key is an NFC tag across the room. Willpower gets a rest; friction does the work.

The method Set it up

Free on Android · a pocket accountability partner · works with any NFC tag

Safe zone

Protected

Locked by your 9–5 schedule. Tap the tag for a pass.

tag · 53:80:5C:A0:94:00:01

Why a tag, not an app

You can't out-app an app habit.

Fighting a screen problem with one more screen is just more of the thing you're trying to escape — and a blocker you can dismiss with a tap leans on the exact willpower you're short on in the moment. Real accountability has to live somewhere your thumb can't reach it. That's what an Amana tag is: a physical accountability partner you have to get up, walk over, and choose to touch.

The method · inspired by Atomic Habits

How you actually break a habit.

In Atomic Habits, James Clear shows that breaking a bad habit is the inverse of building a good one — make it invisible, unattractive, difficult, and unsatisfying. Amana is built to carry three of the four for you, so the moment of temptation isn't a fair fight you have to win on willpower alone.

Law 1

Make it invisible

Reduce the cue. Amana locks the app behind a wall, so the endless feed isn't one thumb-tap away the second your guard drops.

Amana does this

Law 2

Make it unattractive

Reframe the craving — the story you tell yourself about the habit. That part is yours; every locked screen is a small reminder of who you're becoming.

Your work

Law 3

Make it difficult

Put friction between you and the habit. The only key is an NFC tag you keep across the room — Clear's “commitment device,” made physical. This is Amana's core.

Amana's core

Law 4

Make it unsatisfying

Give a lapse an immediate cost. Amana's optional Stakes Mode is a habit contract: break the commitment you set and you pay a stake you agreed to up front.

Stakes Mode

Atomic Habits and the Four Laws of Behavior Change are the work of James Clear. Amana is an independent app that applies the framework — it is not affiliated with or endorsed by him.

Setup

Up and running in a few minutes.

A cheap NFC sticker becomes the only key to your own attention. No subscription — set it once and it works in the background.

Pair a tag

Tap any NTAG21x sticker once. Amana binds it by its unique serial — a random card won't work.

Build a Safe Zone

Bundle the apps you keep reopening into a Safe Zone — “Social”, “Late-night”, whatever pulls you in. Search and check them in one place.

Set its lock window

Choose the days and hours the Safe Zone locks — weekday mornings, evenings, whatever fits. The schedule is what does the locking.

Tap for a pass

While a Safe Zone is locked, tap the tag for a timed pass. When it runs out it re-locks itself — even if you're still inside the app.

The engine

More than an on-off switch.

Everything runs on the phone you already carry, decided live on every app you open.

Safe Zones

Bundle the apps you keep reopening into a Safe Zone, then lock the whole zone on a schedule.

Law 1 · make it invisible

Detox

Hard-block a Safe Zone for a set stretch — no passes apply. The only way out early is to physically tap a covering tag.

Pass-immune

Named, scoped tags

One tag by your desk unlocks work apps; another by your bed unlocks everything. Each knows its job.

Law 3 · make it difficult

Daily budgets

Give an app 30 minutes a day. Spend them and it locks itself until tomorrow.

Hard caps

Private stats

See where your time actually went — logged on-device, shown in a clean weekly view. Never uploaded.

On-device only

Settings Lock

Freeze your settings for hours. You can make rules stricter — never looser — until the timer ends or you tap your Master tag.

No take-backs

Settings Lock

A promise you can't casually break.

The weakest moment is the one where you undo your own rules. Settings Lock freezes every loosening change behind a wall with only two doors.

01Lock your settings for one, four, or eight hours — or a custom stretch.
02Until the timer ends, you can tighten rules but never weaken them: no disabling a Safe Zone, no deleting it, no shrinking its lock window.
03The only shortcut is the tag you designated your Master tag — tap it for a short, deliberate window to make changes.

Stakes Mode · Law 4 · in design

Make the lapse cost something.

The fourth law of breaking a habit is make it unsatisfying — an accountability partner who makes a slip hurt a little, right away. Stakes Mode is that partner as a habit contract: keep your key and do anything you like, but break the commitment you set and you pay a stake you agreed to up front. Not a wall. A price.

Free or ~$1

Your friction, your call

Keep a free tag across the room, or a paid one within reach. You decide whether unlocking costs a walk or a dollar — per tag.

Your call

End a commitment early

Bail before the window is up and you pay the stake you chose. The choice stays yours; so does the cost.

The big one

Uninstall mid-commitment

The largest stake by design — so walking away is never the cheap way out.

The promise

We will never charge you unfairly.

If the data goes quiet, it might be your phone — or it might be us. Whenever there's any doubt, we don't charge. The system is built to prove it was you before a cent moves, and to refund instantly if it ever gets it wrong.

It fails open. Any ambiguity resolves in your favor — no charge.
Our outages freeze everything. If many phones go quiet at once, that's us — all charging pauses.
Offline isn't uninstalled. Your app remembers it was alive and proves it when it reconnects.
We warn first. You get a heads-up and time to check in before anything is charged.
One-tap refund. If we ever get it wrong, undo it instantly — no questions.
Separate and opt-in. The free app stays private and on-device. Stakes is a layer you choose.

The key

Any NFC tag works. Really.

Amana uses ordinary NFC stickers — the same NTAG213/215 tags sold everywhere. We'd rather be upfront: you don't need to buy anything from us.

Bring your own

Grab a pack of NFC stickers online for a few dollars, open Amana, and program one in seconds. The app is free — no subscription, no catch.

Works today

Official Amana tags

Prefer something made for the job? We're designing our own tags — a considered object for your desk or bedside, so the ritual feels intentional.

Coming soon

If Amana saves you time, the kindest way to say thanks is to buy me a coffee — it's a solo project.

Privacy

Your attention is nobody's product.

Amana keeps an account so your Safe Zones and tags sync across your devices — that's the only thing that leaves your phone. Your usage stats stay on-device and are never uploaded. No ads, no analytics SDKs, and we never sell or share your data. Payment lives only in the optional Stakes Mode — handled by Stripe, off by default. Full detail in the privacy policy.

subscription. The blocker is free — Stakes is the only part that ever costs money.

On-device

usage stats live in the app's private storage and are never transmitted.

No ads

no analytics or advertising SDKs, ever. Your data isn't sold or shared.

Honest limit: no no-root Android blocker is unbreakable — someone determined can disable it in system settings. Amana is built to beat the impulse, not to fight a determined you.