Two iOS wishlist items:
- Any app that can send & receive messages (emails, direct messages, photos, chats, tweets, etc.) should require a narrow, write-only affordance for sending a one-off message without distracting yourself in all the engagement loops.
- “Smoke-break”, an extension of the current screen time affordance. Only allow yourself access to e.g. Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, etc. for seven minutes of the hour. The easy part is integrating this into the operating system. The hard and most impactful part is keeping the Smoke-break name and all its negative connotations.
The best way to achieve these outcomes now is to delete the app from your device and only dip into the web interface when you absolutely must. That’s contrary to Apple’s goals. It’s not bad for the web platform, though🤔.
In short: nerf the engagement loops at the operating system level.
