1. Pick your poison
Choose the apps that eat your day: social, video, games. Then pick how far you'll walk to unlock them — a morning walk, not a fitness target. They lock at midnight.
Doubleknot locks your most distracting apps until you've walked to unlock them. Tie in with team mode and your apps only open when everyone has walked. Willpower is optional when your friends are counting on you.
Join people already tied in. Free to join. No spam, ever.
Team Mode — The Social Contract
Solo streaks break quietly. Teams don't. In team mode, every teammate must walk their unlock before anyone's apps unlock, so when you sit down, you're not just blocking yourself. You're blocking your best friend's group chat.
Three of you have finished. Adam is 1,800 steps short, and everyone's Instagram stays locked until those steps land. Expect a very motivating text.
Apps locked for everyoneHow it works
Choose the apps that eat your day: social, video, games. Then pick how far you'll walk to unlock them — a morning walk, not a fitness target. They lock at midnight.
Invite the people you'd hate to let down. One shared rule: nobody's apps unlock until everybody hits the goal. Or go solo. The lock still holds.
Your steps count themselves, phone in pocket or watch on wrist. When the last teammate hits the goal, everyone's apps spring open at once.
Accountability
Every screen-time app asks you to police yourself. Doubleknot changes the game: your unlock depends on people who will absolutely knock on your door and call you out in the group chat.
138
A meta-analysis of 138 experiments (N ≈ 20,000) found that monitoring goal progress reliably boosts attainment, and reporting progress to others amplifies the effect.
The payoff
6h 38m
Reclaim your day. The average adult now spends 6h 38m a day online. That's over 46 hours a week. Trade the worst of it for daylight, movement and the people you love.
+3.4 yrs
Live longer. About 150 minutes of brisk walking a week (a daily stroll) is linked to 3.4 extra years of life. Your feet are life-extension technology. Use them.
Moore et al. (2012), PLoS Medicine
Paluch et al. (2022), The Lancet Public Health
+23%
Be happier. Just two hours a week outside in green space is linked to 23% higher odds of high wellbeing, and a month off social media measurably lifts happiness too.
White et al. (2019), Nature
Allcott et al. (2020), American Economic Review
FAQ
That's the point, and the pressure works both ways. Teams set their own goal levels, and there's a built-in "rescue" option a limited number of times per month, so one bad day doesn't sink the team. But mostly? People walk. Nobody wants to be the reason four friends can't open Instagram.
Absolutely. Solo mode locks your chosen apps until you personally hit your goal. Many people start solo and bring in friends and family once they feel the difference.
Doubleknot reads steps directly from Apple Health, including from your Apple Watch or Garmin. No extra tracker needed, and your health data never leaves your device except the daily unlocked signal your team sees.
Doubleknot locks apps using your phone's own built-in screen-time controls, so quick workarounds are deliberately awkward. And in team mode, cheating shows: your team can see whether you've hit your goal, and the social contract does the rest.
Early access rolls out to the waitlist first, on iOS. Doubleknot is €1.99/month or €10/year, and joining the list is free and commits you to nothing.