Our mission
Screens pulled us apart mid-sentence. We make being together the most powerful button on your phone.
Every attention app fights for you alone, one mind against an industry. Tethr starts from the opposite idea: distraction is easier to beat together. When two people — or a whole tableful — lock their feeds as a team, unlocking early stops being a private lapse and becomes a conversation. Our mission is to hand partners, couples, friends and families a tool where presence — not willpower — does the heavy lifting.
Pairs — the two of you
One tap locks. One tap frees.
Tethr pairs exactly two phones. Each of you chooses the apps that steal your time; a physical tap between the phones locks them on both — and only another tap, together again, unlocks. Day after day that adds up to a streak: one warm number the two of you keep alive together.
The tap is the key — hold them together and the lock turns on both phones at once.
01
Pair
One partner shares a short-lived invite link. Tap it, and your two phones are a pair — no email, no phone number, no account to create.
02
Choose
Each of you picks your own list of distracting apps. Your list is yours; your partner never has to match it. Keep up to three named modes, say Work, Evenings and Weekend, and pick one before you lock.
03
Tap to lock
Hold the phones together. One NFC tap proves you're in the same place, and the chosen apps lock on both phones at once.
04
Tap to unlock
The apps stay locked until you're physically together again. Meet, tap, and everything opens — for both of you. Apart and need out? You can always break the lock alone — your partner just gets told. That's the accountability.
Circles — family & friends
More than two of you? Make it a circle.
A circle is up to ten people and one anchor phone — the phone that stays on the table. Open a gathering, and every tap on the anchor locks one more person's chosen apps. The same lock as a pair, sized for a family evening or a dinner with friends.
The anchor phone stays put; everyone else taps it to lock in, one by one — and taps it again to leave.
01
One phone anchors it
Start a circle with a single share link — up to ten of you. One phone is the anchor: it opens a gathering, stays where everyone can reach it, and every lock is sealed and released by tapping it.
02
Your list, your lock
Each of you chooses your own apps to block, or grabs a mode you saved earlier, and every lock is personal: your tap locks you, nobody else. Tap the anchor again and you alone unlock — no one else's evening changes.
03
Friends or family — pick the rhythm
A friends circle is for one sitting: when the last person unlocks, the gathering ends by itself. A family circle stays open until the anchor ends it, so people can tap in and out as the evening moves.
04
Nothing hidden, no one trapped
The circle can see who's locked in, who tapped out, and who broke their lock — that's the accountability. Break-lock always works, emergency calls are never blocked, and if the anchor phone goes dark, every lock releases on its own.
Safety by design
Strong enough to matter.
Never strong enough to trap.
A lock you can't get out of isn't commitment — it's a cage. Every Tethr lock has independent, always-on escape routes, and bypasses are made visible to the people you locked with rather than impossible.
This is the screen you'll actually see when you open a blocked app. It covers the app you agreed to lock, reminds you why, and spells out the way out in plain words — enough of a pause to turn a reflex into a decision.
Escape routes, always
Break-lock (whoever you locked with is told), offline unlock, automatic release if the app loses contact for hours, and an optional time limit. Emergency calls are never blocked. Ever.
Honesty everyone can see
If a locked phone quietly stops enforcing the block, your partner — or your circle — is alerted within minutes. No silent bypasses.
Private by design
No email, no real name, no ads, no analytics. Your data stays in the EU and lock history deletes itself after 90 days.
Philosophy
A pause, not a prison.
Three commitments shape everything Tethr does — and we'd rather state them plainly than oversell.
Being together is the key
The unlock isn't a password or a timer; it's being back in the same room — the two of you, or the whole circle. The obstacle between you and the feed is a reason to see each other — that's the whole point.
Honesty over theatre
A tap proves the phones were together, not that both people agreed. The blocking slows you down; it can't imprison you — and we tell you that up front. The escape routes are deliberate features, not weaknesses: a tool for voluntary commitment must never become a tool for control.
Know as little as possible
Tethr runs on a display name you invent and nothing else. We don't want your identity, your contacts or your browsing — a focus app that harvested attention data would defeat its own purpose.
Questions, answered honestly
What about the day it goes wrong?
A lock you can trust is one that tells you, in advance, exactly what happens when things go wrong. These are the questions we'd ask before installing it, too.
What if the other person isn't around and I genuinely need an app?
Press Break lock. It always works — even with no data or wifi — and it unlocks everything immediately on your phone. The honest part: whoever you locked with — your partner or your circle — gets a notification that you broke the lock. It can always be broken — it just can't be broken quietly.
What happens when there's no signal or you're offline?
Unlocking is built to survive it. Your phones carry short-lived unlock passes, so a tap together still unlocks with no data or wifi at all. And if the app can't check in for hours, it releases the lock by itself — nothing on our end can ever hold your apps hostage.
Can the other person lock my phone while I'm not there?
No. Locking requires the two phones physically together — the NFC tap only works within a few centimetres, and your phone must have Tethr open. The same goes for a circle: your phone only locks when it's tapped on the anchor phone, in person. Nobody can lock you remotely, and nobody can add apps to the lock while it's running.
What if my phone dies or gets force-stopped mid-lock?
Blocking on that phone stops — Android gives the owner the last word, and we don't fight it. Instead, your partner or circle is alerted within a few minutes that enforcement went dark. When the phone comes back, the lock resumes on its own, including after a reboot or an app update.
Does it ever block calls, maps or emergency numbers?
Never. Emergency calling and the dialler are excluded at the deepest level, navigation apps are allow-listed by default, and you can keep any app you rely on out of reach of the lock entirely.
Do I need a partner to use Tethr?
No. Tethr Tags is Tethr on your own: lock your chosen apps to any NFC tag you own and keep the tag out of arm's reach. And when it's more than two of you, a circle covers the whole table. Every way of locking lives in the same app, the escape routes are identical — you just can't be inside two locks at once.
How does a circle work?
A circle is up to ten people who share one anchor phone. While the anchor has a gathering open, tapping your phone on the anchor locks your chosen apps; tapping again unlocks just you. A friends circle ends by itself when the last person unlocks; a family circle stays open until the anchor ends it. Everyone can see who's in, who's out, and who broke their lock. You can belong to a pair and a circle at the same time — only one of them can hold your live lock.
Can it lock my apps on a schedule?
Yes: that's a routine, a tag lock that starts itself. Register a badge once, set the days and hours, and at nine your chosen apps seal themselves to that badge until five. The exit stays physical: tap the badge, or break the lock under the terms you set, and a window you end early stays ended until the next one. A routine never starts blind. Asleep or away, it waits for your first pick-up, and a "Skip today" button rides the notification for the sick day. Routines belong to Tethr Tags: a pair or circle lock needs the other people there for the tap, so it can't start itself from a schedule. Up to three routines, each with its own badge, days and mode.
Can I keep different lists for different parts of my life?
Yes. A mode is a named list of blocked apps with its own terms. Keep up to three, say Work, Evenings and Weekend, and switch in a tap before you lock. The mode you pick applies however you lock: with your partner, your circle, or your tag. Ready-made categories help you build a list in seconds, and you can block web browsers too, so a blocked app's website doesn't become the loophole.
Is it a subscription?
No. Tethr is a paid app on Google Play: €0.99 per person, once. Pairing takes two — each of you buys the app on your own phone — and a circle needs it on every phone in it, the same way. Going solo with Tethr Tags? Then it's just your one install; the tag is whatever NFC tag you already own. Nothing to buy inside the app, no trial that flips into a plan, no premium tier, no ads.
What do you learn about me?
Almost nothing, by design: a display name you invent, an anonymous device token, your pairing or circle, and the lock events needed to keep everyone's phones honest — auto-deleted after 90 days. No email, no phone number, no contacts, no browsing data, no analytics SDKs. Your data stays in the EU.
Which phones does it work on?
Any Android phone with NFC — that's almost every Android sold in the last decade. Pairing needs two of them, a circle anywhere from two to ten; Tethr Tags needs one, plus any writable NFC tag. iPhone isn't supported yet: Apple restricts the NFC and app-blocking abilities Tethr is built on.
Coming to Google Play.
Tethr for Android is built — pairs, circles and tags, all in the one app — and in closed field testing with real couples, families and friends right now. It launches as a €0.99 paid app: each of you buys it once, nothing to buy inside, no subscription. Want in on the beta, or want to hear when it launches? One email is all it takes.
Write to us — hello@usetethr.appWe read everything. No list, no spam — just an answer.