Pause Point for iPhone? Here's the Alternative for iOS: one sec
What Pause Point actually does
To get started, you select the apps you'd like to use less: Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube, etc. Next time you open one of them, your phone makes you pause for 10 seconds, and asks you to breathe and think if you really want to open the app. After that, you can proceed to the app if you still want to. Or put your phone away and do something else.
Ten seconds doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s extremely effective: one sec, which was the pioneer with this intervention method, conducted several scientific studies, for example together with the Max-Planck Institute and showed a reduction of social media usage by 57% on average, thanks to the breathing exercise: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2213114120
Unfortunately, only few phone users can benefit from Pause Point: It ships with Android 17, and Google's support pages list support for the Pixel 11 series only.
Meet one sec, Pause Point for iOS
Frederik Riedel created one sec for himself in 2020: it forces you to take a deep breath every time you open a distracting app. And it’s available for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Android, and on all major web browsers.
The interventions were designed together with the best psychologists in the world: They pull your brain out of autopilot and hand the decision back to you:
Do you really want to open Instagram right now?
What else one sec can do
Since one sec was created in 2020, Frederik Riedel and his team have kept improving the app and adding features:
- Physical & haptic exercises: like “Rotate your Phone”, “Follow the Dot” or “Math Problem”
- Advanced breath-work exercises: 4-7-8 breathing, box breathing, etc.
- Healthy Alternatives: suggests custom alternatives to scrolling: activities, other apps, or calling a friend
- Emotion and Intention Tracker: explore how your app usage affects your mood
- Journaling: write down your thoughts and feelings before you can open apps
- Block Session: block selected apps (instantly or scheduled)
- Phone-free morning: Connects with Health to block apps right after waking up
- Adult Content Detox: block adult content across all web browsers
… and that’s not even all of them.
Our goal with one sec is to allow users to shape their digital environment how they think is right for them…and not how multi-trillion-dollar-corporations want.
one sec actually works
one sec is the screen-time app with the largest scientific backing, as recently shown in an extensive report by Cambridge University.
On top of that, a study run with researchers from the German Max Planck Institute measured that one sec cuts app usage by 57 % on average.
one sec has also taken part in research projects run by the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority, and German Bundeszentrale für Kinder- und Jugendmedienschutz.
Bottom line
Pause Point is a great tool only available on a very specific Google phone. If you're on iPhone or iPad, you don't need to envy Pixel owners; just try one sec: same mindful pause, same friction, already available in the App Store, and with half a decade of scientific evidence backing its effectiveness.
And if you don’t believe us, you might believe Mrwhosetheboss who recently put one sec and Pause Point side-by side (at 10:22 min):
Elena Geiger
August 24, 2026