Press: Precursor

Precursor is a screen-time app for iPhone built on one idea: daily limits fail because they punish you all day, so Precursor's limits reset every hour. You give an app (or a group of apps) a small allowance, say 5 minutes; spend it and the app is blocked behind a calming shield; at the top of the hour your limit resets. No account, no server required: iOS hands the app anonymous tokens, so Precursor cannot see which apps you limit, and everything stays on the device. Usage analytics are opt-in and off by default, and we never sell your data. Precursor is built by Precursor Labs and is free at its core, with an optional upgrade (Precursor+: $4.99/month, $49.99/year, or $99.99 lifetime).

How it works

You group the apps you overuse and give each group a small allowance, say 5 minutes an hour. Use it whenever you want inside the hour. When it is spent, those apps are blocked behind a calm shield. At the top of the next hour your allowance resets, automatically, all day. You set it once and the rhythm repeats. Enough to check in, never enough to fall in.

Fact sheet

App: Precursor: Hourly Screen Time (iOS 17+, iPhone and iPad; full landscape and portrait support on iPad)
Category: Productivity (also Health & Fitness)
Developer: Solo dev/founder, U.S. Precursor Labs LLC.
Price: The core hourly limit will always be free. Precursor+ adds a bit more flexibility with your limits: $4.99/month, $49.99/year, or $99.99 lifetime.
Beta: Open now on TestFlight. Join at precursorlabs.studio.
Launch: Launching soon on the App Store, with a Product Hunt launch the same day.
Availability: Worldwide on the App Store at launch, in English. An Android version is in testing and comes to Google Play after.
Built on: Apple's Screen Time frameworks (Family Controls, Device Activity, Managed Settings), the same system APIs behind Apple's own Screen Time.
Beta testers: Founding testers get a permanent thank-you: lifetime Precursor+.
Contact: press@precursorlabs.info

I built Precursor because every other screen-time solution failed me

1The mechanic is genuinely new

People have asked for hourly app limits in public forum threads for years (2021 through 2025). Apple's Screen Time never shipped it. Precursor is the first app built entirely around the idea, and I am glad to share the threads on request.

2Daily limits get abandoned; hourly ones survive

A daily budget collapses the first bad morning: you burn the whole allowance by 9am, tap Ignore Limit, and the system quietly dies. When the limit resets every hour, relief is never more than an hour away, so it survives contact with a real day.

3Privacy by architecture, not policy

No accounts, no emails collected. iOS hands the app opaque tokens, so the developer literally cannot see which apps you pick. Enforcement is fully on-device, and the only statistics are anonymous and opt-in. What little the app can collect is optional and deletable from inside the app.

The founder

Founder bio I am a solo developer. I came from R and Python and taught myself Swift to build Precursor, because my own daily limits kept failing me. One bad morning would burn the whole budget, and the rest of the day was Ignore Limit on repeat. Precursor is the app I needed before it was a product. For the full story, the build, or an interview, email press@precursorlabs.info.

Common questions

Isn't this just Screen Time?

Same foundation, opposite model. Apple gives one daily budget; Precursor gives a small allowance that resets hourly. The difference is whether the limit survives a bad morning.

How is it different from Opal, one sec, or ScreenZen?

Opal and one sec do session blocks and daily limits; ScreenZen adds a friction pause before an app opens. Precursor does one thing none of them do: a small allowance that resets every hour. It is the mechanic people kept asking for in forum threads for years.

Can't you just bypass it?

You can delete the app. The optional passcode protects your settings from an impulsive edit, not your freedom. It is a tool, not a jail, and that is on purpose.

What data do you collect?

None by default. No accounts. The developer cannot see which apps you limit (that is the iOS design). The only optional data is anonymous, opt-in statistics on how your limits perform (the retention and Insights numbers) plus your plan tier, and you can delete all of it from inside the app. See the privacy policy for the full picture.

Colors

The signature palette. Amber for first light on the deep-night ground, copper as its readable twin in light mode, a cool tracer blue for the cycle. Dark is the default look; the app and site both carry a matching light theme.

First Light (Amber)

#F2A65A

Signature accent, dark mode

Copper

#C2722E

Accent, light mode

Bead Orange

#F79A3C

The live bead on the ring

Amber Seam

#E89246

Seam of first light

Tracer Blue

#5B76C4

The cycle tracer arc

Moonlit Navy

#1B2748

The mark's feathered pane

Night Canvas

#0B0D1A

Deep-night background

Ink

#ECEAF4

Text on night

Daybreak

#FAF6F0

Light-theme canvas

Brand assets

Free to use in coverage of Precursor. Usage notes are below the downloads.

The hourglass and its orbiting app glyphs are the motif behind Precursor. Below you can download the full scene (tall, square, and wide) and a transparent version of just the hourglass and satellites to drop onto your own background.

App icon

PNG, 1024×1024

Dark Light

Wordmark

PNG, transparent, 884×180

On dark On light

Social banner

PNG, 1500×500

With tagline Plain

Precursor hourglass and orbiting glyphs, transparent

Hourglass mark (transparent)

PNG, 1600×1600, transparent

Download

Hourglass scene

PNG, starfield background

Tall Square Wide

iPhone screenshot

PNG, device frame

Dark Light

iPad screenshot

PNG, device frame

Dark Light

Everything, in one file

ZIP, all assets on this page

Download all

App Store screenshot deck

Seven frames, dark to light. Click any frame to download it.

Demo footage (15-second and 30-second cuts) is available on request.

Using these assets

Please do

Use these assets freely in coverage of Precursor.
Keep the wordmark and icon at their original proportions and colors.
Put the wordmark on a dark background, or use the on-light version on a light one.
Show the app icon at its original rounded-square shape.

Please don't

Recolor, stretch, rotate, or add effects to the wordmark or icon.
Crop or re-annotate the app screenshots.
Screenshot the App Store listing in place of these clean assets.
Imply that Precursor Labs endorses your product or coverage.

Any shield or app copy shown in these assets matches the shipped app.

Boilerplate

One line Precursor gives iPhone apps an hourly screen-time allowance instead of a daily limit: 5 minutes of Instagram per hour, reset at the top of every hour.

Short Precursor is an iPhone screen-time app that replaces one daily limit with a small allowance that resets every hour. Spend it, the app is blocked, and at the top of the hour your time comes back. No account, and we never sell your data, enforced entirely on your device.

About Precursor Labs Precursor Labs is on a mission to improve digital wellbeing and human-machine interaction. Precursor, its first app, replaces Apple's daily app limits with a small allowance that resets every hour, enforced entirely on the device, with no accounts and no selling of your data.

Press contact

For interviews, the founder story, demo footage, or early access, email press@precursorlabs.info. I usually reply within a day.