Reddit is the best honest review site there is, because nobody is being paid. Across r/nosurf, r/digitalminimalism and the screen-time threads, a clear pattern shows up. Here is what the comments keep landing on.
What people swear by
The pause and friction apps, one sec and ScreenZen, get recommended often because the small delay genuinely breaks the reflex. Hard blockers like Freedom and Cold Turkey come up for people who want a strict wall during work. And a surprising number of comments say the thing that finally worked was not an app at all, but replacing the scroll with a specific habit.
What people quietly admit
The most upvoted confession on these threads: "I just turned it off." Blockers work for a week, then the wall becomes background noise, or people scroll on a laptop instead. The recurring conclusion, stated a hundred different ways, is that an external tool cannot replace internal motivation, it can only buy you the two seconds to choose. The apps that last are the ones that use those two seconds to offer a better option, not just a locked door.
Where Anása fits
That Reddit lesson is exactly what Anása is built on. It uses gentle friction and a breath to win the two seconds, then it does the part the threads say is missing: it hands you a real alternative and learns which one works for you. No hard wall to rage-quit, nothing to feel ashamed about, and it stays on your phone.