About Pauso
The App
Pauso is a screen time controller built on a simple idea: a single mindful breath is often enough to break the autopilot loop that drives most phone use. It combines two approaches that other apps offer separately — breathing exercises for everyday awareness (Gentle Mode) and hard app blocking using iOS Family Controls for high-stakes situations (Strict Mode). The app is free to download, requires no account, and works immediately after a 60-second setup. Pauso is not a productivity tool. It is a digital wellbeing tool designed to help you notice when you are reaching for your phone out of habit rather than intention, and give you a moment to choose differently.
The Developer
Pauso was built by Daniel Moka, a software engineer with over a decade of experience building software. Daniel built Pauso after noticing his own screen time creeping past 5 hours a day and realizing that the existing solutions fell into two camps: apps that punished you with hard blocks (which he would disable within days) and apps that were too gentle to make a real difference. Neither approach worked long-term. The insight behind Pauso came from cognitive behavioral research showing that a brief mindful pause — not a block, not a lecture, just a breath — is enough to shift the brain from automatic habit mode to conscious decision-making. Daniel designed Pauso to apply this research in the simplest possible way. Developed by Moka IT Engineering Kft., based in Europe.
Why Pauso Exists
The problem with screen time is not willpower — it is that apps are engineered to bypass your conscious decision-making. Social media feeds use variable reward schedules, the same psychological mechanism that makes slot machines addictive, to keep you scrolling. Every refresh might reveal something interesting, and your brain releases dopamine in anticipation of that unpredictable reward. This loop operates below conscious awareness, which is why "just put the phone down" does not work. Pauso fights this by inserting a moment of awareness at the exact point where the habit loop starts — after the cue but before the automatic response. One breath. Then you decide. It is a small intervention with a surprisingly large effect.
Free to download · No account needed · iOS 17.0+