About Pauso
The App
Pauso is a free screen time controller for iPhone 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 (Breathe Mode) and hard app blocking using iOS Family Controls for high-stakes situations (Block Mode). The app 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. Development started at the end of 2025, and the first version was ready in about six weeks. Pauso is free to download with one protected app, with Pauso Pro available for unlimited apps at $6.99 per month or $39.99 per year.
The Founder
Pauso was built by Daniel Moka, a software engineer with over a decade of experience building high-quality software across healthcare, robotics, blockchain, digital mapping, and ERP systems. Throughout his career, Daniel has focused on producing clean, well-tested, and easily maintainable software. He shares what he learns with a community of over 200,000 followers across social media, helping developers worldwide build better software with proven engineering practices.
Daniel built Pauso after noticing his own screen time creeping past four hours a day. He did the math and realized that at that rate, he would spend over ten years of his life on his phone. He tried every screen time app he could find, but they all 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 a simple personal experience: a brief breathing pause was the only thing that actually made him put the phone down. Not because he was blocked, but because the urge had passed. He designed Pauso to apply that insight in the simplest possible way.
The Company
Pauso is developed by Moka IT Engineering Kft., a software development company founded by Daniel Moka in early 2023, based in Hungary. The company builds software products focused on quality and real-world impact. Pauso is its first consumer product, born out of Daniel's personal frustration with existing screen time solutions and a belief that technology should help people live better, not keep them hooked.
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+