For ADHD

Built for the ADHD brain at 1am.

You set the limit. Your brain treated it as a suggestion. You're not lazy. Generic screen-time apps just aren't designed for how your executive function actually works.

Download for iPhoneSee a typical day

We get it.

You've set Apple Screen Time. Probably more than once. You've tried the focus-tomato app, the breath-before-Instagram app, the seven-second-pause-before-TikTok app. You've deleted Instagram and re-downloaded it the next day. You've signed up for Opal. You've quit Opal.

Here's the thing nobody says out loud: ADHD makes the exact function those apps require — sustained self-override at the moment of impulse — the least reliable function you have. You're not weak-willed. You're being asked to use the broken muscle to fix the broken muscle.

Pantalla doesn't ask you to do that. It hands the override to someone else, because the math of you-enforcing-limits-on-you is a math we've all watched not work.

Why generic screen-time apps fail for ADHD

Every screen-time app in the App Store has the same architectural assumption: that the person setting the limit and the person trying to break the limit are the same person, and they can be trusted to follow through. For ADHD brains, that assumption breaks in five specific places.

  • Time blindness vs. "I'll only check it for a minute".You can't reliably feel 20 minutes pass. So a 20-minute App Limit feels indistinguishable from a 3-hour scroll. The limit doesn't fail — your time-sense does.
  • Dopamine-seeking IS the app you're trying to block.Apple's nudge-style "Ignore Limit" button is a one-tap dopamine hit. You are not weighing pros and cons at that moment. You are reaching for the closest dopamine, and the override is right there.
  • Pattern recognition kills friction.Apps like One Sec add a breath or a pause before you can open Instagram. For neurotypical brains, that friction works. For ADHD brains, the brain pattern-matches the friction within a week and starts swiping through it on autopilot. The friction stops registering.
  • Hyperfocus vs. hyperscroll use the same engine.Your ability to lock in for six hours on a project is the same neurological mechanism that locks you into a Reddit thread at 2am. The willpower-app model can't tell the difference.
  • Self-imposed limits feel optional.Any system you set up for yourself, you can unset for yourself. ADHD makes "future you" feel like a distant acquaintance whose opinions don't apply to present you. So the limits you set this morning don't have authority over the you at 11pm.

How Pantalla maps to how your brain actually works

  • Externalized executive function

    A friend holds the unlock

    The decision you can't reliably make is the one Pantalla takes off your plate. Your friend (Pantalla calls them a gatekeeper) holds the override. You don't decide whether to extend Instagram at midnight — they do. The yes-or-no exists outside your brain.

  • No daily decisions to make

    Schedules

    Pick the blocks once, when you're not in the middle of a crisis. Instagram off after 9pm, every night. TikTok off during work hours, every weekday. You're not deciding each day — you're enforcing a decision past-you already made, with present-you removed from the loop.

  • The nuclear option for hyperfocus and hyperscroll

    Shield Mode

    Total lockdown. No requests, no overrides, no negotiating. Useful for protecting a hyperfocus session (no apps can interrupt you) or for stopping a hyperscroll (no override path exists). Your friend lifts it when the chosen window ends.

  • Built-in pattern interrupt

    The request-essay

    When you want to unlock something, Pantalla asks you to type why. Two sentences. By the time you've written "I want Instagram because I'm spiraling about work," your prefrontal cortex has had a moment it normally never gets — to look at the impulse instead of being it. Sometimes you send the request anyway. Sometimes you don't.

A typical day, with Pantalla

Not a montage. Just what the day actually looks like.

  1. Phone is normal. You scroll Instagram with your coffee for 12 minutes. Your daily Social limit is 20 minutes. Pantalla isn't bugging you yet.

  2. You hit the 20-minute Social limit at lunch. Instagram greys out. You wanted to keep scrolling — instead you eat your sandwich and look out a window for the first time in three days. Surprisingly fine.

  3. Deep work block kicks in. Reddit, Twitter, and YouTube are off until 5pm. You actually get the proposal done.

  4. Nightly Shield Mode starts automatically. All your problem apps are locked, no override possible, until 7am.

  5. You can't sleep. You want to scroll. You try TikTok — locked. You remember Shield Mode. You go for Instagram — locked. You consider deleting Pantalla. You remember your friend will get a notification that you tapped out. You sigh. You read a book for the first time in five months. You sleep by midnight.

On other days, you do send a request. Your friend approves 10 minutes of Reddit. You get back to bed. The whole flow took 90 seconds. This is the difference between blocking apps and externalizing the decision.

What people are saying

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    “I've tried every screen-time app. They all fail at the same moment — the moment my ADHD brain decides the limit doesn't apply tonight. Having a friend in the loop is the first thing that's worked past week two.”
    Sample testimonialReplace with a real ADHD user quote before launch.
  • Placeholder
    “My partner is my gatekeeper. I used to argue with myself at 1am. Now I argue with him, which I lose almost every time. Best thing for my ADHD and our relationship somehow.”
    Sample testimonialReplace before launch.
  • Placeholder
    “The request-essay thing is what got me. By the time I've typed two sentences about why I want Instagram, I've already noticed I don't really want it. I want the dopamine hit. That awareness alone is worth the app.”
    Sample testimonialReplace before launch.

FAQ

Does Pantalla really help with ADHD, or is this just marketing?
Honest answer: it helps with one specific ADHD struggle — the unlock-decision-at-impulse problem. It doesn't fix time blindness, it won't help you start tasks, and it isn't a substitute for medication, therapy, or coaching. What it does do is externalize one decision you can't reliably make yourself. That's it. That's enough for a lot of people.
What if I 'forget' to set up Pantalla because of executive dysfunction?
Setup takes about a minute and you only do it once. The hard part is asking a friend, and most people overestimate how awkward that ask is. Once it's running, it runs by itself — no daily decisions, no remembering. That's the point of letting someone else hold the override.
Can I use Pantalla with my ADHD meds?
Yes — they don't conflict. Meds help with sustained attention; Pantalla handles the impulse-control gap that often shows up at the edges of medication windows (evenings, weekends, between doses). They stack well.
What if my friend doesn't get ADHD and judges me?
Pick a different friend. Seriously. Pantalla works best with someone who's either neurodivergent themselves or has explicitly opted in to your accountability without making you feel bad. The mechanic depends on a friend who can say no without making it about character.
Is this just a productivity app rebranded?
No. Productivity apps assume you want to do the thing and need help focusing. Pantalla assumes you've already decided the thing you don't want to do (scroll TikTok at 1am) and need someone else to hold the line on it. The frame is different. So's the mechanism.

You don't have to keep saying no to yourself.

Let a friend hold the line, just for the moments you can't. Free to start, iPhone only.

Download on iPhoneSee how it works