Support

What is Cairn?

Cairn blocks the apps that pull you away, and makes you mean it when you want back in. You pick the apps, and you set how hard it is to break your own promise.

How does blocking work?

You choose the apps in Apple's Screen Time picker, and Cairn shields them. To open one, you pay the unlock cost you set for that block: a simple confirm, a cooldown you wait out as a breath, or real effort like a typed passphrase, a puzzle, or a physical task.

The block won't open. Is that a bug?

No, that's the point. Open the block's card and tap "Open anyway", then pass its unlock to earn a short window. Turning a block off costs the same, so there's no free way out. That friction is what makes the promise hold.

What does "In stone" mean, and why can't I set it on every block?

In stone is the fourth rung: while it holds, there's no way in at all, at any price. It's only offered where a block ends on its own, so a scheduled window, a daily limit, or a place block can use it.

A hard block never lifts by itself. Setting one in stone would leave deleting the app as the only way back, and that isn't a commitment, it's a trap. So Cairn doesn't offer it there.

How does the trail work?

Keep every block you had on watch for a whole day and you earn one stone. Seven stones make a weekly cairn. A stone is a day, not a block, so if one block breaks, that day doesn't earn its stone even if the others held. A quiet day under a daily limit still earns one, and a day with nothing on watch is a gap rather than a miss.

Backing out of a gate and staying out counts separately, as a resisted moment.

What are the heads-up warnings, and how do I turn them on?

Settings, then "Give me a heads-up". They're off by default. When on, Cairn warns you before a scheduled block starts and as you approach your own daily limit.

They will never tell you how you spent your time, because Cairn doesn't know. A warning is only ever about something Cairn is about to do to you.

What do the widgets do?

There are two. The Focus widget starts a session with one tap, and the medium size lets you pick a length. The Blocks widget shows what's holding right now, plus this week's cairn.

Neither the Focus widget nor the Lock Screen activity has an end button. That's deliberate: a one-tap escape sitting on your Home Screen would be the cheapest way out of the app, which is exactly what Cairn is built to avoid.

I set a password on a block. What are its limits?

The password is for a parent or guardian holding the key on someone else's phone. It locks unlocking, turning off, editing and deleting.

Two things to know before you rely on it. There is no recovery, by design, because any recovery path a parent could use a child could use too. And on an unsupervised iPhone a determined kid can delete the app, which clears its blocks. It only truly holds when paired with iOS Screen Time set to prevent app deletion, plus a Screen Time passcode they don't have.

A block stopped working after a restart or an update.

Open Settings and tap "Re-apply all blocks." If you want to see what the background blocker is doing, Settings has a Diagnostics screen.

What happens after the free month?

Nothing is taken away. Every block you already made keeps running, and you can still open, turn off, or delete any of them at the cost you set. There's also a one-tap option to switch everything off, and it's free forever. What the unlock buys is making new blocks, editing them, switching one back on, and setting up Focus and Vacation. The full wording is in the terms.

How do I restore my purchase?

On a new phone or a reinstall, open Settings, tap the unlock row, and choose "Restore a previous purchase." It uses the Apple ID you bought Cairn with.

Does Cairn need Screen Time permission?

Yes. Cairn uses Apple's Screen Time to block apps, and you grant it the first time you pick apps. Your picks stay on your device and never reach HYTimes. iOS doesn't even tell Cairn which apps they are.

Is there an Android version?

No, and there isn't likely to be. The hard blocking Cairn does is built on Apple's Screen Time frameworks, and Android has no real equivalent that a normal app can use. Shipping an Android version would mean shipping something that can't keep the promise this one makes.

Is my data private?

Nothing about you reaches HYTimes. No account, no servers, nothing to collect and nothing to sell. The full details are in the privacy policy.

Which devices does Cairn support?

iPhone, on iOS 18 or later. The blocking is built on Apple's Screen Time frameworks, which are an iOS feature.