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bloc: the physical product that blocks your phone addiction

Every screen time app fails because they rely on willpower. I built something different: an iOS app paired with a physical NFC fridge magnet. Want to unlock your apps? Walk to the fridge and scan. That tiny bit of real-world friction changes everything. I designed the product, wrote the code, modeled the unit economics, and it's now live on TestFlight.

Test Beta Version →
bloc app — focus session screen
Type Side Project (Solo)
Role Everything: PM, Dev, Design
Stage TestFlight Beta
Projection ₹2.1 Cr Year 2 revenue

The insight

I tried every screen time app out there. They all do the same thing: show you a scary usage report, let you set limits, and then give you a one-tap override when you inevitably want to ignore the limit. They're designed to fail, because the unlock button is right there on the same screen as the temptation.

The actual problem isn't information ("you spent 4 hours on Instagram today"). People already know. The problem is that digital friction isn't friction at all. Tapping "ignore limit" takes 0.5 seconds. It doesn't feel like a decision. It feels like breathing.

The core bet: If you make the override require physical movement, actually getting up and walking somewhere, the impulse dies before you get there. You don't need willpower if the default action is hard enough.

The product

bloc is two things: an iOS app and a physical NFC-enabled fridge magnet. Here's how it works:

  1. You pick the apps you want to block (Instagram, Twitter, whatever your vice is). The app uses Apple's Screen Time API to enforce real OS-level blocking, not some overlay you can dismiss.
  2. When you want to unblock, you have to physically walk to wherever you put the NFC magnet (your fridge, your front door, wherever is inconvenient enough) and scan it with your phone.
  3. That's it. There's no "snooze for 15 minutes" button. No override code. No workaround. The only way through is physical movement.

The magic is in the friction design. It takes about 20-30 seconds to walk to your fridge and back. That's enough time for the dopamine impulse to pass. Most of the time, you don't even bother.

The tech stack

I built everything from scratch. No templates, no boilerplate:

🔒

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The app in action

Built entirely in SwiftUI: every screen, animation, and interaction from scratch.

bloc onboarding — Less phone. More life. Onboarding
bloc main screen — Ready to Focus with session timer Focus Session
bloc defense picker — Shake, Typing, or NFC to unblock Pick Your Defense
bloc activity dashboard — focus time, streaks, and session history Activity Tracking

The business plan

I didn't just build the app. I built a real business model around it. This is a product I actually want to take to market, so the economics needed to work. Here's the full breakdown.

The market

India has ~660M smartphone users (DataReportal, 2025) who collectively spent 1.12 trillion hours on mobile in 2024, averaging ~5 hours of screen time daily (EY report, 2024). Smartphone addiction prevalence among Indian adolescents ranges from 25-65% across studies (BMC Public Health, 2024), and the India Economic Survey 2025-26 directly identifies digital addiction as fueling a youth mental health crisis (FreePressJournal). And yet there's no serious competitor in this space in India.

Apple's iPhone user base in India stands at ~14M active users (Start.io, 2024), with record 14M shipments in 2025 alone (The Tech Portal) ; the installed base is growing rapidly.

₹380 Cr

TAM (14M iPhone users, ~30% addicted)

₹95 Cr

SAM (~1M in Tier 1/2, willing to pay)

₹2.5 Cr

SOM (~28K paying users, 3 years)

How I calculated these numbers

Blended ARPU: ~₹900/year

Kit buyers don't pay a separate subscription; the ₹899 Bloc Kit includes 1 year of premium. So ARPU depends on the revenue mix:

  • Kit buyers (60% of paying users): ₹899 → 0.60 × 899 = ₹539
  • Annual subscribers (25%): ₹799/yr → 0.25 × 799 = ₹200
  • Monthly subscribers (15%): ₹99/mo × 12 = ₹1,188/yr → 0.15 × 1,188 = ₹178
  • Year 1 blended ARPU = ₹539 + ₹200 + ₹178 ≈ ₹900

TAM: ₹380 Cr

  • 14M active iPhone users in India × 30% screen addiction prevalence = 4.2M addressable users
  • 4.2M × ₹900 ARPU = ₹378 Cr ≈ ₹380 Cr

SAM: ₹95 Cr

  • ~25% of addressable in Tier 1/2 cities, digitally savvy, willing to pay for wellness tools ≈ 1.05M users
  • 1.05M × ₹900 = ₹95 Cr

SOM: ₹2.5 Cr

  • Realistic 3-year capture: ~28K paying users via organic, campus ambassadors, and performance marketing
  • 28K × ₹900 = ₹2.5 Cr

Revenue model

Three revenue streams, anchored by the physical product:

  • Bloc Kit (₹899), the hero product: Physical NFC magnet + 1 year of premium. This is the "obvious choice," priced lower than a year of monthly subs (₹1,188) while including a physical product. 60-70% of paying users are expected to choose this.
  • Premium subscription (₹99/month or ₹799/year): Unlimited sessions, scheduling, full analytics. The monthly option serves as the price anchor that makes the Bloc Kit feel like a deal.
  • Bloc Kit renewal (₹499/year): Loyalty pricing for existing magnet owners. Targeting 60%+ renewal rate; the physical magnet sitting on your fridge is a daily reminder.

The free tier gives you 2 sessions/day with a 45-minute cap: enough to build the habit, not enough for heavy users checking their phone hundreds of times daily (Asurion, 2022 found the average is 352 times/day).

The pricing insight: At ₹99/month, bloc is cheaper than a Starbucks coffee. The ₹899 Bloc Kit is positioned as a physical product you own, not "another app subscription," and Indians pay for physical goods more readily than software. The magnet is also the highest-margin item, the best retention mechanism, AND the best organic marketing channel. Every fridge it sits on is a billboard.

Unit economics

Per Bloc Kit sale, the full COGS breakdown:

  • Selling price: ₹899
  • Manufacturing (NFC chip + magnet + finish): -₹80
  • Packaging (branded box + quick-start card): -₹30
  • Shipping (pan-India via Shiprocket/Delhivery): -₹70
  • Payment processing (Razorpay ~2%): -₹18
  • Total COGS: -₹198
  • Gross margin: ₹701 (78%)

78%

Gross margin (Bloc Kit)

₹1,497

3-year LTV (Kit buyer)

₹899

Bloc Kit price

The key insight: selling the Bloc Kit directly (website/Amazon) nets higher margin than an App Store subscription (₹699 net vs ₹559 net on annual sub) while also creating a physical retention anchor. Kit buyers have 20-30% annual churn vs 50-60% for subscription-only users, and they generate organic referrals that subscribers don't. Over 3 years, Kit buyers are 18% more valuable.

Revenue projections

Year 1 quarterly breakdown with conservative conversion assumptions:

  • Q1: 5,000 downloads, 5% conversion, 150 kit sales → ₹1.85L
  • Q2: 15,000 downloads, 7% conversion, 600 kit sales → ₹7.4L
  • Q3: 30,000 downloads, 8% conversion, 1,500 kit sales → ₹18.5L
  • Q4: 50,000 downloads, 10% conversion, 3,000 kit sales → ₹37L

₹64L

Year 1 revenue (100K downloads)

₹2.1 Cr

Year 2 revenue (300K downloads)

₹2.5 Cr

Year 3 revenue (SOM ceiling)

Competitive landscape

I mapped every competitor. The gap is clear:

  • iOS Screen Time (built-in): One tap to bypass. "Ignore for 15 minutes" = zero friction.
  • Forest / Flora (gamification): Primarily motivation-based: a virtual tree dies if you leave. Forest does offer some app blocking on iOS via Screen Time API, but the core mechanic is psychological, not enforceable. Users can dismiss it when motivation dips.
  • one sec (pause-based): Inserts a ~5-10 second breathing exercise before opening blocked apps. Research-backed (Max Planck Institute study, reduces usage ~57%). But the pause is still software-only. No physical barrier.
  • Opal ($99.99/year, ~₹8,400/year): OS-level blocking, well-designed, but software-only and 10x too expensive for India.
  • Unpluq (EU, $79 for tag + 1yr sub, ~₹6,600): Proved the NFC model in Europe with a key fob. But it has zero India presence, and shipping to India costs ₹6,000+, making the effective price ₹12,600+. Completely unviable for the Indian market.

bloc is the only player in India with OS-level blocking + physical NFC, at a price point that works for the market. At ₹899 for the Bloc Kit vs. ₹12,600+ for an Unpluq shipped to India or ₹8,400/year for Opal, the pricing gap is massive. The fridge magnet is also a better form factor than Unpluq's key fob: it's always visible, it's a conversation starter, and it has dual utility as an actual magnet.

Go-to-market

Three phases, each with a clear target:

  • Phase 1: Community launch (Month 1-3). Target 1,000 kit sales. Build in public on Twitter/X, Instagram Reels showing the shield screen in action, 3-5 Indian productivity YouTuber partnerships, Product Hunt launch. The "reality check" onboarding screen (showing % of waking life on phone) is designed to be screenshot-worthy; each share is organic acquisition.
  • Phase 2: Campus strategy (Month 3-6). Target 5,000 kit sales. 50 college ambassadors (free Kit + ₹100 per referral), exam season campaigns, study group partnerships. Students are the most phone-addicted AND most social; hostel common rooms create viral loops.
  • Phase 3: Scale (Month 6-12). Target 25,000+ kit sales. Amazon India listing, Meta ads retargeting app downloaders (₹150 target CAC), corporate wellness bulk orders, Flipkart expansion.

Why this shows PM thinking

I'm including this project because it demonstrates the full range of what I think product work should look like:

  • User insight: Started from a real problem I had, validated with research on why existing solutions fail.
  • Product design: The NFC magnet isn't a gimmick. It's the core differentiator. The entire product thesis rests on one behavioral insight about physical vs. digital friction.
  • Technical execution: I wrote every line of code myself. SwiftUI, NFC integration, Firebase backend, subscription system, end to end.
  • Business modeling: Real unit economics, pricing strategy, and a go-to-market plan that isn't "hope people find us."
  • Shipping: It's not a pitch deck. It's a working product you can download and try right now.

Try it yourself: bloc is live on TestFlight. Download it, stick the magnet on your fridge, and see if you still reach for Instagram at 11 PM.

Test Beta Version →

What I learned

  • Hardware changes the game. Adding a physical component to a software product creates real switching costs and real differentiation. It also makes the product tangible in a way that's inherently shareable; people see the magnet and ask about it.
  • Apple's Screen Time API is powerful but opaque. FamilyControls gives you real OS-level blocking, which is the whole point. But the documentation is sparse and the review process is strict. Getting the entitlements approved took more iteration than writing the actual code.
  • Build the business plan before the product. Knowing the unit economics upfront shaped every product decision: the price point influenced the magnet material, the subscription tiers influenced which features to gate, and the GTM plan influenced the referral mechanics I built into the app.

Sources

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