about:blank 4+

Exactly what I wanted!

This app, unlike other “blocking” apps, allows you to drill down to specific web pages to block those without affecting the rest of the site. Perfect for if I want to isolate only certain parts of a site without having to block off the whole thing. I love it! It also has a video demonstration for how to use the app to generate the URL you want to block instead of copy-pasting and escaping all the special characters manually. It’s great!

Pretty great, maybe almost perfect

Pros: Minimalist interface with lots of room for configuration.

Cons (minor IMO, some easy fixes for dev tho):
- Works via Xcode, which means you need to type a \ before special characters (e.g. facebook\.com). For some reason, this app’s keyboard doesn’t have a “\” key. To manually type an address, I have to write it in “Notes” and copy it over.
- The first several times I launched it, it immediately came up with a full screen page asking me to enable it in Safari extensions when I already had. I almost thought I couldn’t use the app - turns out you can swipe down on that full screen page and get into the app. After quitting safari and a:b twice, it seemed to go away
- After putting in a website in correct format, there was a delay before that website was actually blocked. Not sure what triggered it finally. I thought app was broken and even downloaded a different app (Ochi), set it up, then realized this was working. I prefer this to Ochi, for now, due to its minimalist approach and minimal bloat.
- Also, I guess for sake of completion maybe this app is hard for non-technical people to use because software things like “\” before special characters may not be common knowledge ?? Idk, doubt anyone is reading this but figured I’d say it.

Developer Response ,

Thanks so much for the detailed description. I’ll look into your suggestions :)

Does exactly what it says

Wanted to stop constantly checking the news on my phone. Typed in the websites. Boom. It blocked them. Works perfectly for my needs.