Lockin

Stake against → mobile games

Stop playing mobile games by putting money on the line.

The game isn't fun. The next-level dopamine is fun. Lockin lets you stake 5-20 USD against a daily games limit. Cross it and your stake forfeits to a charity you picked. Stay under and the money comes back.

Download on iOS Download on Android

Suggested starting contract

$10/day against a daily limit of 30 minutes on the apps you choose.

Why willpower loses against this

The game isn't fun. The next-level dopamine is fun. The two stopped being the same thing around level 30. Stanford psychiatrist Anna Lembke, in "Dopamine Nation" (Dutton, 2021), describes how high-frequency low-effort dopamine sources push the brain's pleasure baseline downward. The same neurochemical pattern she sees in her substance-use clinic shows up in patients whose only inputs are a phone and a match-3 game. You play not because it feels good but because not playing feels worse. Adam Alter's "Irresistible" (Penguin Press, 2017) maps the design grammar that gets you there: escalating goals, near-constant feedback, progress that always demands more time than the last increment, and cliffhangers timed to your sleep. Candy Crush trains the variable-reward schedule. Clash of Clans builds a base you cannot abandon without losing everything you spent eight months on. Daily-login bonuses manufacture midnight anxiety. In-app purchases convert your money into sunk cost so the game can use loss aversion against you — quitting now means forfeiting the upgrade you already paid for. Lockin uses the same lever the game uses. You stake real money against a daily games limit. The mechanism that traps you in the game — loss aversion against forfeiting accumulated value — is now pointed at the contract instead of the level. A forfeit is no longer hypothetical. It is 10 dollars going to a climate charity tonight if you open the game one minute past your limit.

How Lockin verifies it

The Screen Time challenge runs on Android and iPhone. On Android, Lockin reads daily usage from Digital Wellbeing and sums minutes across the specific games you put under contract. On iPhone, Lockin reads the same daily usage through Screen Time — the same on-device counter behind iOS's Screen Time report. Verification happens on-device on both platforms — Lockin does not see game content, only the daily-total signal. One minute over the daily limit triggers the forfeit at end of day.

Set up a mobile games contract in 5 minutes

  1. 1

    Install Lockin

    Free on Google Play and the App Store. On Android, grant the screen time permission so Lockin can read your games usage. On iPhone, grant Screen Time access so Lockin can read your daily app usage.

  2. 2

    Pick the Screen Time challenge type

    Choose Screen Time as your contract type. This pulls from the OS's daily usage counter rather than anything you have to enter.

  3. 3

    Select your games

    Pick the specific games you want to restrict. For full coverage, include every game on your phone — Lockin sums their minutes into a single daily bucket. Add the next time-killer to the contract as soon as you install it, otherwise it is a loophole.

  4. 4

    Set your daily limit

    Recommend 30-60 minutes. Below that for cold-turkey mode; above for moderation. If you average four hours a day right now, drop to 90 minutes for week one and tighten weekly. A limit you cannot hit is a forfeit, not a contract.

  5. 5

    Set your stake

    5-20 USD per day for most users. Small enough that you can afford a bad week, large enough that the forfeit hurts. The pain is the point.

  6. 6

    Choose your charity

    Pick from Lockin's vetted list. If you fail, your stake funds the charity you chose. Lockin charges a small platform fee to cover payment processing and operations.

  7. 7

    Confirm and lock in

    Sign the contract. Your card is on file. The contract runs daily until you end it, with a 24-hour cooldown on changes so you cannot loosen the limit at 11:55 PM.

From Lockin's data

Verified on-device on both Android (Digital Wellbeing) and iPhone (Screen Time), summed across the games you put under contract. If your total exceeds your daily limit, the contract forfeits.

"I had three years in Clash of Clans and a 412-day streak in a match-3 I will not name. Staked 10 a day on a 45-minute games cap. Lost 30 dollars the first week, zero since. Turns out I did not love the game. I loved not breaking the streak. Once the streak broke once, the spell broke with it."

— Anonymous beta user, mobile games challenge, 9 weeks active

Common questions

Does Lockin actually block games, or just track usage? +

Tracks usage. On Android, Lockin reads the OS's daily counter via Digital Wellbeing; on iPhone, it uses Screen Time. The game stays openable on both — the contract is what carries the consequence. One minute over your daily limit at end of day equals forfeit.

What if I'm in the middle of a level / event / raid when the limit hits? +

The limit triggers forfeit at end of day, not mid-session. Most days you will naturally finish a session well before the limit. The compulsion this contract addresses is the six-session day, not the one-session day. If you are picking up the game ten times before lunch, the contract is for that pattern. If you sit down for one focused 40-minute raid, you are inside a 60-minute cap.

Where does the forfeited money actually go? +

Forfeited stakes go to a registered charity from Lockin's vetted list. You choose the charity from categories including climate, mental health, animal welfare, and digital literacy when you set up the contract. Lockin charges a small platform fee to cover payment processing and operations. Refer to the transparency page inside the app for charity-by-charity tallies.

Does this kill my login streaks and progress? +

Login streaks reset, yes. That is the intervention — the streaks are the compulsion mechanism. Most game progress is preserved; you just play less of it. If a game's only value to you was the streak, that IS the symptom you wanted addressed. The game is still fun if you were playing for the game. It is not, if you were playing for the streak. Find out which one you were doing.

Other things people stake against

Stop deciding. Start staking.

Free to download. You set the limit, the stake, and the charity.

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Author

The Lockin Team — Lockin Editorial

Last verified