Speedbreaker
Make the next tap intentional.
Speedbreaker adds a breathing pause before the Android apps you choose. Take a
moment, then continue, leave, or open somewhere else. Optional check-ins bring
that same pause back during continuous use.
Get the APK ·
Setup guide ·
Privacy ·
Report a bug
Android 8.0 or newer. Installed from an APK; not currently on Google Play,
F-Droid, or iOS.
The current version is 1.0.7. Recent versions added a total of the time you
have breathed, in-app updates for the GitHub APK, a guided two-step setup, breaths
that no longer need Phone permission, a separate Settings page, and counts of what
you chose after each breath. See the
latest release and the
changelog.
A little room to choose
- Choose your own apps. Nothing is selected for you.
- Take a breath. Twelve seconds by default, adjustable from 8 to 60 seconds.
- Decide what comes next. Continue in the app, Leave for your home screen,
or choose from up to four optional detour apps, with their own icons.
- Check in again. By default, another breath follows ten minutes of
continuous use. Change the interval or turn check-ins off for each app.
- Set your hours. Stay active all day or choose a weekly schedule, with
separate schedules for individual apps when needed.
There are no streaks, usage scores, or daily screen-time budgets. Speedbreaker
works locally, without an account, ads, analytics, or cloud sync.
From 1.0.4 the GitHub APK updates itself when you ask: Check for updates in
Settings (the gear on Home; at the foot of Home through 1.0.6) asks GitHub for a newer
release, and Update downloads it, checks it, and hands it to Android's installer.
An optional daily check is off until you turn it on there.
A look inside
| Take a breath | Choose what comes next | Make it yours |
|---|
| | |
Screens rendered from the app's UI with example settings. App icons appear as
monograms here; installed apps show their own icons on a phone. You choose your
own apps and detours.
Install and get started
- Open the latest GitHub release and
download the
.apk from a release's Assets, rather than a source archive.
- Open it on your phone. If prompted, allow your browser or file manager to
install this APK, then follow Android's installer.
- Open Speedbreaker, tap Continue, read the Accessibility disclosure, and tap
I understand — continue. Home then lists two steps.
- Tap Turn on in Accessibility and enable Speedbreaker.
- Speedbreaker opens again by itself; if it does not, press Back. Tap Choose apps, then
open a chosen app to try it.
- Optional: open Settings (the gear on Home) and, under Reliability, tap Phone permission and allow it, so a breath also
steps aside for a call that rings without a ringtone (silent, vibrate or Do Not Disturb).
If Android says the Accessibility setting is restricted, open Speedbreaker's
App info → ⋮ → Allow restricted settings, confirm your identity, and return
to Accessibility. Menu names vary by phone. Keep Play Protect enabled.
Allow notifications (Settings → Reliability → Notifications) to use the fifteen-minute Pause option. On Samsung,
check Settings → Reliability → Battery and background for background-operation guidance.
Through 1.0.6 these rows sit on Home itself.
See the setup and troubleshooting guide for details.
Verify the APK
Each release lists a .apk.sha256 file beside the APK. Before installing, run
sha256sum -c Speedbreaker-X.Y.Z.apk.sha256 in the download folder (or compare
sha256sum Speedbreaker-X.Y.Z.apk with the published value). To check the
signer, run apksigner verify --print-certs Speedbreaker-X.Y.Z.apk from the
Android SDK build-tools. The certificate SHA-256 should be
fe3fcd3e893fe89d97aba6e25b429e9140455846423c2b42c44bfb4fcc320272 for Android 9+,
or 8063da543d9e65ccf8ec4267e0710439f67af51d4990720f0ae36bef236a98ca for the
original Android 8 signer. A checksum confirms the file matches; it is not an audit.
Know how a breath behaves
The first eight seconds intentionally hold the breathing screen. Home, Back,
and Recents cannot dismiss it during that time. At eight seconds, Leave,
configured detours, and Pause become available; Continue waits until the full
breath finishes. Ordinary navigation can leave after eight seconds.
Each chosen app gets two fifteen-minute pauses per local day. Active pauses
on the home screen and the pause notification both offer End now; the in-app
control remains available if the notification is dismissed. After Continue, returning within ten
seconds resumes the session; a longer absence starts a new opening breath.
Visible apps in split-screen and picture-in-picture count toward check-ins.
The app yields to Android-reported calls, communication audio, the dialer, the
lock screen, screen-off, and Android Settings. Calling apps that do not report
their calls to Android may not be detected while ringing. One Hand Operation+ edge gestures are unavailable while
the overlay is visible; use Leave, a detour, or ordinary navigation once
choices unlock. You can turn Speedbreaker off in Android Accessibility settings.
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
