Maatram
Action ⟹ Value. Maatram is a student screen-time and focus platform. It helps students cut down on distracting apps, build focus habits, and study with friends, with progress tracked through a points system.
Live site: https://maatram.co.in
What it does
- App Gate: Opening a distracting app (Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, X, Facebook, Reddit and more) triggers a short pause. Each open costs points, and repeated opens cost more. Users can also state why they are opening the app.
- Hard Lock: Start a timed lock (5 to 90 minutes, plus "In the Mood" blocks of 2, 3 and 4 hours) that blocks distracting sites and apps until the timer ends. Completed locks earn points.
- Focus timers: Pomodoro (25/5) and Deep Work (90/15) timers. The timer keeps running across pages, and finished sessions award points.
- Study Rooms: Up to five people join a shared room by code. Everyone's timers and app-gate strikes sync live, and the room has a chat. Study Rooms are a Premium feature.
- Screen-time stats: Log daily per-app usage by hand and see per-app breakdowns and weekly trends. Data is stored locally in the browser.
- Leaderboard: Ranks users by productivity points. Only real users appear.
- Roles: Sign in with Google, then choose a persona: Student, Teacher or Parent. Teachers create classes with a join code, students join with that code, and parents link to a child's account. Parental controls are display settings only and do not restrict a device.
- Wellness (in progress): A guided plan flow covering goals, activity level and food preferences, producing a weekly meal plan. Users under 18 get no calorie targets or weight goals.
Platforms
| Platform | Location | Notes |
|---|
| Website (PWA-style mobile layout) | This repo, deployed on Vercel | Plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Two themes: Neon and Minimal Glass. Performance mode for older devices. |
| Android app | android/ (Capacitor 6, package com.maatram.app) | Wraps the website. Adds Maatram Shield, a native accessibility service that blocks apps during Hard Lock and runs the friction gate. |
| Chrome extension | chrome-extension/ | Maatram Hard Lock on the Chrome Web Store. Blocks distracting sites while a lock is active. Store link: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/maatram-hard-lock/igcfbmdadjlibodcpaibklgeijdacmen |
| Android Hard Lock (standalone) | Separate repo: maatram-hard-lock | Kotlin app, Hard Lock only. APK built with GitHub Actions. |
| Windows Hard Lock | Separate repo: maatram-windows | Tauri app with a Rust backend and HTML front end. Linux (AppImage, .deb, .rpm) and macOS (.dmg) builds are planned. |
Tech stack
- Frontend: HTML, CSS, vanilla JavaScript. Motion for animation.
- Auth and database: Firebase Authentication (Google sign-in) and Cloud Firestore. Security rules live in
firestore.rules.
- Study Room sync: MQTT over WebSocket through a public broker. No custom backend.
- Hosting: Vercel, with auto-deploy from the
main branch on GitHub.
- Android: Capacitor 6 with the app, haptics, keyboard, splash-screen and status-bar plugins.
Running it locally
Website
- Clone the repo.
- Serve the folder with any static server. For example:
npx serve .
- Open the local URL in a browser.
Some features need a Firebase project. Add your own Firebase web config in the page scripts, then publish firestore.rules in the Firebase console. Google sign-in only works on authorized domains.
Android app
- From the
android/ folder's parent, run npm install, then npx cap sync android.
- Open the
android/ folder in Android Studio and run the app.
- To use Google sign-in, add the app's package name and SHA-1 fingerprint (from
./gradlew signingReport) to your Firebase project.
To share a build with others, make a release-signed APK. Debug builds are blocked by Google Play Protect on many phones.
Maatram Shield (Android)
After installing, go to Settings → Accessibility → Maatram Shield and turn it on. On Android 13 and later, sideloaded apps may first need "Allow restricted settings" from the app's info page.
Project layout
index.html landing page with intro animation
timers.html Pomodoro and Deep Work timers
app-gate.html App Gate and Hard Lock
study-room.html shared study rooms
stats.html screen-time logging and charts
leaderboard.html points ranking
login.html Google sign-in
roles.html persona selection and classes
survey.html user survey (ratings.html shows results)
premium.html plans page (payments not yet live)
admin.html admin tools
socials.html social links and contact
how-it-works.html, about.html, faq.html, privacy.html public pages
firestore.rules Firestore security rules
theme.js, gate.js shared theme and route-gate scripts
android/ Capacitor Android project
chrome-extension/ Maatram Hard Lock extension source
Points
- Hard Lock: +10 per 5 minutes completed.
- Study Room session of 10 minutes or more: +10.
- Opening a social app through App Gate: −10 (the friction gate uses a separate escalating toll).
- Three strikes in a study room: points reduced.
- Weekly bonus when weekly screen time is below your average.
- Points are clamped per session and floored at zero.
Contact
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @maatram_official97
- X: @maatram_97
- Reddit: u/Maatram97
- LinkedIn: maatram.exe
- GitHub: MaatramReelsBlocking/maatram
Team
Ram Saravanan, Ashwanth Kumar, Ridhun S. and Vivan V R.
License
