Kin controls for your phone
Outsource your
self-control.
To people who love you — not an algorithm, not a lockbox, and not the version of you that shows up at 11 PM. You adopt the rule together. Your Kin hold you to it. When you need an exception, you ask.
The idea
The Amish aren't against technology. They're deliberate about it — the community decides together what a tool is for, before the tool decides for them.
The Amish App borrows that posture for your phone. You adopt a Rule of Life — boundaries you choose while you're clear-eyed, ideally with your community. You choose your Kin — a few people who are quick to say yes when needed, and who love you enough to say no. And when you want past your own limits, you don't flip a toggle.
You ask.
Screen time has two answers.
Neither works for adults.
Parental controls
put someone over you. They were built for children.
Self-control apps
leave you alone with your own skip button. You've met you.
Screen Time asks if you'd like fifteen more minutes — you would. Blockers ship a lock and a settings page, and at 11 PM the settings page always wins. The problem was never information. You already know how much you scroll. The problem is that at your weakest moment, you're alone with a toggle.
The Amish App is the third way: your rules, held by your people.
Not parental control. Not self-control. Kin control.
How it works
Choose a Rule of Life
Adopt a curated rule, subscribe to a friend's, or build your own: daily time budgets for the noisy categories, a quiet night window, a weekly rest day if you want one. You set the terms while you're strong.
Invite your Kin
Two to six people you trust. They hold the keys — together. Everyday requests need one of them; the biggest doors need a majority. No one, including you, can open them alone.
Ask, don't override
When you hit a limit, the lock screen offers one honest button: Ask my Kin. Someone who loves you decides how much more you get — fifteen minutes, an hour, the rest of the day. The answer arrives as a notification, and the app is already unlocked when it does.
You set the rule.
Every budget, every quiet hour, every off-by-default app — yours, chosen while you're clear-eyed. The Amish App never writes a rule for you, and nobody can put it on your phone but you.
And when life needs an exception, asking takes one tap. Your request goes to your Kin with a note in your own words; the answer comes back as a notification, often within minutes. Fifteen minutes, an hour, or the rest of the day — decided by someone who loves you, not by a timer.
Rules that can bend through relationship don't have to break.
Start alone, or bring your people.
For yourself
You don't need a program, a group, or a meeting. Choose a Rule of Life — or write your own — and invite 2–6 people you already trust: a spouse, a brother, an old roommate, a friend from church. They install the app to answer your requests; only you live under the rule. Most people start here.
Start on your ownFor your community
A small group. A men's or women's group. A household of friends. Write one Rule of Life together, and everyone adopts the same rule — while each person chooses their own Kin from the people already around the table. When the group refines the rule, everyone's copy updates. Boundaries are easier to keep when nobody's keeping them alone.
Bring your peopleDetails that matter
One more minute.
Life doesn't always wait for approval. Every lock screen offers sixty seconds of instant access, up to three times a day, no questions asked. It counts against your budget — so it stays honest.
The night is quiet.
Your Rule can close the noisy parts of your phone from, say, 9:30 to 6:30. Calls, maps, and the essentials stay open. Some Rules keep a whole day of the week restful — we'd suggest starting there.
Requests, never activity.
No activity logs, no browsing reports, no surveillance. Your usage never leaves your phone. Your Kin see exactly one thing: what you asked for.
Rules travel.
Share your Rule of Life with a friend, or adopt one your small group wrote together. When the author refines it, subscribers get the update.
Leaving is a door, not a wall.
Quitting is always possible — this is accountability for adults, not a trap. But the door is one everyone sees you walk through: a departure takes the notice period you chose when you joined, your Kin are told, and their blessing can open it sooner.
Built on Apple's Screen Time.
Enforcement runs on the same framework the iPhone itself uses. iPhone first; an Android companion app lets Kin members answer requests from day one.
Questions, answered plainly
Is this a parental-control app?
No. Nobody can put The Amish App on your phone but you. It's built on Apple's individual Screen Time authorization: an adult choosing their own boundaries and their own people. Your Kin approve extensions of your rules — they don't set them.
What if nobody answers?
Requests close on their own after an hour, and the emergency minute is always there — three times a day, instantly, no approval needed.
Can my Kin see what I do on my phone?
No. They see your requests — the category and how long you asked for — and a gentle weekly summary framed for encouragement, not inspection. Never your activity, never your browsing, never a report card.
Can I quit?
Always. The honest way takes the notice period you chose at the start, and your Kin's blessing can shorten it. The silent way works too — but your Kin will know within hours, and re-forming a Kin takes thirty days. Leaving is a door everyone sees you walk through.
What phones does it work on?
iPhone first — Apple's Screen Time framework does the enforcing. An Android companion app lets Kin members receive and approve requests from day one.
Get early access
iPhone first. We'll write when it's your turn — nothing else.