Top 6 Apps To Overcome Nomophobia

Nomophobia is the irrational fear of being without your mobile phone. The word is derived from the expression “no-mobile-phone”. Nomophobia, in other words, is simply phone addiction.

A study conducted by Dscout, an app used to conduct surveys revealed that the average smartphone user touches their phone 2617 times a day.

Another research by the Huffington Post says 71% of people sleep with or next to their mobile phones, with 3% sleeping with their phones in their hand. Fortunately, there are mobile applications that can aid in getting over an addiction to your smartphone.

Offtime

The first app I would recommend is Offtime. This app allows you to set reminders and restrict access to distracting apps. You can also block texts, calls and messages that might disturb you.

However, it enables you to select a few people such as your spouse and children so they can still get through to you. This is referred to as a whitelist. Offtime can also auto-respond to messages on your behalf, and keeps an activity log of everything you missed while away so you can catch up.

It also provides a chart of the number of hours spent on each app, including apps that consume the heaviest amount of time. In offline mode, Offtime uses analytics to identify specific patterns.

For instance, the app can ‘predict’ that 6 missed calls from someone you know is a sign of urgency.

Yukan

If you are passionate about human interest issues and philanthropy, then Yukan is the right app for you. This app allows you to donate to a social project of your choice by simply going offline. For every hour that you stay away from your phone, you would be promoting and funding a social good. With Yukan, you simply select which project you want to support, then decide how long you would stay offline. As a result, you would be killing two birds with one stone; using your smartphone in a controlled way and contributing to a good cause.

Flipd

Flipd is also a great app, especially for social media addicts. It locks the phone for a set amount of time and hides all social media apps or games to avoid distractions. Flipd will remind you to stay on scheduled tasks and also track productivity and progress as you go. The app also offers gift vouchers and coupons to reward and motivate users who exercised self-control.

AntiSocial

AntiSocial is a social media tracking app that tracks the amount of time spent on apps. It includes an easy-to-read chart that allows you to view time spent on Facebook, Instagram, emails and other apps.

Users can even set daily limits for each app they use. AntiSocial also compares your usage of social media apps to that of other users; this is to enable you to gauge how “normal” your usage is.

Forest

Forest provides an interesting solution to keep you away from your phone. The app gives users real-world tasks to perform. Set a timer on the app and ‘plant a seed’. When this happens your seed grows into a tree. However, if you unlock your phone before the timer is up, your tree will wither. Forest also send users digital coins whenever they are able to grow a full tree.

Moment

Moment is another simple iOS app that tracks and manages the amount of time you spend on your iPhone or iPad every day. With Moment, you can set time limits for yourself, enable shut-offs and also enable reminders. The app also notifies you when the time limit is almost due.

Nomophobia is unhealthy and has a number of disadvantages. With these apps, it will be easier to manage your screen time and practice the needed self-control in order to quit overusing smartphones.