I noticed I kept reaching for my phone during prayer, so I built something for myself

I wanted to share something that's been on my mind for a while.

At some point I noticed that even when it's prayer time, my hand still goes for my phone. I hear the athan, tell myself "I'll get up in a minute," and then catch myself scrolling Instagram. It's not that I don't want to pray, it's that my attention just drifts. I set alarms, set reminders, none of it really worked, because the problem wasn't "forgetting". It was having the phone in my hand and distracting myself till it is too late.

I looked at the app blockers out there: they either are too expensive or don't meet my needs. So I started tinkering with something for myself, and over time it turned into an app: when prayer time starts, it pauses distracting apps like Instagram and TikTok, shows the qibla direction, drops a daily verse or hadith, and calculates the times based on the Diyanet prayer calendar (and additional methods).

I had a few close friends and family try it, got some genuinely motivating feedback like "wish I'd had this sooner." But I'm still early - it's iOS only right now, and I know there's a lot missing. It's not a "finished" product by any means.

I'm not sharing this to promote it, I'm genuinely curious whether you deal with the same problem and whether something like this would actually be useful to you. How's your relationship with your phone during prayer time, how do you handle it? And if anyone wants to try it, I'm happy to share the App Store link, but what I really want is your honest take, good or bad. What's missing, what's pointless, what works and what doesn't.

Thanks in advance to anyone who reads this and shares their thoughts.