The timer trend is everywhere. Tons of apps are built around strict sessions, breaks, and nudges. I downloaded the one making the rounds right now, but I won’t be using it. Sometimes the tool that works for everyone else just doesn’t fit how your brain ticks.
Focus Friend is a cute, friendly app
Bean is a nice mascot for productivity
With a focus on a cute animated bean character, Focus Friend is the latest focus timer app people have been talking about. It’s developed with Hank Green—a YouTuber, author, and biologist—and was released in August 2025. It’s free and available for both iOS and Android.
I’ve used screentime reduction apps with success, but I’m always looking for other options to help me focus. Focus Friend intrigued me with its friendly and soft vibe and its rounded and cute illustrations in the interface.
Download: Focus Friend for iOS | Android (Free)
How Focus Friend works
It’s a simple concept
You can name your bean character, or keep the default “Bean” name. This instantly turns Focus Friend into a Tamagotchi of the modern day. It’s like naming a pet that lives in your phone.
Although Focus Friend is free, there are options to purchase other bean character skins like “Hank Bean,” “Jelly Bean Pack,” or “Kitt-ney Bean.” You could also purchase Focus Friend Pro for more premium knitted goods or decorations—although this won’t aid your focus, I’m sure.
The home screen prompts that “Bean needs help focusing” and uses a body-doubling-esque technique to encourage that when Bean focuses, so should you. Selecting Focus lets you choose for how long in 5-minute increments. Body-doubling is a popular focus tip, similarly to making a time-lapse of yourself to hold accountability.
What’s Bean focusing on? You may ask… Knitting socks or scarves, of course.
When Focus mode is on, you’ll only see Bean knitting, facing away from the screen so you can see its cute illustrated bean backside. With your phone’s volume on, you’ll also listen to the relaxing lo-fi music Bean knits to.
Bean will knit for as long as you stay in focus; the longer you’re focused, the more knitted goods—socks or scarves—you’ll get as a result. Canceling your focus means Bean’s knitting goes to waste.
Bean’s knitted goods can be used to “purchase” decorations in Bean’s room/home with items like floor paint, a trash can, wall art, a table, and more. I haven’t focused enough to purchase any, but I believe there are also room expansions for Bean’s home with continued Focus credits.
Your reward for focusing is being able to gamify your digital pet’s home. Although cute and fun, I believe this might end up encouraging you to use your phone more and forget the main purpose of Focus Friend.
Options for deep or soft focus modes
Focus Friend gives you the choice
When Focus Mode is on, Bean knits. That’s all that’s on your screen during this time. It’s a repeated animation loop of knitting, rather than a progressive animation showing how much Bean has knitted, so it’s not exciting to watch and won’t distract you.
Although the screen doesn’t show anything distracting in Focus Mode, you can still receive phone notifications from other apps. Luckily, there’s an option to switch to Deep Focus Mode, which prevents external notifications during focus time.
You can switch these modes under the settings tab on the Focus Friend home screen. Deep Focus also lets you choose if any specific apps should allow notifications to appear, so you don’t have to be entirely blocked from the digital world.
In the settings, you can also choose to listen to the calming music while not actively in the app, although this will drain your phone’s battery significantly faster. The option for music while using Focus Friend is good, although the music doesn’t change, so it might lead to insanity after prolonged focus sessions.
Focus Friend is too gimmicky for me
It’s a pleasant app, but I won’t be using it
I can see why plenty of people would enjoy using Focus Friend as it’s such an inviting and cute app to use, but that’s exactly why I don’t think I’ll continue using it.
For me, focus apps need to be as hands-off as possible. They should have a functional interface, but not one that I want to engage in—the idea of these apps is to discourage phone use, not to encourage it. Focus Friend is just too inviting.
The gamified aspect of Focus Friend would lead me to pick up my phone between every focus round and scour through the decorative inventory deciding how to decorate Bean’s digital home. Before I know it, I’ve lost my focus again, and it’s the app’s fault.
For me, specifically, Focus Friend isn’t so helpful since I switch to my laptop for work-based activities and often put my phone away anyway, like locking it in a cupboard to keep it out of reach. Focus Friend isn’t available for desktop—but maybe it will be one day—so using it actually encourages me to keep my phone nearby, which isn’t beneficial for me to focus anyway. Luckily, there are plenty of desktop-based focus tools to use instead.
However, I recognize that many people would benefit from a knitting bean mascot. The idea of dedicating focus time to decorating a digital home could encourage them to put their phone down and focus on their tasks. I think Focus Friend is worth trying, as even if it doesn’t work for your focus needs, it’s a wholesome app to keep on your phone just in case.
