WTF is Focus Friend App? What 42 Real Internet People Think | HackerNoon

Hank Green’s new app [Focus Friend]() helps you focus by having an adorable knitting bean “work alongside you” while you stay off your phone. If you start scrolling, the timer stops, your bean’s knit unravels—and the poor critter looks sad. This guilt-based twist on the Pomodoro method turned productivity into a weirdly wholesome experience.

Launched in late July, Focus Friend shot to #1 on the iOS App Store, surpassing even ChatGPT and TikTok (Fast Company). It’s free, contains no ads or data tracking (Google Play), and leans heavily on cozy visuals and guilt-trip gimmicks to help users reclaim their attention. Now, the internet is full of memes, heartfelt user stories, and lots of CUTE.

42 Real Internet Reactions

1. “The Focus Friend app from entrepreneur Hank Green is all about an adorable bean that needs to get its knitting done.” – Inc. Magazine on X
2. “Want to stop doomscrolling? Let a cute knitting bean guilt-trip you into focus instead.” – DesignTAXI
3. “Focus Friend swapped my screen time for bean time.” – Zachary Brown, The Verge
4. “Hank Green’s new app Focus Friend is taking over the App Store — and it’s powered by a sock-making bean that gets sad if you scroll TikTok.” – Trending on X
5. “If you fail, you will make an anthropomorphic bean very sad, because its knitting project depends on your ability to stay focused.” – Amanda Silberling, TechCrunch
6. “…the best idea I ever had.” – Hank Green on TikTok
7. “Everyone stop downloading ChatGPT for just a second, okay?” – Hank Green on Threads
8. “This doesn’t seem possible.” – Hank Green on X
9. “It’s about letting people be in control of their attention, not selling their attention to someone else.” – Hank Green on TikTok
10. “The mobile ad ecosystem kinda blows.” – Hank Green on Bluesky
11. “It’s genuinely absurd that my brother, vertical video sensation Hank Green, has the sixth most popular app in the world right now. (Good app, too.)” – John Green on X
12. “Wait!!!! What in the ADHD is this!? Immediately downloading.” – Glo Atanmo on Threads
13. “Focus Friend is more popular than Google 😌.” – Hank Green on X
14. “New #1 app just overtook ChatGPT and Google — and it’s extremely cute.” – Yahoo News
15. “Focus Friend has crossed 500K installs… It’s the #1 downloaded iOS app overall.” – Appfigures
16. “Focus Friend has kept me from a Procrastination Doomscroll™ with pretty good success so far.” – Reddit user
17. “I didn’t want to be the monster interrupting my poor bean’s focus, nor did I want to let Hank Green down.” – Reddit user
18. “My bean is named Chickpea!” – Reddit
19. “I just named mine Refrito ’cause he’s a pinto bean. I’m uncreative as hell lol.” – Reddit
20. “Smurmins L. Barg… I’m skeptical about his potential to get a lot of decor with me at the reins…” – Reddit
21. “It’s adorable! I love my bean — I’m so proud of their socks. They work so hard!” – Tumblr
22. “It’s like practicing healthy boundaries, but with myself.” – Tumblr
23. “Hah shoot – I grabbed this, tried it once, thought it would be super helpful, and never launched it again. Oopsie!” – Reddit
24. “Once I close them they don’t exist anymore. It’s a cute idea, I guess.” – Reddit
25. “So many productivity apps are overwhelming – this is perfect in its simplicity.” – Google Play review
26. “Just using this app for one day has cut my screen time in half. I love my little bean and earning socks!” – Google Play review
27. “I have ADHD and this has been helping so much. It’s cute and works great!” – App Store review
28. “You made us a 2025 version of a Tamagotchi.” – TikTok commenter
29. “It’s part Tamagotchi, part therapy, all Gen Z bait.” – Social post
30. “4th place in the downloads, jfc. I think people are starved for simple and honest softwares with no evil schemes and data stealing.” – Tumblr
31. “Reblog to make ChatGPT lose to a cute knitting bean.” – Tumblr
32. “I love this little app! … helps me not pick up my phone…and end up awake until 2:00 am.” – Google Play review
33. “I’ve used it to study my class work, and even turned off the TV to listen to the calming bean music.” – Google Play review
34. “The app is limited like Neko Atsume – sweet, simple, to the point.” – App Store review
35. “I appreciate the amount of designs and the general lack of a paywall.” – App Store review
36. “Hm, I tried it out… I can just switch apps (I’m on Android) and let it run in the background…” – Reddit
37. “I love the fact that the timer keeps going if you have it in the background… this feature makes it usable for me.” – Reddit
38. “It’s super cute and I started trying it today… though I’ll likely get bored of this one too, it is much cuter [than other apps]. That said, I love Hank Green, and I hope more folks find it helpful!” – Reddit
39. “Don’t worry, lil bean, I’ll stay off Reddit for you.” – Meme on X
40. “Who knew a knitting bean could double as a mindfulness coach?” – Tumblr
41. “Cheering on a productivity tool like it’s the home team in a sports final? That’s new.” – Tumblr
42. “A knitting bean has done the impossible – it got the internet to focus, even if just for a few sock-filled minutes at a time.” – Meta comment

Conclusion

From guilt-tripping beans to meme-able focus tools, the internet’s reaction to Focus Friend is charmingly chaotic. Verified reporters praise its cozy ingenuity. Users relate to the gentle incentive. Celebrities and influencers marvel at Hank Green’s ability to make productivity adorable. Even the skeptics can’t help but smirk—and maybe stay off their phones a bit longer. Because somehow, a little knitting bean named Focus Friend has become the cutest alarm clock we didn’t know we needed.