AppCap

Problem

Teens waste 9 hours of their day on social media (Washington Post), and this not only limits their productivity, it also affects their mental well-being. Today, there is little incentive to stop using social media, and we would like to change that.

What it does

AppCap gives teens an incentive to be productive by tracking phone usage duration to show them their wasted time. Then, the user competes against friends to use less social media and meet their goals. AppCap notifies users when they’ve reached their maximum unproductivity limit, categorizes unproductive applications (social media, games, etc.), calculates time wasted, and blocks users from unproductive apps after they have reached their daily limit. By having users connect to their friends, it adds a sense of friendly competition. Each week or month, whoever is last on the leaderboard must pay for lunch or receive a truth or dare.

What's Next

AppCap is currently only a prototype, and we would like to turn it into an Android/iOS application. Additionally, in the future, we hope to implement a wish-list for winners to give to the losers. For example, if the winner wanted food, there would be a feature of DoorDash for the loser to pay through.