one sec alternative

one sec doesn’t block anything for good. When you open an app you’ve targeted, it steps in front of it, asks for one breath, then lets you decide: a speed bump, not a wall, and its maker says so. If you’re looking for an alternative, it’s rarely because the breath is badly done — it’s because after a few weeks you tap through it without noticing, and the app opens all the same. This page says what one sec does well, where it stops, and what Tempo asks instead.

What one sec does well

The idea fits in one line from its maker: “Strict blockers never worked: I just turned them off.” Rather than forbid, one sec delays. When a targeted app launches, an intervention shows up before the confirm button: a deep breath, a 4-7-8 breath, a look at yourself through the camera, turning the phone over, typing a random string, following a dot, or a short conversational reflection. Length and hours are adjustable. You can target apps, categories, websites, or block everything except a few exceptions.

Coverage is wide: iPhone, iPad, Android, a native Mac app with a Safari extension, and extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Edge — so the same pause waits for you on the computer. Around the intervention, one sec counts your opening attempts per app and per day, and offers alternatives when you close: a journal entry, an intention, an emotion to name. For the days that call for a real wall, there are Block Sessions, scheduled or recurring, with a strict mode you can neither pause nor quit. The maker cites studies with the Max Planck Institute and Heidelberg University, and a 57 % drop in openings.

And there is the gentleness. one sec never tells you no; it asks you for a second. For someone who wants fewer reflex openings without a ban, that is exactly the right setting, and it is very well executed.

Where one sec stops

The limit is in the mechanism, not the execution: one sec asks for the same thing, at the same moment, every time, and the body learns. Users describe it in the same words — “after a week I tap through the breath without thinking”, the novelty wears off after a few weeks. A fixed friction is a fixed cost; pay it often enough and the thumb settles it before the head has had time to read.

And once you’re through, nothing counts anymore. one sec delays access, it doesn’t meter it: past the breath, the app is open with no ceiling, for as long as you like. The pause separates the reflex from the use; it doesn’t bound the use.

The rest is more mundane. On iPhone, setup goes through automations in the Shortcuts app, and many find it tedious. On Android, the battery optimisation of some manufacturers kills one sec in the background; the official FAQ calls compatibility “really hard, and sometimes impossible” depending on the brand. The attempts counter, meant to raise awareness, is felt by some as discouraging. As for the hard modes, strict sessions and a passcode lock on the Screen Time permission, they exist, but they are the wall one sec had chosen not to be — and the maker acknowledges that “in weak moments”, some users simply turned it off.

Finally, one sec has nothing to do with exercise. Its only link to Health is writing mindfulness minutes into it; it reads nothing back. The breath is the friction, not a key.

What Tempo does differently

• The price of the door is paid before you reach it. one sec asks you for a second at the moment you’re weakest. Tempo asks for an effort that has already happened: a workout read from Health or Health Connect, or your steps for the day. At zero balance, the app doesn’t open, however many times you tap. Repetition wears nothing down, because there is nothing to tap through.
• One shared balance, drained by real use. Minutes earned open all your blocked apps at once, and using them spends the balance minute by minute — the count follows the system’s own Screen Time: 43 minutes debited for 44 counted by iOS, measured on device. At zero, everything closes at once, without opening Tempo. Where one sec grants unlimited access past the pause, Tempo meters it.
• A per-sport rate, and intensity if you wear a watch. An hour of cycling and an hour of walking don’t pay the same; without a watch, a thousand steps are worth about ten minutes of walking, at the walking rate. Workouts typed by hand into Health don’t count. With a watch on iPhone, heart rate raises the rate when you push, never below your base rate (Tempo Pro). And minutes earned expire after 24 hours: no stockpile for Sunday.
• Nothing to build in Shortcuts. On iPhone, Tempo uses Apple’s own picker (apps, categories, websites in Safari), and the block is enforced by iOS itself: it holds with Tempo closed. On Android it’s Tempo’s own service with a permanent notification, apps only, not websites.
• No account, no server, no analytics. Everything stays on the device, and the App Store listing carries the “Data Not Collected” label. It’s also why there is no sync: no Mac version, no browser extension.

Who one sec suits better

If what you want is fewer reflex openings rather than a ban, a pause that leaves you the choice, the same one on your phone and your computer, with a journal or an intention offered when you close, stay with one sec: gentleness is the principle, and Tempo has none. Tempo also has no Mac version, no browser extension, no attempts counter, no scheduled sessions. It says no until you’ve moved — and if moving more isn’t part of what you want, that is just one more constraint.

Pricing on both sides changes: check it on the App Store and Play listings rather than in a comparison page, this one included.

Frequently asked questions

one sec vs Tempo: which one blocks harder?

They don’t work on the same axis. one sec delays the opening by one breath and then lets you choose; Tempo conditions the opening on a balance of minutes earned by moving, and that balance doesn’t give way to repetition. If you want a pause, one sec. If you want the door to stay shut until the workout has happened, Tempo.

Can I keep one sec and add Tempo?

Yes, the two apps don’t interfere technically. But two blockers on the same apps step on each other: one sec’s breath will show up in front of an app Tempo has already closed. The split that works: one sec on the apps you want to keep reachable with a pause, Tempo on the ones you want to earn.

Do I lose my one sec history if I switch to Tempo?

No. Tempo doesn’t touch one sec’s settings or counters, and it doesn’t read the mindfulness minutes one sec writes into Health. It only reads workouts and steps recorded by a sensor; a workout typed by hand into Health or Health Connect credits nothing.