Offtime review
With Offtime you can restrict app access and create customizable profiles for blocking calls, texts, and notifications to ward off distractions while you're at work or with loved ones. Thanks to a well-designed interface and a guided profile creation process, as well as contextual tutorials, you can set up this app in no time.
Pros
Extremely useful and effective: Offtime guides you trough a profile creation process in which you choose what apps and contacts to block, whether to allow notifications, and set up auto-reply messages for callers and SMS when you're not available; you can choose from preexisting profiles like Focused Work, Family, or Unplugging, or define your own. After choosing the time interval during which you want to focus on your work, you can activate your profile with a tap, and all distractions will be deflected while an activity log will keep track of everything that happens in your absence.
Analytics provides insight into your smartphone usage patterns: The app gathers usage statistics and displays them under the My Insights tab in the left-hand sidebar, where you can see an Offtime score based on your time spent using your device, as well as most-used apps, most frequent contacts, and daily, weekly, and monthly stats. Looking at these carefully can help you identify the apps and contacts that are time sinks.
Takes security seriously: Although it requires countless permissions, all the data the app needs stays encrypted on your device, without being uploaded to any servers, so that only you can access it.
Cons
Responsiveness could be improved: During our tests, we found the app lagging now and then, especially when accessing the left-hand sidebar or customizing Offtime profiles. The small delay from when you tap on a button until the action is actually performed isn't a huge problem, but can be annoying.
Bottom Line
A well-made and highly useful tool, Offtime works as advertised, helping you minimize distractions. This is a great app for compulsive mobile users who can't stop fingering their devices, but can also be appealing for all of us who want to optimize the way we use our mobile devices and minimize the stress that they often cause us. In a world that's sometimes perhaps too connected, Offtime seems a necessary app that everyone should check.
