--- title: Blocking TikTok with physics: how I built an iPhone app... description: A developer built an iPhone app called LockZone that uses Bluetooth Low Energy proximity detection to automatically block distracting apps (like TikTok) via... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/blocking-tiktok-with-physics-how-i-built-an-iphone-app-that-locks-apps-when-you-sit-at-your-desk-mbyenbs1i twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Blocking TikTok with physics: how I built an iPhone app that locks apps when you sit at your desk | daily.dev og:description: A developer built an iPhone app called LockZone that uses Bluetooth Low Energy proximity detection to automatically block distracting apps (like TikTok) via... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/blocking-tiktok-with-physics-how-i-built-an-iphone-app-that-locks-apps-when-you-sit-at-your-desk-mbyenbs1i og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/mBYEnBS1I.png og:image:alt: Blocking TikTok with physics: how I built an iPhone app that locks apps when you sit at your desk og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Blocking TikTok with physics: how I built an iPhone app that locks apps when you sit at your desk **[Medium](https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A developer built an iPhone app called LockZone that uses Bluetooth Low Energy proximity detection to automatically block distracting apps (like TikTok) via Screen Time when you're sitting at your desk. A Mac helper app advertises a custom GATT service and sends a heartbeat every 10 seconds. The iPhone connects as a BLE central, using the connection state and RSSI signal strength — smoothed with a 3-sample rolling average and hysteresis — to determine desk proximity. CoreBluetooth's persistent pending connect() call enables background wake events without polling, location, or servers. A calibration step personalizes the RSSI threshold per environment. App selection uses Apple's FamilyActivityPicker API. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Blocking Apps on iOS: Screen Time API vs Shortcuts](https://daily.dev/posts/blocking-apps-on-ios-screen-time-api-vs-shortcuts-d90wuvtyp) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 1 comments - [This $9 key physically locks your most addictive apps](https://daily.dev/posts/this-9-key-physically-locks-your-most-addictive-apps-ihxvqqqlv) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ios](https://daily.dev/tags/ios), [#swift](https://daily.dev/tags/swift), [#bluetooth](https://daily.dev/tags/bluetooth) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/blocking-tiktok-with-physics-how-i-built-an-iphone-app-that-locks-apps-when-you-sit-at-your-desk-mbyenbs1i) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Blocking TikTok with physics: how I built an iPhone app that locks apps when you sit at your desk","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/blocking-tiktok-with-physics-how-i-built-an-iphone-app-that-locks-apps-when-you-sit-at-your-desk-mbyenbs1i","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/blocking-tiktok-with-physics-how-i-built-an-iphone-app-that-locks-apps-when-you-sit-at-your-desk-mbyenbs1i"},"datePublished":"2026-07-23T14:11:58.570Z","dateModified":"2026-07-23T14:13:02.417Z","description":"A developer built an iPhone app called LockZone that uses Bluetooth Low Energy proximity detection to automatically block distracting apps (like TikTok) via...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/7d5c78265119a4774cd7f77e1a9df40e?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/7d5c78265119a4774cd7f77e1a9df40e?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Medium","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Medium","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/medium","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/blocking-tiktok-with-physics-how-i-built-an-iphone-app-that-locks-apps-when-you-sit-at-your-desk-mbyenbs1i","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ios,swift,bluetooth","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Medium","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Blocking TikTok with physics: how I built an iPhone app that locks apps when you sit at your desk"}]} ```