Focus Friend allows users to set a timer to get a task done, similar to other productivity tools. The app temporarily blocks distractions, like social media, while the timer runs its course. Unlike other apps, Focus Friend assigns users a little bean, which the user can give a name like Bean Diesel<\/a>, Pinto or Eda (for Edamame).<\/p>\n If the user successfully focuses for the timer\u2019s duration, the bean is able to finish their knitting project. But if the user picks up their phone in the middle, the bean gets distracted and drops their knitting needles. The more the user focuses, the more socks the bean knits, which can be exchanged for bean room decor.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an app that installs a bean in your phone. And the bean really wants to spend more time knitting,\u201d Green said in a TikTok video on Monday<\/a>. \u201cYou can focus for an amount of time, and that will let the bean make socks or scarves, and you can trade those socks or scarves in for more furniture in the bean\u2019s room.\u201d<\/p>\n Focus Friend launched amid an onslaught of AI slop \u2014 low quality media generated by artificial intelligence \u2014 and a rise in “doomscrolling” (spending excessive time scrolling online). <\/p>\n The app is the latest productivity tool to incentivize a healthy relationship with screen time. <\/p>\n Focus Friend echoes products like the popular ’90s-era Tamagotchi, a handheld video game that allows users to care for a small mythical pet. Finch, another gamified focus app, has also risen in popularity since launching in 2021. It assigns users a customizable bird that grows when they complete self-determined tasks, like cleaning or drinking water. <\/p>\n Focus Friend began as a \u201cpassion project\u201d between Green and developer Bria Sullivan, who is behind Honey B Games\u2019 Boba Story, which allows players to design their own boba drinks. <\/p>\n In January 2024 Sullivan said she met Green over dinner, where they discussed the idea of creating an app that would serve as an alternative way to support creators (besides creator merchandise). Sullivan suggested a focus timer, while Green devised the anthropomorphic bean and its knitting hobby.<\/p>\n Sullivan hopes the app can help people reduce their time \u201cdoomscrolling,\u201d a habit she herself also hopes to break out of.<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially with social media and things like that, I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m having fun,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cI don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m an active participant in it.\u201d<\/p>\n Green, who many often lovingly describe as \u201cthe internet\u2019s dad<\/a>,\u201d began posting YouTube videos in 2007 with his brother, author John Green. The two went on to launch Crash Course, a YouTube channel that has offered free, high-quality educational videos since 2012. The channel, which has over 16 million subscribers, touches on topics including biology and global history. The brothers also created VidCon, the massive creator and fan conference <\/a>that\u2019s been held annually in Anaheim, California, since 2010.<\/p>\n But Hank Green\u2019s online fame has also prompted a lot of self-reflection. The creator has been vocal about his own relationship to the internet, including the downsides, telling TechCrunch<\/a> last year that he\u2019s \u201cbeen trained by the algorithms and by my colleagues to be extraordinarily good at grabbing and holding people\u2019s attention.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI hope I use that skill for good, but I also use it for distracting people from whatever else they would be doing,\u201d he told the publication. <\/p>\n Now, with Focus Friend, Hank Green is moving toward \u201cgiving people their time back,\u201d he said in his TikTok video Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s about letting people be in control of their attention, not selling their attention to someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n The app launched in July but only recently picked up traction after the Green brothers began posting more about it on social media<\/a>, where they have millions of followers. <\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t have any idea that it would get this big, nor did we even have the intention for it,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cThe intention we had behind it was, \u2018This is an idea I think should exist in the world.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Some, like TikTok creator Hannah Rae, who goes by hannahsendlessbookshelf on the platform, were immediately hooked. She posted her reaction to the app in a video<\/a>, calling it a \u201ccure\u201d to her \u201creading slump.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIt does tend to be easier for the majority of us to do the \u2018right thing\u2019 for something else we want to care for, rather than just doing it for our own benefit in the first place,\u201d Rae said. <\/p>\n So far, she said it\u2019s helped incentivize her to put her phone down. She said her sister, a teacher, uses it to focus on her lesson planning, and her brother, 11, uses it while doing homework. <\/p>\n While the ADHD-friendly app is free to download from the app store, users can pay for different bean avatars, including a \u201cJohn Bean<\/a>\u201d option resembling Hank\u2019s brother. There\u2019s also a subscription model where users can knit scarves to trade for elevated decorations. Green\u2019s express goal is to avoid burdening users with ads.<\/p>\n Focus Friend is \u201cvery much trying to be an ad-free experience because the mobile ad ecosystem kinda blows,\u201d Green wrote in a post on BlueSky<\/a>.<\/p>\n Aside from helping their bean knit a sock or a scarf, Sullivan said she hopes Focus Friends users are \u201ctaking a break from the noise and having a little bit of peace with themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"YouTube](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/230519-hank-green-mn-1240-2cd58c.jpg\")
YouTube personality and author Hank Green speaks in New York in 2018.Monica Schipper \/ Getty Images file<\/p>\n