A YouTube legend’s app is currently storming the charts – and it’s extremely cute

In the Focus Friend app, a small cartoon bean helps you concentrate. (Image source: Focus Friend)

Put your cell phone away every now and then: In 2025, the smartphone will become a helpful everyday companion for many. But studies also show that it robs us of our attention.

We recently showed you a way to deal with this: colleague Jan took the advice of a Google employee to heart and banned all apps from his home screen.

YouTube legend Hank Green is trying the opposite approach and has now published an app that is intended to help you specifically ignore your cell phone.

The Focus Friend app is different than what you might expect Productivity and Self-optimization introduces: heartwarmingly cute.

Hank Greens App Focus Friend

Hank Green started his YouTube channel in 2007 Vlogbrothers (which had a different name back then) started and is something of a veteran on the platform. It’s not just his videos on his various YouTube channels that make him a pioneer in the field of entertaining educational formats on the video platform.

For example, they look like this:

Link to YouTube content

This week Hank Green released the app Focus Friendwhich is making waves on social media and catapulting Focus Friend to number 1 in the USA and number 2 among free apps in the App Store.

The app itself is basically just a timerwhich allows you to set focus times when you shouldn’t be distracted by your cell phone. But above all, it is the implementation that delights users:

Your concentration helps a little bean pursue her favorite hobby: knitting.

• So if you don’t stop your concentration timer and leave your cell phone behind, your bean can knit socks and scarves in peace.
• If you stop the timer prematurely, you will make your bean sad.
• Every minute of knitting produces a sock. You can then use the socks you collected to furnish the bean’s room comfortably.

It then looks something like this:

Focus Friend is available free for Android in the PlayStore and for iOS in the AppStore.

If you are willing to invest 1.99 euros per month or 34.99 euros once for Focus Friend, then you will get an additional function in return:

• Extended catalog: The Pro version unlocks a larger catalog of decorations and bean avatars.
• Special items: You can use scarves as a special currency for particularly exclusive items in the catalog.
• Bonus currency: Your bean knits the scarves in addition to the normal socks.

You get the same functionality of the app in the free version.

Conclusion: A productivity app for anti-self-optimizers

Focus Friend works with classic gamification elements: a bean cartoon character, the socks serve as in-app currency. The design just doesn’t work clean or minimalistic like comparable apps, such as Focus to Do and could therefore be particularly attractive for people who have nothing to do with the stressful approach of the self-optimization industry.

Because what is also particularly noticeable about Focus Friend: The app works without any coercion. If you want other apps to be blocked during your focus time, you can do so Deep Focus Settings set extra. In the standard settings, Focus Friend works primarily with your personal sense of duty towards your bean.

In this respect, Focus Friend is a useful and cute app whose design reminds the user that there are 1000 other nice things you can do instead of staring at your smartphone. Knitting, for example.

What do you think about that? Have you heard of Focus Friend or have a special relationship with Hanf Green? And do you perhaps also use a slightly “different” app for better concentration? Write us your opinion and experiences in the comments!