Brickify

Every family ends up with one: an old smartphone sitting in a drawer, too good to throw away, too distracting to just hand over to a kid as-is. My son's school just went smartphone-free. Brilliant in principle, but in practice I had an old phone in a drawer I'd already promised him and I wanted him to have something for the walk to school and evenings at home without it becoming a black hole for his attention. Brickify turned this old phone into a "brickphone": nothing but calls, texts and whatever else we agreed, then it switches to a more open profile on a schedule we're both happy with, for the apps we're both happy with. The school's happy. He's happy. I didn't have to buy anything new — just a SIM. SET IT ONCE. THEN STOP THINKING ABOUT IT. The best thing Brickify does that your phone's built-in Digital Wellbeing controls don't: it runs entirely on its own schedule, moving between whichever profiles you've set up. Set the days, hours and app list once — ideally when your resolve is strongest, not at 11pm when you're too tired to enforce anything — and Brickify takes it from there. No daily nagging, no manually switching it yourself. REAL RESTRICTIONS, NOT A SUGGESTION Brickify uses Android's Accessibility Service and Device Administrator protection to actually enforce whichever profile is active. Moving to a more open profile ahead of schedule needs both a PIN and a second factor (an authenticator app or an email code), so a determined kid, or a determined 11pm version of you, can't override it alone. REUSE WHAT YOU'VE ALREADY GOT A dedicated "dumbphone" costs roughly £10–£15 and does one job. Brickify costs a one-off £4.99 and turns a smartphone you already own into the same thing — with the bonus of automatically moving to a more open profile on your schedule, no manual swapping required. As they grow up, you can gradually release more apps — no problem. WHAT'S INSIDE • Profiles — name a set of blocked apps once, reuse it whenever • Automatic scheduling — pick days and hours per profile, or leave the most restrictive one on all day, every day as the default • PIN + second factor — nobody can override the schedule alone • Recovery codes — for when you genuinely lock yourself out • New app install alerts — know if something new shows up • Emergency calling always works, whatever profile is active • One-time £4.99 — no subscription, no renewal, ever Brickify isn't a monitoring app. It doesn't read messages, browsing history, or location — it does one thing: blocks your apps between the profiles you define, on a schedule you control.