The app is half of ANKOR
The dock gives your phone a place. The app is what makes the place mean something. Scan your ANKOR to start a session, the apps you chose go quiet, and you scan again when you want them back. With the apps quiet, the phone is a tool again.
What the app does
A session starts with a scan.
Hold your phone to the dock and the session begins. Nothing to open and nothing to press.
The apps you chose go quiet.
Selected apps are blocked and notifications are muted, using Apple’s own Screen Time controls. Anything you left off the list keeps working.
Scan again when you want them back.
Hold the phone to the dock a second time and the session ends.
Every session is recorded.
When it started, when it ended, how long it ran. Plus streaks, history and totals.
You can see your friends’ sessions.
Optional, with Sign in with Apple. If a friend is ANKORED right now, you can see that and cheer your friend on.
What the app looks like
Four screens from the current build.
A session, running. Started by putting the phone down.
You choose what goes quiet. Everything else keeps working.
Every session recorded. What you did, not what you should have done.
The running timer sits on the lock screen, so you never pick the phone up to check.
What you need
An ANKOR dock.
A physical object, sold separately. The app is the companion to the hardware.
An iPhone.
iOS 17.0 or later, or Android 7.0 or later on Google Play.
The ANKOR app.
Free with your ANKOR, and required. ANKOR does not work without the app.
The Shortcuts app.
Apple’s own, already on your phone. One automation, set up once.
Your data stays with you
Your sessions, your profiles and your phone time stay on your phone and are never uploaded. Friends and ANKOR Family are optional and store only what your people need to see. With your ANKOR the app is free, and ANKOR Member is optional.
Setting up
Ten minutes, once. The app walks you through six steps.
ANKOR uses a Shortcuts automation to notice the dock. That is deliberate. The chip is written so that iOS shows no banner at the tap, which means there is no notification to tap and nothing between putting the phone down and the apps going quiet. The trade is that the automation has to be created once, by you.
Questions
Does ANKOR work without the app?
No. The dock starts a session and the app is what runs it. They are two halves of one product.
Is there an Android version?
The Android app is on Google Play, for Android 7.0 or later.
Does ANKOR need Wi-Fi?
No. A session starts over NFC, directly between the dock and the phone. Your phone still needs its own signal for whatever you use during the day, but the dock connects to nothing.
Can I still be reached during a session?
Yes. You choose what a session covers, so calls and anything you leave off the list keep working.
Does the app cost anything?
No. With your ANKOR the app is free for good. ANKOR Member is optional and adds schedules, more profiles and more.
The dock is the part you see.
The app is the part that makes the dock work. One object on the wall, one app on the phone, and a place you do not have to remember.
If something does not work, write to us.
Not every question is answered on this site. A person reads every message.