// Compare · one sec
When the breath before Instagram stops working
one sec puts a short pause between you and an app: a breath, a question, then the choice. For a lot of people that is enough. This page is for the nights it isn’t, when your thumb taps “continue” before the breath is over.
one sec and Aegin at a glance
- What happens when you open a feed
- one sec: A pause, a question, then you choose
- Aegin: It opens in short windows on a schedule, and is shut in between
- Getting in anyway
- one sec: Tap through, by design
- Aegin: Plead your case to the Judge, which can say no
- Evidence
- one sec: Peer-reviewed field study (PNAS, 2023)
- Aegin: New, no published study yet
- Paid (US)
- one sec: Pro about $19.99 a year, $99.99 lifetime (May 2026 snapshot)
- Aegin: Pro $99.99 a year or $12.99 a month
| one sec | Aegin | |
|---|---|---|
| What happens when you open a feed | A pause, a question, then you choose | It opens in short windows on a schedule, and is shut in between |
| Getting in anyway | Tap through, by design | Plead your case to the Judge, which can say no |
| Evidence | Peer-reviewed field study (PNAS, 2023) | New, no published study yet |
| Paid (US) | Pro about $19.99 a year, $99.99 lifetime (May 2026 snapshot) | Pro $99.99 a year or $12.99 a month |
App Pricing Lab: one sec in-app purchases, US App Store snapshot of 8 May 2026Grüning, Riedel and Lorenz-Spreen (2023), PNAS 120(8): “Directing smartphone use through the self-nudge app one sec”
one sec is a pause, on purpose
one sec never claimed to stop you. It makes you breathe, asks if you still want the app, and lets you in. That is the product working. In a six-week field study of 280 people, users closed the app again on 36% of attempts once the pause appeared, and by the end were opening their target apps 57% less. The free version covers the basics.
If that describes you, keep one sec. It is cheaper than Aegin and lighter on your phone.
Grüning, Riedel and Lorenz-Spreen (2023), PNAS 120(8): “Directing smartphone use through the self-nudge app one sec”one sec: official siteApp Pricing Lab: one sec in-app purchases, US App Store snapshot of 8 May 2026
If you tap through it every time
A pause works on the part of you that hasn’t decided yet. At 1 AM, after the third “just five minutes”, you have decided, and a breath is one more screen to get past. That is the point where you need something that can say no.
How Aegin works instead
There is no Ignore button. The way in early is to plead your case. You type what you want to open and why, and the Judge, an AI that reads your reason against your own record, answers yes, not yet, or no. It can refuse.
You also don’t write rules. Aegin sorts your apps into three groups: Feeds (short video and social), Pull (games and long video) and Protected (anything you need, never locked). Feeds open in short windows and then rest. In the first week the rest is 15 minutes, about the length of one urge. After that it grows a step every few days, and a step only comes once you held two of your last three days. Nothing jumps, and nothing steps back on a bad day.
What Aegin can’t stop
On iPhone, Aegin runs on Apple’s Screen Time access, like every app blocker there. That access can be removed in Settings, and no app on the App Store can prevent it. On Android, Aegin leads with an Accessibility service, and Safe Mode sits below anything an app can reach. A second phone or a factory reset beats every consumer blocker, ours included. The bypass ledger lists each of these with sources.
Price
Aegin is free to start, and the limits work on the free plan. Pro is $12.99 a month or $99.99 a year in the US, and prices differ by country.
Try the Judge first
Tell it what you want to open and why, in your browser, with no account. Then decide.
Who wrote this. Aegin makes a competing product, so read this as information from an interested party. Every claim about another product links to its source, and prices are the US prices we read on the date below.
Names. one sec, Instagram, Apple are the trademarks of their owners and are used only to identify the products discussed. No affiliation or endorsement is implied.
Right of reply. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Last reviewed 12 October 2026.