F R I C T I O N

A commitment-enforcement focus system for Android. Built with Jetpack Compose. Designed to make distraction require effort.

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The Idea

Most productivity apps try to motivate you.

Friction doesn't.

It introduces deliberate resistance between impulse and action. When you want to quit — when you reach for the phone, when the notification pulls you away — Friction makes you work for it.

Not impossible. Not punishing. Just enough friction to make you ask:

Do I actually want to break this?

Nine times out of ten, you don't.

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What V2 Introduces

Feature	Description
App Blocking	Blocks selected apps via Accessibility Service during active sessions
Hard Commitment Mode	Device Admin-backed sessions — prevents uninstall while locked
Tap Challenge	Friction gate before early exit — scales with session length
Standby Screen	OLED-first clock display with arc progress and Tsuki the bunny
Reflection Screen	Quiet moment of accountability after breaking a session
Biometric Guard	Optional fingerprint/face verification before early exit
Session Persistence	DataStore-backed — sessions survive process death and reboots
OLED Burn-in Protection	Micro pixel drift on the standby screen

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How It Works

Set duration → Lock session → Session active
                                    │
                          Try to open blocked app?
                                    │
                          ┌─────────┴──────────┐
                          │ Tap Challenge gate │
                          └─────────┬──────────┘
                                    │
                     Complete it → Session ends intentionally
                     Fail / back  → Return to lock screen
                                    │
                          Timer expires naturally?
                                    │
                          Completion screen → Done

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Architecture

Friction follows clean MVVM with a strict layer separation.

app/
├── ui/
│   ├── screens/          # FocusScreen, StandbyScreen, TapChallengeScreen...
│   ├── components/       # InfiniteWheel, GradientButton
│   └── theme/            # Color, Type, Theme (FrictionColors token system)
├── viewmodel/
│   └── FrictionViewModel # Single ViewModel, StateFlow-driven
├── data/
│   ├── DataStoreManager  # All persisted settings + session state
│   └── BlockedAppsRepository
├── service/
│   ├── FrictionAccessibilityService   # Foreground app monitor
│   └── TapChallengeOverlayActivity    # Full-screen block overlay
├── admin/
│   └── FrictionDeviceAdminReceiver    # Hard Mode enforcement
└── receiver/
    └── BootReceiver                   # Session restore on reboot

Key principles:

• UI reads from StateFlow — never mutates ViewModel state directly
• All persistence is async via DataStore — no blocking main thread calls
• Accessibility Service uses a SupervisorJob scope — cancelled cleanly in onDestroy
• Session state survives process death via init {} DataStore restore

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Modes

Normal Mode

Accessibility Service monitors foreground apps. Blocked apps trigger the Tap Challenge overlay immediately.

Hard Commitment Mode

Activates Android Device Admin for the session duration.

• Prevents uninstalling Friction while locked
• Prevents disabling enforcement mid-session
• Admin rights released automatically when the session ends
• Outside a session: full user control

Hard Mode is Play Store safe — Device Admin is only activated by explicit user action, held only for the session, and released automatically.

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Design

The UI is built around one idea: restraint as craft.

• Pure OLED black backgrounds (#000000) — every pixel off is battery saved
• Single accent colour: Apple Yellow #FFD60A — the same yellow iOS uses for Focus mode
• No gradients on interactive elements — solid fills only
• Typography: system monospace for the clock, system default elsewhere
• Animations: functional only — flip clock, arc progress, breathing dot
• Standby screen features Tsuki — a hand-drawn Canvas bunny who blinks, stretches, and dozes

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Built With

• Kotlin 2.0.21 + Coroutines + Flow
• Jetpack Compose (BOM 2024.12.01) + Material3
• Android DataStore — async, coroutine-safe preferences
• Accessibility Service — foreground app detection
• Device Admin API — Hard Mode enforcement
• BiometricPrompt — optional exit gate
• Compose Navigation — single-activity, composable screens
• MVVM — AndroidViewModel + StateFlow

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Installation

From Releases:

→ github.com/waleedahmedja/Friction/releases/tag/v2.0

Download the .apk, enable "Install from unknown sources" in your device settings, install.

Build from source:

git clone https://github.com/waleedahmedja/Friction.git
cd Friction
./gradlew assembleDebug

Requires Android Studio Ladybug or later, JDK 11+.

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Permissions

Permission	Why
BIND_ACCESSIBILITY_SERVICE	Detects which app is in the foreground
BIND_DEVICE_ADMIN	Hard Commitment Mode enforcement
RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED	Restores active sessions after reboot
USE_BIOMETRIC	Optional biometric exit gate
FOREGROUND_SERVICE	Future planned foreground enforcement

Friction reads only package names. canRetrieveWindowContent is explicitly false. No screen content, no keystrokes, no data leaves the device.

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Roadmap

• Play Store deployment hardening
• Enhanced reflection insights
• Schedule-based auto-lock
• Widget for session status
• Per-app block scheduling

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Contributing

Read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a PR.

Friction has a strong design philosophy. Contributions that add complexity without adding clarity won't be merged. The bar is high intentionally.

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License

Friction License v2.0 — free to use, study, modify, distribute. Attribution required. Public changes stay public.

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— waleedahmedja