HoldoutFor you and your friends
Phones down.
Together.
Holdout is a campfire you keep alive with your friends. Everyone goes dark at the same time. If anyone breaks, everyone sees.
Free. No ads. No tracking. No account: your phone is your key.
How it works
Willpower is hard alone.
So don't do it alone.
Light a fire
Make a squad of 2 to 5 friends. Send one link. That's the whole setup.
Go dark together
Someone starts a holdout. Everyone who joins gets the same apps closed for the same hour. Calls, texts, maps and camera keep working.
Hold out
Nobody breaks, the streak grows and Ember burns brighter. Every minute earns sparks for new fires.
Around the fire
You can see who's dark.
Every friend is a spark around the same fire. You see who's in, who escaped, and how long is left. It's oddly motivating to know three other people are also not scrolling right now.
The shield
Open Instagram anyway.
Ember will look at you.
Reach for a blocked app and Holdout steps in. The big button closes it. That pause is the whole trick: in a 280-person study, adding friction before opening an app cut opens by 57%.
The only way out
Need five minutes? Earn them.
One escape per holdout, and it costs a puzzle: four numbers, hit the target. Everyone in the world gets the same one each day. Solve it and your apps open for five minutes. Your squad sees you escaped, not that you broke.
If someone breaks, the fire flickers for everyone, and the squad sees who. Kindly. No alarms, no shame. Hold out again within a day and the streak comes back.
Made to be shared
"4 phones. 1 h. Nobody broke."
Every holdout ends in a card for the group chat. The losing ones are funnier than the winning ones. Both have a link, so your next friend is one tap away.
Private by design
No email. No phone number.
No password to leak.
Your phone is your key
A key made inside your phone's secure hardware signs everything. It never leaves the phone.
It reads one thing
Only which app comes to the front, during a holdout. Never your screen, your messages or what you type.
No ads, no trackers
No analytics SDKs, no data sold, no ad IDs. Holdout+ pays for the servers. That's the business.
Gone when you go
Delete everything in one tap. Accounts nobody uses for 180 days are erased on their own.
Why it works
Built on research, not vibes.
fewer app opens when people had to pause before opening them.
Grüning et al., PNAS 2023 (the one sec study)more likely to stick with a goal when someone else is watching it with you.
stickK, self-reported data with referees (29% to 59%)to rekindle a broken streak, because people quit after a break unless they can repair it.
Silverman & Barasch, J. Consumer Research 2023Pricing
Free for good. Plus if you love it.
Holdout
Everything you need to go dark with friends.
- Squads of 5, up to 2 squads
- Unlimited holdouts
- The daily puzzle
- Share cards
- Earn sparks and skins
Holdout+
Or $19.99 a year, or $29.99 once, forever.
- One Plus lifts the whole squad: 8 seats and double sparks for everyone
- Up to 10 squads
- Three rare Ember skins
- Keeps an indie app ad-free
Questions
Can I break out if I really need to?
Yes. Calls, texts, maps and the camera always work. You get one puzzle escape per holdout, and you can always end it. Holdout is a promise you make with friends, not a cage: on Android anyone determined can get around any blocker. The point is that your squad will know.
Does it read my messages or my screen?
No. During a holdout it checks only which app came to the front, and only to decide whether to show the shield. That never leaves your phone. Your squad learns that you broke, never which app.
Is there an iPhone version?
Android first. iPhone is next. Join the beta list and you'll hear first.
What if my friend is in another time zone?
A squad's day follows whoever lit the fire. You can still join a holdout from anywhere, any time.
Who makes this?
One person: Gautam Khosla, an engineer in Ottawa, Canada. No investors, no ads. Questions go to the support page.
Who breaks first?
Get Holdout before everyone else. Testers shape it, and get Holdout+ free for a year.
Join the Android beta