Roots, backed by pre-seed funding from Wildwood Ventures and Atlanta-area angels and built by a small team spread across the US, Sweden, India and Poland, takes an interesting angle on the friction-before-unlock idea: rather than a pause or a question, it offers interactive grounding activities — breathing exercises, a virtual pet, nature sounds — as the thing standing between you and a blocked app. It currently runs on iOS only, with Android available by beta signup rather than general release, which matters if you're deciding today rather than waiting to see how that rollout plays out. The team has also spoken publicly about wanting to reframe screen time away from pure restriction and toward something closer to genuine wellbeing, which explains why the unlock ritual leans calming rather than punitive.
What Roots actually does
Roots blocks apps and sets limits using Apple's Screen Time API, with an additional "Monk Mode" for a stricter lock. Instead of a plain pause, unlocking involves an interactive grounding ritual — a breathing exercise, checking in on a virtual pet, or listening to nature sounds — plus a self-reported "digital dopamine" quality-of-use signal alongside raw time tracking, which tries to capture whether your usage actually felt good, not just how long it lasted. The company states Monk Mode resists logging out of the app, changing the system date, or other common workarounds, building on the same Screen Time framework Jomo also uses to achieve that persistence. Roots also lets you review your "digital dopamine" trend over time in its own dashboard, aiming to show not just how much you used your phone but whether that use trended toward feeling better or worse afterward.
Where Roots is honestly the better pick
The grounding-ritual approach — a virtual pet, nature sounds, a breathing exercise — is a genuinely different, more calming kind of friction than a quiz question, and for anyone who wants the pause before unlocking to feel restful rather than demanding, that's a real point in Roots' favor. Its self-reported quality-of-use tracking, not just raw time, is also a thoughtful addition most competitors don't attempt, and it reflects a more nuanced view of screen time than simply counting minutes. For anyone who finds a plain timer or a blunt lock genuinely stressful rather than motivating, Roots' softer, ritual-based unlock is arguably a more sustainable long-term habit than something that feels like a fight with your own phone every single day.
| Feature | Roots | Mr. Grummel |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | iOS only currently — Android is in closed beta, not yet generally available | iOS & Android (in development) — both platforms from the start |
| Core mechanism | Blocks via Apple's Screen Time API; unlocking involves a grounding ritual (breathing, virtual pet, nature sounds), with an optional stricter “Monk Mode” | Answer a quiz question from the app's curriculum to unlock |
| Self-bypassable by the account holder? | Vendor states Monk Mode resists logout, clock changes and other workarounds, per the same Apple framework Jomo uses — not independently verified here | Not yet released — can't be assessed |
| Physical hardware required? | No | No |
| Price | Free tier plus paid plans reported around $9.99/mo, $7.99/wk, or $59.99/yr | Not yet announced — join the waiting list |
The one mechanical difference that actually matters
Roots' grounding rituals are built to soothe, not to demand effort — a breathing exercise or a moment with a virtual pet is meant to calm the urge, not test you on anything, on the theory that the reflexive urge to open an app often comes from stress or restlessness that a calming ritual can genuinely defuse. Mr. Grummel's quiz question does the opposite: it asks for a small amount of actual mental engagement, on the theory that a real cognitive cost, not just a calming pause, is what breaks the reflex. Both are legitimate theories of what stops a habit; they just disagree about whether the interruption should relax you or make you think, and which one actually works probably depends on why you're reaching for the app in the first place. It's also worth noting this reflects two different theories about what actually causes compulsive phone use in the first place — Roots leans toward stress and restlessness as the root cause, while Mr. Grummel leans toward simple, thoughtless habit that a moment of real engagement can interrupt.
Who should pick which
If you're on an iPhone and a calming ritual — breathing, a virtual pet, nature sounds — is genuinely what helps you pause before opening an app, Roots is offering something Mr. Grummel doesn't attempt, and its Screen Time API foundation gives that ritual real technical teeth. If you're on Android, or you'd rather the interruption ask something of you rather than soothe you, that's the gap Mr. Grummel's quiz question is built to fill, on a phone Roots can't currently reach at all. It's also worth keeping an eye on Roots' Android beta if you're specifically drawn to the grounding-ritual idea, since general availability there would remove the platform gap that currently rules it out for non-iPhone users entirely. It's worth trying the free tier's basic version of the grounding ritual before paying for Monk Mode, since the calming approach either resonates with how you actually experience the urge to check your phone, or it doesn't, and that's usually obvious within the first few uses.