
Show HN: StepLock – Unlock Android apps by walking - MegaLeon
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.leoncvlt.steplock
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MegaLeon
Dev here - I had this idea while commuting some time ago and decided to code a
little app around it: StepLock works like your standard app blocker, except
that to unlock apps you have to walk a set amount of steps.

Just add any of your apps to the block list and set the number of steps you
need to walk that day. StepLock will monitor your usage and won't let you use
the app until you walked that specific amount.

The only thing is that the app use the "new" generation step detection sensors
which are designed to be low power and have a minimal impact of battery, and
are only present on newer-ish phones. Sorry in advance if the app is not
compatible with your device.

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choochootrain
cool idea! how are you locking out the apps? my first thought is the
SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW permission which lets you draw over other apps but maybe
theres a better way to do this in the new APIs.

~~~
MegaLeon
Thanks! It's quite simple actually - what I do is monitoring the current app
in the foreground with a background service and when the package name (unique
to each app) matches the one in the app database, StepLock fires up.

