Executive Summary

Many people—knowledge workers, students, parents and people trying to reduce doomscrolling—are frustrated that short-form videos (Reels/Shorts/TikTok-style clips) are embedded inside otherwise useful apps, eroding focus without the user wanting to delete those apps. There are roughly 600 million smartphone users estimated to be willing to pay a modest digital-wellness fee, and the market-size calculation for a low-friction solution sits at about $3.6 billion, which aligns with a market score of 94/100 for fit and timing. The product would be a per-app content filter that uses lightweight on-device machine learning and UI heuristics to detect and hide short-form feed elements rather than blocking whole apps, offering per-app toggles, schedules, and one-tap overrides; implementation paths include accessibility-layer interventions, a VPN-style content layer on Android, and companion browser extensions for web feeds. A low annual subscription (~$6/yr) and optional enterprise or family plans target retention via simple UX and privacy guarantees, which reflect the revenue-potential assessment of 88/100. This is an attractive moment because short-form content dominance increases the pain point while consumer willingness to pay for digital-wellness tools has become mainstream, and recent advances in on-device ML make private, battery-friendly detection feasible. The combination of a clear willingness-to-pay cohort, a tractable technical approach, and low competition creates a realistic window to acquire users cost-effectively. To stand out you must be narrow, focusing on per-app granularity, transparent privacy (models run locally), and minimal friction—users should not need to delete apps or reconfigure many settings—and pursue distribution via app stores, MDMs, and bundling with productivity suites. Be honest about the main challenges: iOS platform limitations, an ongoing arms race with changing UI patterns, false positives/negatives in detection, and the need for continuous maintenance and legal/ethical guardrails; these are solvable but require engineering rigor and steady investment.

Market Opportunity

Block reels/shorts without deleting apps — per-app content filters targets a $3.6B = 600M addressable smartphone users willing to pay ~$6/yr digital-wellness fee total addressable market with low saturation and a year-over-year growth rate of 15% (digital-wellness & productivity app growth).

Key trends driving demand: Short-form dominance -- Reels/Shorts/TikTok growth increases consumer demand to control feeds; Digital-wellness mainstreaming -- Consumers increasingly willing to pay for focus and mental-health tools; On-device ML improvements -- Lightweight models enable locally detecting feed structures with privacy; Backlash against total bans -- Users prefer surgical control vs all-or-nothing app deletion.

Key competitors include Unhook, Opal (Opal.co / Opal App), Freedom (freedom.to), NewPipe (and other alternate mobile clients like NewPipe / SkyTube), Digital Wellbeing (Android) / Screen Time (iOS) — Built-in OS features.

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Block reels/shorts without deleting apps — per-app content filters

Executive Summary

Market Validation

Market Opportunity

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