Can a cartoon bean with a smile help you focus? One of the first and most significant web creators, Hank Green, hopes so.
The seasoned YouTuber, who is well-known for his instructional videos and Vlogbrothers channel, developed the productivity software Focus Friend with the intention of promoting healthy lifestyle choices. It surpassed Google, ChatGPT, and Threads to reach the top spot on the Apple Stop Free Apps chart this week. It has been downloaded more than 100,000 times on the Google Play Store as of Wednesday.
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Like other productivity applications, Focus Friend lets users set a timeframe to complete a task. While the timer is running, the software momentarily limits social media and other distractions. Focus Friend, in contrast to other apps, gives users a small bean that they can call Bean Diesel, Pinto, or Eda (for Edamame).
The bean can complete their knitting project if they are able to concentrate for the entire timer’s lifespan. However, the bean becomes sidetracked and drops their knitting needles if the user takes their phone in the middle. The bean knits additional socks the more the user concentrates; these socks can then be traded in for bean room décor.
It doesn’t seem conceivable.
A bean is installed on your phone by this software. Greens stated in a TikTok video on Monday that the bean truly wants to knit more. You can concentrate for a while, which will allow the bean to produce scarves or socks, which you can then exchange for further furniture in the bean’s room.
Focus Friend was released in the midst of a surge in “doomscrolling,” or spending too much time scrolling over the internet, and a deluge of AI slop, or low-quality media produced by artificial intelligence.
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Focus Friend is similar to items like the well-known handheld video game Tamagotchi from the 1990s, which lets users take care of a little mythical creature. Since its release in 2021, Finch, another gamified attention software, has also gained popularity. When users perform predetermined activities, such as cleaning or drinking water, it gives them a personalized bird that grows.
Green and developer Bria Sullivan, who created Honey B Games Boba Story, which lets users create their own boba drinks, started Focus Friend as a side project.
Sullivan claimed to have met Green over dinner in January 2024, during which they talked about developing an app that would provide an alternative means of supporting creators (apart from creator products). Green came up with the idea of the anthropomorphic bean and its knitting pastime, while Sullivan proposed a focus timer.
In addition to reducing her own time spent doomscrolling, Sullivan believes the program will help others do the same.
Sullivan stated, “I don’t feel like I’m having fun, especially with social media and things like that.” I don’t consider myself to be actively involved in it.
In 2007, Green, who many affectionately refer to as the “internet dad,” started uploading videos on YouTube alongside his brother, author John Green. After that, the two started Crash Course, a YouTube channel that has been providing free, excellent instructional videos since 2012. With more than 16 million subscribers, the channel discusses subjects including biology and world history. The enormous creator and fan convention, VidCon, was also founded by the brothers and has been hosted yearly in Anaheim, California, since 2010.
However, Hank Green’s popularity on the internet has also led to a lot of introspection. The founder has been outspoken about his own relationship with the internet, including its drawbacks. Last year, he told TechCrunch that he has been trained by algorithms and coworkers to be incredibly skilled at capturing and retaining people’s attention.
He told the outlet, “I hope I use that skill for good, but I also use it to distract people from whatever else they would be doing.”
Hank Green stated in his TikTok video on Monday that he is now working on giving people back their time with Focus Friend. Allowing people to be in charge of their attention rather than selling it to someone else is the goal.
Launched in July, the app only recently gained popularity after the Green brothers, who have millions of followers on social media, started sharing more about it.
This is crazy.
Sullivan stated, “We didn’t even have the intention for it, and we had no idea that it would get this big.” Our goal was to convey the message, “This is an idea that I believe should exist in the world.”
Some were instantly captivated, such as Hannah Rae, the founder of TikTok, who uses the username hannahsendlessbookshelf on the app. She described the program as a remedy for her reading slump in a video that she shared online.
According to Rae, most of us find that doing the right thing for someone else we care about sometimes makes it simpler than doing it only for our personal gain.
She claimed that it has so far assisted in motivating her to put down her phone. According to her, her brother, 11, uses it for schoolwork, and her sister, a teacher, uses it to concentrate on lesson planning.
Although users may download the ADHD-friendly app for free from the app store, they can purchase several bean avatars, such as a John Bean option that looks like Hank’s brother. Additionally, there is a subscription plan that allows consumers to exchange knit scarves for more elegant décor. Avoiding overburdening people with advertisements is Green’s specific objective.
In a post on BlueSky, Green stated that Focus Friend is making a concerted effort to be ad-free because the mobile ad market is so bad.
In addition to assisting their bean in knitting a scarf or a sock, Sullivan expressed her hope that Focus Friends users are finding some solitude and respite from the chaos.
