Compared
DetoxDroid vs Curbox
Curbox is the app I would point you to if DetoxDroid isn't it. Free, open source, no account, and in some places plainly more: it can hide just the Reels tab, make you scan a barcode in the next room before Instagram opens, and tell you how your attention span holds up across a hundred Shorts. DetoxDroid starts from the other end. The phone is gray, quiet and slow to open a feed all day long, and you pause that when you need something. Which you want depends on whether you'd rather have a lock on the door or a house that is dull to be in.
The short version
Curbox is a blocker with unusually good locks: a pause screen you get past by waiting, scanning a QR code, tapping an NFC tag, solving a sum or writing down why. DetoxDroid is a dimmer switch: the colour is gone, notifications wait, a feed that goes on too long gets interrupted, and the only lock is a pause with a cooling-off gap. Curbox's grayscale needs Shizuku or adb before it does anything; DetoxDroid's washed-out gray works the minute it's installed. Curbox breaks Reels and Shorts in four named apps; DetoxDroid watches how you scroll, in any app.
Where Curbox is better
- Unlock challenges. A QR code on a shelf in another room, an NFC tag, adaptive maths, a sentence to retype, your intent in writing. DetoxDroid has a pause button and a password, nothing that makes you walk.
- Hide only the part. The YouTube home feed gone while search stays, the Instagram explore tab blanked. DetoxDroid treats an app as a whole.
- Short-video counter and attention span tracking while you scroll.
- Website rules with wildcards and regular expressions, and a block on one path of a site.
- Focus sessions with a Pomodoro timer, and a daily focus requirement before an app unlocks.
- Tamper protection and a delay on any change that loosens a rule.
Where DetoxDroid is better
- Gray from the first minute, no setup. Curbox's Grayscale Filter needs WRITE_SECURE_SETTINGS through Shizuku or adb first. DetoxDroid draws its own filter until you grant that, and adds dim and blur on top.
- Doomscroll detection by behaviour: a long scrolling session in any app, not a list of four.
- A budget that tightens as it runs out: wait, gray, scroll break, then the lock, instead of one pause screen at the end.
- A wait before each open on the apps you name, from day one.
- Do Not Disturb for as long as the app runs, not on a schedule.
- An emergency brake, a text-only launcher widget, a commitment password you can hand to someone else.
Side by side
| DetoxDroid | Curbox | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A boring phone by default, paused on purpose | An app blocker with configurable unlock challenges |
| Gray, dim, blur | Per app, from install. Real grayscale with Shizuku, adb or root | ~Grayscale Filter per app, after Shizuku or adb. No dim, no blur |
| Breaks doomscrolling | By how you scroll, in any app; cooldown afterwards | ~Blocks Reels, Shorts and TikTok by schedule, watch time or count |
| Hides part of an app | Not offered | Feeds, tabs, recommendations |
| Wait before an app opens | A few seconds, per app | Fixed or unpredictable wait, or a challenge |
| Daily time budget | Per day or per clock hour; stricter as it runs out | An allowance within a schedule, then a block |
| Schedules | Always, nights, nine to five | Days and hours per group |
| Blocks websites | Paths and ready-made lists | Paths, keywords, wildcards, regex |
| Do Not Disturb | On while the app runs | On a schedule |
| How you get out | A pause with a minimum gap; a commitment password; a brake that takes ten minutes to end | Wait, QR, NFC, maths, a sentence, intent; a cap on unlocks; tamper protection |
| Stats | Screen time, opens, scroll distance; two widgets | Time per app and site, video count, attention span, widgets |
| Open source | GPL-3.0, since 2020 | GPL-3.0, since 2024 |
| Account, data | None; nothing collected | None; stays on the device |
| Price | Free, donations | Free, donations |
| Where to get it | Google Play, F-Droid, GitHub | F-Droid, GitHub |
Every Curbox cell comes from its own listing, website, docs or code as they read on 27 October 2026. "Not listed" means I couldn't find it there. German law asks a comparison to be objective and checkable, which is also simply the honest way to do it. If a cell has gone stale, tell me.
Which one
If you want a lock you have to earn your way past, Curbox, and it's the best of the free ones at that. If you want the phone to be dull by itself and a pause button for when you need it, DetoxDroid. Running both works too: Curbox's barcode on Instagram, DetoxDroid's gray on everything else. They are both GPL, so you are not choosing a vendor either way.
Get DetoxDroid Try it on the page first
Sources
- curbox.app/features.html: Curbox's feature page, its docs on App Pause, Short-Form Video Content, Keywords and Websites, the Grayscale Filter and the unlock challenges, read on 27 October 2026.
- f-droid.org/en/packages/neth.iecal.curbox: Curbox on F-Droid, the description, licence and Android requirement, read the same day.
- github.com/curbox-app/curbox-android: The Curbox repository on GitHub, for the licence and the date it began.
The other comparisons: Reef · Digital Wellbeing · one sec · ScreenZen · AppBlock · Stay Focused · Lock Me Out · Freedom · Digital Detox