Safety

The boring page that matters.

Friction for your feed, never for your safety. Read this once.

A parent and child leaving the house together on a school morning

Every restriction has a way out a child can take on their own.

Exercise

Steps and Push are general consumer features, not fitness programmes. You decide whether physical activity is suitable for you. Feel unwell? Stop, and seek appropriate help. NOT YET does not diagnose, treat or prevent anything.

Driving

Never interact with NOT YET while driving — not a tag, not a task, not an alarm, not the override. Set your alarm proof to something you can do before you leave, never something that needs you to be somewhere. A challenge can always wait; so can Instagram, which is the whole point. Full driving guidance, and how to keep the feed out of your car →

Locations

Don't set destination or movement challenges that involve trespassing or unsafe places, and don't chase a boundary check somewhere you shouldn't be. Always prioritise personal safety over completing a challenge.

Emergency access

Emergency Override is present on every restricted screen and every failure screen — never buried in settings, never more than one action away. It does not silence the Wake Alarm. It's a ten-second hold with a visible progress indicator and a cancel: deliberate, never an accidental tap. Overrides are recorded for your own history and never punished. Phone, emergency calling, Messages, Maps and Find My are never restricted in the first place, and the end of a window always releases a rule whether or not you completed it — no configuration can produce a permanent lockout. NOT YET creates a strong boundary, not a prison; we don't claim it can't be bypassed. Don't configure rules that could block apps, services or information you may urgently need. If you might need it urgently, don't lock it.

Wake Alarm limits

The Wake Alarm is not a medical, emergency or safety-critical alarm. Flights, medication, anything where failure could cause harm: use a backup alarm.

Emergency Stop is an optional setting on each alarm, and it is off unless you turn it on. You choose your snoozes when you set the alarm, from none to three. After that it keeps ringing until you complete the proof you chose — steps, a tag tap, push-ups or squats, or whatever you set. With Emergency Stop off, nothing in the app will silence it for you.

So choose a proof you can complete from where you sleep. If you are unwell, injured, or somewhere that makes your usual proof impossible, you can still turn the phone off or silence it at the device level — but the app will not do it for you, so set the alarm with that in mind. If a physical proof is not appropriate for you, set a proof that is not physical.

Your rules are yours

You configure the rules, targets and combinations. Build them for the person you are at 6:52am, not the optimist you are at midnight.

Medical disclaimer

NOT YET is not a medical or healthcare service, and SASSY/BRUTAL messages are humour, not advice of any kind.

Rule by rule

Each of the eight, and how it can go wrong.

Every rule has a failure mode. In all eight, the answer is the same: the override works, immediately, offline, with no explanation and no record of why — and phone, messages, Maps and 999 are never restricted by any of them.

STEPS

Do not walk through traffic

A step target is a number, not a destination. Do not use it while crossing roads, on a platform, or anywhere you need your eyes. If you are injured, ill or pregnant, pick a lower target or a different rule entirely.

TOUCH GRASS

Your boundary, not the weather

Leaving a boundary in the dark, in ice, or somewhere you do not feel safe is not worth an unlocked phone. Use the override. Nothing happens and nobody is told.

PUSH

Nothing to prove

Ten press-ups is a choice, not a fitness programme. Do not set a count you would not do without an app watching. If you have any injury, shoulder or back trouble, use a different rule. Camera counting is planned for public launch in October, subject to device testing. Counting is designed to run on the phone without storing camera frames.

TAP

A tag is a sticker

It is a passive NFC tag with no battery, no signal and no location. Put it somewhere dry and reachable. Do not place one anywhere you would have to climb, stretch or lean to reach it — especially not in a bathroom or on stairs.

We never see where

The destination stays on your phone. Do not set one you would have to hurry or drive to — and if you are already out and something has changed, the override is there.

SHOW UP · venues

Arriving is not an obligation

A venue is somewhere to go, not somewhere you owe anything. You never have to buy anything, speak to anyone beyond asking for the code, or stay. If a venue is shut, unsafe, busy or simply wrong, leave and use the override — and tell us, because we will remove a venue for that.

ONE THING

You mark it done

Nobody verifies it and nobody is checking on you. Do not write one you cannot finish on a bad morning. The honest version of this rule is a small task, not a resolution.

TIME

It ends on its own

A timed rule always expires. Do not stack a time rule with a condition you might not be able to meet — and if you do, use OR rather than AND so one route out is always open.

FOCUS LOCK

Do not lock what you may need

You choose the apps and the length. Never put work, banking, medical, caring or travel apps inside a Focus Lock you cannot end. Calls, messages, Maps and emergency services keep working throughout, and the override is available the whole time.

WAKE ALARM

Not a safety-critical alarm

This is not an emergency, medical, fire or security alarm. Do not rely on it where failing to wake could cause harm, missed medication, or danger — for a shift, a flight or anything that matters, set a second alarm on another device.

SHOW UP · fairness

If a venue lets you down

A venue refusing an offer, or nobody knowing the code, never affects your completed rule — if you got there, your apps open. The offer is the venue’s to honour and ours to withdraw if they do not.

CHILDREN

A child is never stranded

Every restriction a parent sets has a route the child can complete alone, a time-based end on by default, and the same override. A child is never left waiting for a parent to reply, and they are always told who restricted them and how to end it.

And the line under all of it. No rule, no parent setting and no partner arrangement can restrict phone calls, messages, Maps or emergency services. The override always works, offline, on every account type including a child’s. If anything in this product ever appears to contradict that, it is a bug and we want to hear about it: [email protected]