If you scrolled too much through the endless feed about nothing, you might have recommended touching the grass. It's a tongue-like suggestion, essentially telling you to log off and go outside. However, one developer took the concept to the next level.
Rhys Kentish launched an iOS app called Touch Grass last week. This app locks apps that will literally leave you outside and take a photo of the grass.
“I struggled with screen time and thought about looking down at my phone for seven years if I didn't change anything,” Kentish told TechCrunch. “I wanted more friction than the other solutions out there. It's something that comes out of the house in the morning. I wanted to reach for the phone in the morning and break the habit of destined for an hour or two a day or two before.”
Don't even cheate. With Computer Vision AI, the app can distinguish between plants in your home and real outdoor grass. So, after the app rejected my monster plant photos, I went outside and found the closest green one: bushes. I would argue that the bushes are adjacent to the grass, but the bushes were not sufficient as the touchglass app is intimate to make you touch the real grass.
I spent a brief moment of panic looking around the city streets. It is surrounded by concrete and bricks on all sides. There are many unusual trees in the middle of the city, but like bushes, the trees are not grass. I had to cross the street to find a patch of grass in front of my neighbor's house, but then I was granted access to the Tiktok that was opened on my mobile phone.
For Kentish, who works full-time as an agency app developer, this level of friction is the key.
“The reaction to that was, 'Haha, that's an interesting concept,' but for some people now, it's, 'Haha, that's an interesting concept, but this is actually helping me,” he said.
The humor of the app is conditioned on how serious you are about getting out. But at the same time, Kentish does not want users to touch the grass after dark when it may not be safe. The app asks you to view the user's location (which can be granted as a one-time permission) and tells you when the sun will set in that area. Users can then customize their settings to navigate how the block works when they go outside and touch the grass.
This is the erasure of the bushes. Image credit: Touch glass
The Freemium app provides the ability for all users to lock two apps. This can only be unlocked by touching the grass, but you can enable the ability to pay for what opens the app. Whatever you pay, half of the costs will go to rebuilding the efforts in the UK, says Kentish. If you want to lock two or more apps, you can sign up for $5.99 a month or $49.99 a year.
Even before Kentish came up with The Touching Grass concept, the concept of unpaid payments was included in the app's DNA. About a year and a half ago, Kentish posted a video to Tiktok about an app he designed for himself. This transferred money from his checking account to his savings every time he opened Tiktok. But the idea of touching the grass is a little more flavorful and interesting than what you need to link your bank account.
Since its launch on Friday, the app has been downloaded about 50,000 times. As an independent developer, Kentish said he runs the app himself but is not opposed to interest from investors. This funding will help him develop Android apps and sell the apps beyond his own social media accounts.