Do I need any hardware to use Anchor?

No. The app does everything on its own — your dismiss code can be any household barcode (cereal box, shampoo, deodorant), a QR sticker, or any NFC tag you already own. The Anchor Tag is an optional accessory if you want a dedicated, branded place to tap.

Can I change an alarm after I set it?

Yes. Saved alarms can be edited, turned off, or deleted until Set in Stone locks the time, two hours before that alarm rings. Uncancelable applies to a ringing alarm: the final silence is a scan or an emergency override.

What is Set in Stone?

Set in Stone is a setting on each alarm. It locks editing that alarm's time starting two hours before it goes off, so a half-asleep early wake cannot move the wake-up time. Until that window, saved alarms can still be edited, toggled, or deleted. It does not lock when you go to sleep, and it is not a rule that you can never edit a saved alarm.

What can I scan to dismiss the alarm?

A household barcode or QR code you register, or any readable NFC tag. A registered barcode has to match. Any NFC tag your phone can read will work. Hardware is optional.

Does the alarm work on Silent or after force-quit?

Yes. Anchor is built on AlarmKit, Apple's iOS 26.1+ framework for time-critical alarms. It rings through Silent Mode, Do Not Disturb, and Focus, and re-arms itself after a force-quit. The same reliability as the built-in Clock, pointed at one job you can't talk yourself out of.

Can I use the app blocker without setting an alarm?

Absolutely. At Rest works independently. Lock a group right now with Scan to unlock, run a Time-locked session for a set duration, or build recurring Scheduled windows (Tue 9–1 and 7–11, Wed 8–10, whatever pattern your week needs). The alarm is just the auto-trigger for your morning block.

What if I need to break a block — meeting, emergency, real life?

You get 3 emergency overrides per month, shared across alarms and at-rest blocks. They reset on the 1st. Scan to unlock and Soft Dock schedules let you scan out early. Timed NOW locks stay locked until the timer ends; an override still works. Hold Fast schedules hold until the window ends, override only.

Can I snooze, or is Quiet Walk the only pause?

Snooze is 0, 1, or 2. Each one is a short pause, not an escape. Quiet Walk is a separate 60-second quiet so you can walk to your code. It does not dismiss the alarm. When snoozes run out, the final silence is a scan or an emergency override.

What does Anchor cost?

Apple handles all billing through the App Store. Plans are $9.99/month, $59.99/year, or $129.99 once for Perpetual. No free trial. Subscriptions do not support Family Sharing. Cancel anytime in iPhone Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions.

Will it work for the whole family?

Each person installs Anchor on their own iPhone and sets their own wake time, dismiss code, and at-rest groups. One Anchor Tag (the optional accessory) can pair with every iPhone in the household if you choose to buy one.

iOS 26.1+ only. What about older iPhones or Android?

Anchor needs iOS 26.1 or later because that is when AlarmKit became reliable enough to keep the promise: ringing through Silent Mode, surviving a force-quit. Older iOS can't. Android isn't on the roadmap yet. Leave your email and we'll tell you the day it is.

For iOS 26.1+

Wake on time. Stay off your phone.

An uncancelable iOS alarm and a real app blocker. Scan any household barcode, your own NFC tag, or a QR code to dismiss. Distracting apps stay locked the moment you wake, and on whatever schedule you set for the rest of your day. Built on Apple's AlarmKit.

Join the Waitlist → How it works

Starting at $9.99/month
Cancel anytime
Built on AlarmKit

Coming to: the App Store
Platform: iOS 26.1+
Own it forever: $129.99 once

Manifesto

The first thing most of us reach for is a phone.

An hour of scrolling later, the morning is gone.

Anchor holds the line.

Who are you today?

For the dad

You meant to make pancakes. You meant to lace your kid's shoes. Instead it's 7:42, the bus is leaving, and you're thirty Reels deep with cold coffee.

For the snoozer

Nine more minutes, nine more times. Shower skipped. Workout bumped. The day you wanted is gone before your feet hit the floor.

For the founder

The best thinking comes before the inbox opens. That hour is yours. Don't hand it to the feed.

It was never a fair fight

You're not weak. You're outnumbered.

Every app on your phone is built by a team whose entire job is to keep you there one more minute. That's the fight you're losing at 6 a.m. — half-asleep, against an industry that never sleeps.

So stop spending willpower you don't have at dawn. Anchor changes the design instead.

How it works

Three steps. One morning that's actually yours.

Set.

Set your alarm. Pick the apps you want blocked. Pick the schedule for the rest of the week. Go to bed.
Wake.

Alarm rings through Silent, through force-quit. Scan a household barcode, a QR sticker, or any readable NFC tag. Until you scan or use an emergency override, a ringing alarm doesn't stop.
Stay focused.

The apps you picked stay locked for the window you set. Schedule recurring focus windows for the rest of the day, or lock a group whenever you need to put it away.

Inside the app

Designed for the half-asleep, the committed, and the hopeful.

One app, three tabs. Alarms wakes you up. Uncancelable applies to a ringing alarm, built on Apple's AlarmKit. Saved alarms can still be edited, turned off, or deleted. At Rest blocks distracting apps on your terms: scan to unlock, time-lock for a set duration, or schedule recurring windows. Settings is the third tab. Three emergency overrides per month for when life actually needs you.

At Rest

Lock distractions on your terms.

Three modes. Pick the one that fits the moment — switch between them as the day calls for it.

01 · Scan to unlock

Lock a group right now. Apps stay asleep until you scan your wake code — any household barcode, your own NFC tag, or a QR. No timer, no countdown. You unlock when you decide.

Good for: deep work, meals, meetings.

02 · Time-locked

Pick a duration, 15 minutes to 3 hours. The clock runs whether you scan or not. A timed NOW lock does not scan out early. An emergency override is still there if life needs you.

Good for: study blocks, workouts, bedtime.

03 · Scheduled

Recurring windows you set once. Soft Dock lets you scan out early. Hold Fast holds until the window ends, override only. The schedule does the discipline for you.

Good for: weekly rhythms, work hours, evenings off.

Also built in

Auto-block at wake: the moment your alarm dismisses, your morning group locks itself for the window you chose.

3 emergency overrides per month, shared across alarms and at-rest blocks. Resets on the 1st.

A morning, told two ways

The same alarm. Two different mornings.

Without Anchor

5:47 AM — Phone goes off. You silence it from the pillow.
5:50 AM — "Five more minutes." Snooze. Eyes open in feed light.
6:18 AM — Still in bed. Forty-three swipes deep on Instagram.
7:10 AM — Kids are up. You are not. Cartoons fill the gap.
7:42 AM — Bus is leaving. Shoes untied. Breakfast is a granola bar in the car.

With Anchor

5:47 AM — Alarm rings. You stand up and walk to the kitchen.
5:48 AM — Scan the coffee bag. Alarm off. Your distracting apps LOCKED.
6:00 AM — Coffee and Bible time. No Instagram or TikTok. The thing you said you would do.
7:00 AM — Pancakes on the stove. Quality time with your spouse and kids — finally.
7:42 AM — Out the door, on time. You started the day instead of catching up to it.

The rules you set

Short limits. The industry gets the rest of your attention.

Every app is built to keep you. These are the constraints you put back.

60 seconds

Reach the code. Alarm paused.

A minute of quiet so you can walk to your barcode or tag. Not a dismiss. The ring comes back if you have not scanned.

15 min to 3 hr

Lock the feed for dinner.

Or a date. Or studying. Set a timer, or keep the apps locked until you scan.

Soft Dock · Hold Fast

You pick how locked.

Soft Dock lets you scan out when you choose. Hold Fast holds the window. An override is the only early exit.

While blocked

You cannot delete your way out.

Optional. While apps are blocked, you cannot uninstall Anchor to cheat. Soft Dock can still scan out. Three overrides a month still work.

Your hours

Don't scroll before bed.

Scheduled At Rest is any window you set. Mornings, evenings, work hours. There is no default 9 PM lock.

2 hours before

The time you set holds.

Set in Stone is a setting on each alarm. Two hours before it rings, the wake time cannot be moved. Phones treat a half-asleep edit as a new plan. This one does not.

On your phone. No account. Three overrides a month. Soft Dock can scan out. Snooze is 0, 1, or 2. Any readable NFC tag works. A registered barcode still has to match.

Optional

Optional branded tag, $9.99. Not required, and not shipping yet. Any readable NFC tag or household barcode works.

Pricing

$9.99 a month, or $59.99 a year.

One subscription unlocks everything. No tiers, no upsells, no add-ons inside the app. Pick the plan that fits — or pay once and never see another invoice.

Monthly

$9.99/month

The flexible default. Cancel anytime in iPhone Settings.

Yearly

$59.99/year

About 50% less than paying monthly.

Perpetual

$129.99 once · forever

Pay once. Full app, lifetime of the service. No subscription.

Apple handles all subscriptions through the App Store. Cancel anytime in iPhone Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions. No free trial. No Family Sharing. Includes 3 emergency overrides per month.

Join the Waitlist →

Why Anchor

You've tried other things. Here's what's different.

Other alarms wake you up. Other blockers stop the scroll. Anchor does both — and lets you schedule the rest of your day around it.

Anchor compared to Apple Clock, Alarmy, and Unbed across eight features.
Feature	Anchor	Apple Clock	Alarmy	Unbed
Wakes you up	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Survives force-quit & silent mode	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Scan anything to dismiss (barcode, QR, NFC)	Yes	No	Partial	Partial
Built-in app blocker	Yes	No	No	Partial
Auto-block at wake	Yes	No	No	Partial
Scheduled focus windows	Yes	No	No	No
Emergency overrides (3/mo)	Yes	No	No	No
Price	From $9.99/mo	Free	Free + sub	Hardware from ~$51

Each app does a piece. Anchor wakes you, holds the line, then steps back.

The Anchor glossary

A few words we mean precisely.

The First Hour (noun): The sixty minutes after the alarm — the most stealable part of your day, and the one Anchor is built to defend.
Scan to Wake (verb): Dismissing a ringing alarm by scanning a household barcode, a QR sticker, or any readable NFC tag. Final silence is a scan or an emergency override.
At Rest (adjective): The state of an app group while it's blocked. Quiet until you decide otherwise — by scan, by timer, or by the schedule you set.
The Override (noun): One of three monthly escape hatches, shared across alarms and blocks, for when life genuinely needs you. Used sparingly, by design.

FAQ

The questions that matter.

Do I need any hardware to use Anchor?: No. The app does everything on its own. Your dismiss code can be any household barcode (cereal box, shampoo, deodorant), a QR sticker, or any NFC tag you already own. The Anchor Tag is an optional branded accessory, $9.99, not required, and not shipping yet.
Can I change an alarm after I set it?: Yes. Saved alarms can be edited, turned off, or deleted until Set in Stone locks the time, two hours before that alarm rings. Uncancelable applies to a ringing alarm: the final silence is a scan or an emergency override.
What is Set in Stone?: Set in Stone is a setting on each alarm. It locks editing that alarm's time starting two hours before it goes off, so a half-asleep early wake cannot move the wake-up time. Until that window, saved alarms can still be edited, toggled, or deleted. It does not lock when you go to sleep, and it is not a rule that you can never edit a saved alarm.
What can I scan to dismiss the alarm?: A household barcode or QR code you register, or any readable NFC tag. A registered barcode has to match. Any NFC tag your phone can read will work. Hardware is optional.
Does the alarm work on Silent or after force-quit?: Yes. Anchor is built on AlarmKit, Apple's iOS 26.1+ framework for time-critical alarms. It rings through Silent Mode, Do Not Disturb, and Focus, and re-arms itself after a force-quit. The same reliability as the built-in Clock, pointed at one job you can't talk yourself out of.
Can I use the app blocker without setting an alarm?: Absolutely. At Rest works independently. Lock a group right now with Scan to unlock, run a Time-locked session for a set duration, or build recurring Scheduled windows (Tue 9–1 and 7–11, Wed 8–10, whatever pattern your week needs). The alarm is just the auto-trigger for your morning block.
What if I need to break a block — meeting, emergency, real life?: You get 3 emergency overrides per month, shared across alarms and at-rest blocks. They reset on the 1st. Scan to unlock and Soft Dock schedules let you scan out early. Timed NOW locks stay locked until the timer ends; an override still works. Hold Fast schedules hold until the window ends, override only.
Can I snooze, or is Quiet Walk the only pause?: Snooze is 0, 1, or 2. Each one is a short pause, not an escape. Quiet Walk is a separate 60-second quiet so you can walk to your code. It does not dismiss the alarm. When snoozes run out, the final silence is a scan or an emergency override.
What does Anchor cost?: Apple handles all billing through the App Store. Plans are $9.99/month, $59.99/year, or $129.99 once for Perpetual. No free trial. Subscriptions do not support Family Sharing. Cancel anytime in iPhone Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions.
Will it work for the whole family?: Each person installs Anchor on their own iPhone and sets their own wake time, dismiss code, and at-rest groups. One Anchor Tag (the optional accessory) can pair with every iPhone in the household if you choose to buy one.
iOS 26.1+ only. What about older iPhones or Android?: Anchor needs iOS 26.1 or later because that is when AlarmKit became reliable enough to keep the promise: ringing through Silent Mode, surviving a force-quit. Older iOS can't. Android isn't on the roadmap yet. Leave your email and we'll tell you the day it is.

Coming to the App Store

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About

Anchor Morning is made by Anchor Labs, LLC. Built because the first hour was losing to the feed. On-device. No account. hello@anchormorning.app