Screen-Time Challenges: How to Compete With Friends to Cut Phone Time

Doing something hard with other people is easier than doing it alone. A challenge adds a deadline, an audience and a bit of friendly rivalry, which a private app timer doesn’t. This guide covers how to set up a challenge that is fair and that people finish, whether you use an app or a shared spreadsheet, and then exactly how Reveller’s group challenges work.

How to run a fair screen-time challenge

1. Measure a baseline first. Everyone needs a week or so of normal usage before the challenge starts. On Android, Settings › Digital Wellbeing shows it (see our Android guide).
2. Score the reduction, not the total. If one person averages six hours a day and another two, ranking by raw totals means the light user always wins. Rank by percentage cut from each person’s own baseline.
3. Keep it short. A week is long enough to change a habit and short enough that people don’t drift away. Run another one afterwards rather than one long one.
4. Make missing days count. Someone who stops reporting shouldn’t be able to win by staying quiet. Count a missing day as a normal day, not as zero.
5. Agree on the rules up front. Decide which apps count, what happens on travel days, and whether there is a prize. A small, silly prize works well.
6. Choose competing or co-operating. Some groups like a leaderboard. Others, such as families and couples, prefer to work toward one shared target.

You can do all of this by hand: everyone posts their Digital Wellbeing total in a group chat each evening and one person keeps a spreadsheet. That works, but it depends on everyone remembering, and nothing stops anyone from rounding down. An app that reads the numbers from the phone does the bookkeeping for you.

How group challenges work in Reveller

Reveller is an Android screen-time app made by the team behind this site. Group challenges are part of Reveller Plus (US$7.99/month or US$71.91/year after a 7-day free trial). Everything below describes how the app works today.

Creating a group

• Style: Compete (climb the leaderboard) or Work together (reach a shared goal: stay under your baselines together).
• Season length: 3 to 30 days. The default is 7.
• Group size: 2 to 15 people. The default is 6.
• Joining: groups are invite-only. You share an invite code or link with the people you want in it.

How scoring works

Each member’s score is their percentage reduction against their own baseline, which is their usual daily screen time. Cutting from five hours to four is a 20% reduction, and so is cutting from two and a half hours to two. The leaderboard ranks people by this percentage.

• Daily winner: each day, the member with the best result that day is highlighted.
• Season result: when the season ends, it is finalised, the top three get gold, silver and bronze trophies, and a new season begins.
• Minimum participation: to be eligible to win a season you need enough days of reported usage. In groups of four or more that is at least half the season’s days. In groups of three or fewer it is about 30% of the days, with a minimum of two.
• No winning by disappearing: when a season is finalised, any day you didn’t report is filled in at your baseline. A missing day counts as a normal day, not a perfect one.

Competing or working together

In a Compete group the goal is to beat your own baseline by more than everyone else. In a Work together group the shared goal is for the whole group to stay under baseline. It suits families or partners who don’t want to rank each other.

Tips for a challenge people finish

• Start with the people you talk to daily. A group chat that already exists is the easiest place to keep momentum.
• Pair it with blocking. A challenge gives you the motivation and blocking gives you the friction. Schedule blocks on your worst apps during the challenge.
• Celebrate the daily winner. It gives people who fall behind something to aim for before the season ends.
• Run it again. A second season against your own new baseline is the real test of whether the habit stuck.

Common questions

Is it fair if one friend uses their phone far more than another?

Yes, if you score by percentage reduction from each person’s own baseline, which is how Reveller ranks groups. Raw totals favour whoever already uses their phone least.

Can I join a challenge from an iPhone?

Not in Reveller yet. It is available on Android only, and an iOS version is in development.

Do I need an app to run a screen-time challenge?

No. A group chat and a spreadsheet of each person’s daily Digital Wellbeing total work. An app saves the bookkeeping and stops anyone from rounding their numbers down.