Does The Sabbath App Really Help You Stay Off Your Phone for Shabbat?

I am not the target demographic for the Sabbath app.

Created by Dig Wells, Inc., the tech startup behind digital reader app Matter, Sabbath is a play on existing smartphone time restriction controls — choose apps you want to stay off, pick your Sabbath (Saturday or Sunday), and the app will keep you from accessing those apps from one sundown to the next.

Screenshot from the Sabbath app

The reason I’m not the target demographic for the Sabbath app is simple: I already keep Shabbat without the app.

But I found myself curious about this new app, and so I tried it out for a month, blocking time-consuming apps like social media and games. (As a responsible parent and partner who didn’t want to make my experiment a burden on my wife, I kept messaging apps accessible.) 

It seemed unnecessary to choose Shabbat as my Sabbath day in the app. For 25 hours every week (and more rarely, up to 73), I disappear from the world, turning off my phone, tablet, laptop, etc., disconnecting from social media and chats, oblivious to the news and the nonsense. It’s not impossible to find out things that have happened — some Sabbath-observant Jews subscribe to newspapers or ask non-Jewish security guards for sports scores — but most weeks, it’s all out of sight, out of mind.

I’ve been keeping Shabbat my whole life; it’s instinctual. When it’s Shabbat, touching my phone, lighting a fire, binding sheaves, it’s all out of the question.

But then it’s nightfall, Shabbat is over, and I start to scroll. Got to catch up. Any texts? News? Deaths? Updates, notifications, scrolling, scrolling, and suddenly the night is gone quicker than intended. I don’t love my relationship with my phone and the ways tech companies have broken my brain.

So when I decided to try out this app for one month, I marked the Sabbath on Sunday.. I’d be phone-free for two days; one for religion, one for my experiment. How would it feel?

At the beginning, an extra day away from endless scrolling felt like a good idea. I loved spending time with my family and friends, not worrying about the latest thing everyone has to have an opinion about online, not shoveling other people’s thoughts into my brain from social platforms with no bottom.

But as I continued to try, I still felt that tug. Still felt the need for my phone. And more than anything, I felt how self-imposed the whole thing was. Like I was Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad, adding hurdle after hurdle to stop myself from indulging in cookies. I was engaging in Sabbath, but I was doing it on Sunday. It was up to me. I could just turn the app off or delete it. After all, I was the one in control. Right?

The Sabbath app, nestled in my Jewish folder alongside siddur, Sefaria, and KosherNearMe, was an app defined by my not using it. It offers a countdown feature as a live activity, reminding you at the top of the phone screen how much time until sundown (a good feature for anybody running around, setting timers and putting away muktzeh before Shabbat). But with my phone off on Saturday, I missed the countdown.

On Saturday night, when my first Shabbat would end and the experiment would continue, I found myself still turning on my phone, zoning out, and scrolling to catch up on the news. And I instinctually tapped on buttons I knew wouldn’t work to get to the apps I would’ve normally opened, only to find a reminder that it was Sabbath (again).

Designed for social reinforcement, the app lets you connect with friends and keep Sabbath together. If you need to pause at any time to access your apps (for 15 minutes), you have to open the app, slide a slider, explain why you want to pause — the app notes, “Reason will be visible to your friends” — and then breathe for 5 seconds before it lets you in. It’s the kind of friction that makes you think about why you’re scrolling, instead of doing it mindlessly.

Sometimes I would take the opportunity to scroll more mindfully, swapping social media for articles I’d saved to read eventually. Or I’d reach for a book instead of my phone. But I have other devices. And sometimes I would open my iPad or computer to get around the app. There’s more than one way to post. 

At the end of the month, I felt relieved to be done with the experiment, and a little embarrassed that that was the case. Did I not go far enough? Is the solution to block even more apps, effectively limiting the phone to a communication tool and GPS? Or just throw away the phone altogether? Intentionality and trying hard not to do something only go so far. 

Better than any app, it’s easier to hold off from using a phone when you can’t use it at all. When it’s ingrained enough that you can say to yourself honestly, I don’t use my phone today. The sort of thing that comes from practice, which I guess is what Sabbath is attempting to help us do — I’m just not sure the app succeeds. But maybe it’s just me.

Screenshot from the Sabbath app