Apps to replace doomscrolling
“What do you open instead of doomscrolling?”
30 answers from 28 people · Updated Sep 25, 2026
Anyone can bird, and Merlin makes it easy and fun!!! Best app discovery of the past few years.
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A low effort way to look at a new piece of art every day.
Handwritten digital letters to and from people all over the world you can be as simple or as creative as you’d like. Very wholesome.
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A terrific, curated set of daily puzzles by some of the best designers around. Subscribe if you want access to the archive!
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A game that’s even more smooth, relaxing, and addictive than 2048, with the gentlest touch of challenge. Threes game somehow hits the spot for both take-me-out-of-my-misery days and for I’m-smart-I-got-this days. You can play mindlessly or confidently and both are equally relaxing, engaging, and pressure-free. It takes maybe 20 minutes of random play to figure out the rules, and then you’re set up with YOUR FAVORITE GAME for years to come. Perfect if you like Wordle and 2048. (NOTE: There are many versions of the app. Get this one.)
101
Beautiful town building game. Like Sim City but without the stress of having to become a modern civilization. Super slow paced!! Like washing your brain with cold water
A much better take on the RSS reader, but in an innovative feed format, so it doesn't feel like another inbox piled with unread messages you have to clear out. It saves your place in the feed and syncs across devices.
My read-it-later app of choice! Thoughtful design, top-notch article parser, tagging, searching, queue filtering, pretty quoteshots, etc: “Sync your newsletters, follow your favorite writers, and save anything from the open web. You can even save YouTubes and podcast episodes and Matter will transcribe them to time-synced text.” Anyway, one of my most used apps, and a great companion to Libby for all your on-screen reading needs. Also honorable mention to Instapaper, my first love. I left when they got bought, and then bought again by Pinterest, and it seemed like it was getting worse (can’t remember why I thought that) but it looks like they stayed the course and some time ago spun back off to indie, and have kept improving it, so probably also a great choice.
best for designers/visual people. frequent updates and beautiful design (aesthetic + functional)
a mature pintrest. perfect if you’re looking for more niche and serious inspiration. allows you to learn about the artist, the source, and the story behind it.
11
A tamagotchi for people in therapy (or in need of therapy!) Be nice to yourself so your bird can buy nice things. You can send cheery daily support to your friends, or if your friends are sullen and/or uncool and/or don’t have the app your bird will send you encouraging tweets! (See what I did there) They recently added a “daily quiz” feature that is essentially a low stakes lunchtime poll for your friends (“what’s your ideal style of hangout?) which makes the quizilla-devouring tween in me smile. Joy meter: many/10
21
I've recently become addicted to doing chess puzzles on Lichess. Free and endless. Something to do with my phone that doesn't rot my brain (I don't think?)
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visually stunning and simple game. four different sets of hand drawn symbols you can switch between. I find the symbols easier than numbers somehow. sometimes it is hard to select the right symbol but it's only mildly annoying. you can trial a few levels before you buy, and I love that it is a one time cost.
My go-to app for a thinking type of game. A word play puzzle game that has a lot of fun rules to learn — it takes a bit to learn how to recognize them, but the payoff is priceless. It’s so exciting getting a puzzle correct!
2
My favorite little habit tracking app. It’s so calming and colorful and you can use it to break or build a new habit.
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If you were in on the BeReal trend, but then thought that it was less authentic and more social media-y than you’d like — then let me put you on to Minutiae. The App is simple: take a photo at a designated time during the day, get paired with one other random user and look through their moments as you’d look through your own. No likes, no comments, just a peek into another person’s life. The archive of your own moments creates a grid that you can then turn into a poster. The concept is great if your phone is on you. I work without my phone so I do have more blanks than pictures, but I’m still planning on seeing it through to the end.
1
In my pursuit of doomscrolling less, I have stumbled upon this simple, addicting, amazing card game app. Came for the solitaire, staying for my new obsession with gin rummy (lol). I am referring to this little habit as “training” to destroy my family members in recreational competition during the holidays this year. Bill, my computer opponent, better watch out!
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4 recs
Weird fun dumb little rabbit hole apps that make good alternatives to doom scrolling
12 recs
Places on the internet (and on my itty bitty phone) that bring me extensive joy
One Sec app for more intentional phone & app use
This app helps you develop better phone & app usage habits by interrupting your usage of social media apps, etc. For example, I have it set up so when I try to open Slack outside of work hours, it interrupts the app launch and makes me rotate my phone three times or take a few deep breaths. This makes me notice when I open Slack out of habit without even thinking about it. I have the same setup for Reddit and Instagram. Highly recommend.
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Ok long ramble incoming.... Everyone was right... This thing works. It's simple, and that's the beauty of it. I am notoriously unable to follow instructions or pay attention for more than a few moments so this suits my brain perfectly. I can still use Instagram and Rec League on my laptop if I really need to (or I can set up the gatekeeper cat to stop me from doing that), but the late-night doomscroll in bed is now a thing of the past! Honestly, I'm feeling kind of smug about it!!! Plus, if I do happen to allow myself a lil late-night doomscroll, it feels like a special treat, not a 24/7 debilitating addiction. My only question is... how will this impact our ability to connect with our loved ones when it's an emergency? I know you can set it up in various ways, but I am curious about how this might impact the ability to show up for community... Don't get me wrong, I'm very much FOR protecting peace and being more intentional with screen time and not being permanently attached to our phones. But I guess I am curious about how everyone else is approaching this new wave of people being suddenly unreachable. I say this as a single woman living alone with no family near me, so I rely on friends or neighbours in emergencies. If everyone's bricked their phones & I need help in the middle of the night, can I still call them? (Edit: I've discovered that, apparently, phone laws prevent Bricked phones from blocking calls - is this true? That makes me feel a lil better!) Not that I anticipate many emergencies, but my anxious brain has me reflecting on the impact of this technology! Keen to hear other people's thoughts or suggestions.
1812
iPhone triple click side button for grayscale
I watched The Social Dilemma documentary in 2020. It suggested turning your phone color filters to grayscale to counteract the visual design features that social media apps use to trigger dopamine and capture attention, like bright neon colors. I committed to this for about 2 days before getting annoyed by looking at photos of my friends exclusively in black & white. Years later, I’ve learned how to create a quick shortcut where I can easily toggle grayscale on/off by triple clicking the side button on my iPhone: Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size > Color Filters, toggle on, select Grayscale. Back to Accessibility > scroll down and choose Accessibility Shortcut > Select Color Filters
2
create a red light filter on your phone for nighttime scrolling
Create a shortcut on your phone to change the color of your screen just by triple clicking the side button. I do this every night when I get into bed to make scrolling much less desirable and the light much less bright. Step 1: Turn on the Red Color Filter Go to Settings > Accessibility. Tap on Display & Text Size > Color Filters. Toggle the Color Filters switch to On. Select Color Tint. Move the Intensity and Hue sliders all the way to the right for a deep red effect. Step 2: Create a Triple-Click Shortcut Go back to Settings > Accessibility. Scroll to the bottom and tap Accessibility Shortcut. Select Color Filters. Now, simply triple-click the side button (or the Home button on older models) to instantly turn your screen red or change it back to normal.
825
No devices in bedroom (except maybe a Kindle)
Give your phones a nice storage/charge area in another room!
9
A hobby that makes your hands dirty
So you cannot touch your phone. I do ceramics and you cannot fuck with your phone because your hands are wet and covered in, essentially, dirt. Other options: gardening, some forms of cooking, paper mache, pastels. Here is a pot I made.
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