Cold Turkey Makes You Practice Using Flashcards Before Opening Addictive Apps
We all have apps on our phones that we’d like to open less often, like TikTok or Reddit. Cold Turkey is an iPhone app that will prevent you from opening certain apps until you’ve practiced a few Spanish, French, or Japanese flashcards beforehand. This will help you fight the urge to scroll and also learn a few words.
The app was created by independent developer Gustavo Nascimento, an avid language learner who loves to review words throughout the day. “The problem with viewing cards on my phone is that while it’s an amazing tool, it’s also incredibly easy to get distracted by other apps,” Nascimento said. Cold Türkiye is an attempt to solve both problems at the same time.
It’s easy to get started: download the app and open it. You’ll be asked to allow access to Screen Time and notifications—make sure you’ve enabled both. You will also be asked which language you want to practice and which apps you want to block.
Once you’ve set everything up, you’ll notice that distracting app icons have become translucent. Try to open it and you’ll be told that you need to practice the language before you can open the app; a notification will also appear. Tap that notification, view a few cards, and you’ll be able to use the app.
You can customize how many words to view in one session and how long viewing words will unlock the app. You can also change the language at any time.
Cold Turkey is free if you close the pop-up window asking you to upgrade. The free version allows you to block two individual applications and one entire category of applications. The paid version, which costs $7 per month, $20 per year, or a one-time fee of $60, allows you to block as many apps or categories as you want, as well as block websites.
After tweaking this setting for a couple of days, I found that it created enough friction to reduce my habitual scrolling on Mastodon and Reddit. Sometimes I make an effort and look at the cards; sometimes I decide to do a little reading instead. Either way, I feel like the app is helping me, so I’ll probably stick with it. Give it a try if you like this combination of language learning and blocking out distractions.