After Two Months, the Steppin App Helped Me Walk More and Scroll Less.
Two months ago, I downloaded and started using Steppin , an app that blocks your most distracting apps and forces you to trade your real steps for them. After just three days, I found it enjoyable enough to review , but now that I’ve spent 68 days with the app, I’m even more impressed. While it’s still only available for iOS , an Android version is on the waiting list, and not much has changed in terms of interface or use since my initial review, but I’ve found it much easier to navigate and incorporate into my life.
My social media usage has definitely decreased.
The app works by syncing with your Apple Health data and pulling steps from your phone or fitness tracker, then converting them into minutes you can use in your favorite apps. Once you add an app to your blocklist, you’ll be prompted to open Steppin every time you try to open a blocked app. You’ll then have the option to choose between one and 30 minutes of unlocked time, or just not follow at all. My settings are calibrated so that 50 steps unlock one minute of app time.
When I first started, I added two apps to my blocklist: Instagram and the game Project Makeover . My time on these apps has absolutely dried up. For the most part, that’s a good thing. I can’t even tell you the last time I watched a mindless Reel. On the other hand, I will admit that it has actually impacted my social life a little. Instagram is a place where, for better or worse, people broadcast the events of their lives, so I’ve missed a few things, like important event announcements from people I consider friends, but not best friends, who would directly message me with good news. I feel rude for not liking these posts or congratulating them in a private message when I eventually see or hear about the news a few days later. Because as much as my mom complains that “social media isn’t real life,” that’s not really the case anymore, and I’m missing out on some real-life things in my quest to stop watching so much stupid Reel. I think it’s a good compromise, but I definitely noticed it.
Still, it’s given me a lot of time back, and I’m grateful for it. I check my screen time every week and see it plummet. This week, my daily average is down 18% from last week, my “lifts” — or the number of times I unlock my phone — are down 14% from last week, and my average notifications are down 8% from last week, though Poshmark, with over 6,000 notifications this week, is the exception because I get a notification every time someone shares, likes, or buys one of my listings, and I used a third-party app to maximize the frequency of these events . But don’t worry. I’ve set these alerts to appear quietly in my notification feed; they don’t generate a push notification that lights up my lock screen.
Because it all comes down to the little dopaminergic hits my brain is used to looking for in short videos and quick hot takes, I’ve definitely noticed that I’m just less interested in looking for it — to a point. The time away from it has certainly acted as a detox, and I don’t necessarily feel the urge to look at posts that will shock, anger, excite, or otherwise entertain me in the way that I didn’t three months ago. However, I have noticed that I’ve become a little more easily drawn to other apps that I hadn’t previously looked at as often and that I hadn’t initially blocked — it’s as if some of my previous time on Instagram has just leaked into other apps. I spent an inordinate amount of time on X, for example, for a while. I noticed this, added it to my Steppin’ blocklist as I was writing this, and moved on.
Stripes make it possible
I’m highly motivated by arbitrary personal rewards. My Peloton workout streak motivates me to get on the bike every day. My self-care streak on Finch motivates me to log all of my daily wins. My Poshmark listing streak and my Dunkin’ Donuts shopping streak even earn me real-world rewards, like discounted shipping and a free coffee, respectively. It’s no surprise that the streak feature on Steppin has me hooked, too.
You maintain your streak by not removing apps from your block list or redefining an app to access blocked apps. I have maintained my streak for 68 days and am quite proud of it. Adding new apps to your block list does not reset your streak, nor does changing the number of steps you need to take to earn one minute.
My steps won’t necessarily go up (but I knew they would)
I’ve definitely cut back on distracting apps, and I feel the positive effects, but the whole point of Steppin is that it encourages change by encouraging you to be more active. It’s supposed to be a two-for-one win. I was already active before downloading this and haven’t noticed a significant increase in my daily steps, but I don’t care. I take three to four spin classes a week and do most of my cardio on a Peloton bike at home — while those classes burn calories and keep me active, they don’t count toward “steps.” I still take as many steps a day as I ever did, walking to the post office, Dunkin’, the gym, and the bus — all places I was already walking before installing Steppin.
I’ve noticed that I have more than just a desire, but an eagerness to walk a little further than usual. Sometimes, instead of dropping off my Poshmark purchases at the post office two blocks from my apartment, I’ll go to the one 10 blocks away. I’ll also occasionally get off the bus two or so stops early to walk a little, though that may have more to do with my excitement that it’s finally warming up outside. I usually know I’m doing this to save up a few minutes of Instagram time, but I end up not using them anyway. My accumulated minutes reset every Sunday at midnight, leaving me with about five or six hours of unused time. (It’s so annoying to wake up on Sundays and not be able to even check Instagram while I brush my teeth and make coffee, forcing me to walk in circles around the living room to get in a few quick steps. But if I changed the settings so that my minutes carried over from week to week, I’d lose my streak, and I just can’t do that.)
Overall, my Apple Health data shows that I’m averaging the same number of steps now as I did this time last year, but I consider it a win that I’m even consciously choosing to walk when I wouldn’t normally. This week alone, in addition to going to the post office far away, I decided to play golf as my weekly exercise hike, walk around the mall instead of ordering all my summer clothes online, and use Peloton’s guided walking workouts instead of doing all my cardio on the bike. It’s definitely because of Steppin, which forces me to consciously make small, healthy changes to my day.
When I first reviewed Steppin, I interviewed its founder, Paul English. He mentioned that he and his team were looking at ways to count things beyond steps that could be equivalent to unblocked minutes, like time spent reading on a Kindle. That’s a feature I’m really looking forward to. It would be great if the workouts I log in Apple Health, like cycling and strength training, could somehow show up in my Steppin time bank, though at this point I’m not sure I’d use the extra minutes. I’m just not that interested in social media anymore.