The app developed by the "King of Nerds" topped the overall US chart in less than a month.

This week, an app called Focus Friend climbed the charts. While the author was writing this article, it successively surpassed Grok, Google, and ChatGPT, topping the overall iOS download chart in the United States.

As of the time of writing, Focus Friend's latest ranking is in the Top 3 of the iOS download chart | Image source: Diandian Data

The function of Focus Friend is actually very simple. It helps users stay focused and prohibits them from using their phones during the specified focus time. This reminds the author of another "classic" app, Forest. As early as 2014, this app achieved the focus function by "planting trees." Over the past decade, it has accumulated tens of millions of installations, with a peak monthly active user count of 18 million. It has become the synonym for focus apps in the minds of many people.

However, in addition to inheriting the focus function of Forest, Focus Friend reinterprets the concept of "focus" in a more interesting way.

A bean that loves knitting,

attracts 15,000 people to decorate its room

In Forest, the main driving force for users to achieve focus comes from the sense of achievement of "planting trees." If users don't use their phones within the time they set, the saplings will grow successfully. With long - term use, they can even create a "focus forest"; otherwise, the trees will wither directly. Later, Forest amplified this feature, which became the main paid point in the app. One way is to increase the variety and aesthetics of the trees; the other is to cooperate with the tree - planting organization Trees for the Future, allowing users to plant real trees in Kenya. (Later, Forest switched to a paid - download model, priced at $4.)

Many users will spontaneously research and share tutorials on tree - planting combinations; Forest later also launched a social - based function of inviting friends to form a study group to supervise each other. | Image source: Xiaohongshu

According to the historical monthly revenue data that Diandian Data can capture, since 2021, the highest monthly revenue of Forest on the iOS platform has been approximately $400,000 globally. Considering that Forest was launched in 2014 and won honors such as "Best App" and "Editor's Choice" multiple times between 2016 and 2018, it is speculated that it should have achieved better results before the earliest available data.

In the author's impression, similar focus apps at that time usually had a whitelist function, allowing users to set some apps that could be used during the focus period. However, Forest was almost a "one - size - fits - all" approach. As long as users opened other apps, the trees would die. Although a similar whitelist setting was later introduced, the operation was quite cumbersome. Many users felt pressured in the early stage and switched to other apps.

Forest was developed by the Taiwanese team Seekrtech. Later, Seekrtech also launched apps mainly featuring sleep - monitoring and to - do list functions. The functional design and visual style are not very different from Forest, but their performance has not been as remarkable as Forest.

On the left is the feedback from the author's friend; on the right, the official websites of some of Seekrtech's products have rarely been updated since 2021. | Image source: Seekrtech's official website

In 2025, the recently chart - climbing Focus Friend has been online for less than a month. It was jointly developed by the American "internet celebrity" Hank Green and the game company B - Tech Consulting Group LLC, and is positioned as an ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) - friendly attention management partner.

It's actually not very accurate to position Hank Green as an internet celebrity. He has a very diverse identity and is an "old - timer" in the internet world. According to Wikipedia, Hank Green and his brother John Green started their YouTube programs in 2007, creating channels such as Vlogbrothers, Crash Course, and SciShow, mainly featuring knowledge - popularization content; later, they also expanded into multiple fields such as podcasts, TikTok, and music creation. He is also a writer and entrepreneur, having published several novels. His debut work, "An Absolutely Remarkable Thing," was published in 2018 and was named a best - seller by The New York Times; he founded VidCon (Video Creator Conference), Complexly (a media company producing educational content), and DFTBA Records (a record company, which later developed into an e - commerce company). In May 2023, after being diagnosed with cancer, Hank Green started a stand - up comedy career themed around this, which was later produced into a streaming program.

During his long - term online activities, Hank Green has accumulated a huge fan base. His fans, called Nerdfighters, even have a special name and logo. Currently, Hank Green has 2.5 million and 7.3 million followers on his YouTube and TikTok personal channels respectively, and the number of followers on other social media platforms is also in the millions.

Some of Hank Green's social media accounts. Even on platforms where he doesn't update often, there are 1.5 million followers (top); his Reddit fan community has about 70,000 members (bottom). | Image source: Instagram, X, Reddit

Both apps help users stay focused, but the settings of Focus Friend are obviously much more interesting. The app introduces its functions and rules through the story of a bean, and users have the right to name the bean. This anthropomorphic bean was shattered by a "cosmic energy laser" and fell into the user's phone from their bowl. The bean loves knitting. The socks and scarves it makes can be exchanged for decorations in its room. However, once users use their phones, it will distract the bean, causing its knitting work to fail. The bean will appear very disappointed but will comfort the user, saying, "It's okay, we tried."

The longer the focus time, the more socks and scarves there will be. | Image source: Focus Friend

As can be seen, like Forest, Focus Friend adopts the design concept of gamification and "achievement" collection. Although it lacks the recording function of Forest, Focus Friend enhances the sense of companionship through the bean's image and dialogue. When users are focused on tasks, the bean is also working simultaneously; and from the perspective of the story design, different from Forest where users build a garden for themselves, in the story of Focus Friend, users stay focused to avoid disturbing the bean's knitting and exchange for more furniture to decorate the room. The delicacy of the furniture is proportional to the focus duration. With a similar functional logic, Focus Friend cleverly transforms the user's psychology from a "person being supervised" to a "helper" through the background story.

In terms of commercialization, currently, the only paid feature is unlocking the bean's image. There are no other paid points yet. And when Hank Green publicly replied to relevant questions on TikTok, he said that no additional payment is required and there are no ads.

The video answering the "Price" question has 24,000 views, and there are a large number of thank - you messages in the comment section. Some also expressed their willingness to support the paid version; Focus Friend was launched on July 23, and on August 17, Hank Green posted his first TikTok post related to it, which got 1.7 million views; according to Diandian Data, the daily downloads of Focus Friend started to surge on July 25, increasing from less than 300 to 4,000. | Image source: TikTok

With a huge fan base and anthropomorphic product design, Focus Friend initially achieved tens of thousands of downloads with almost no promotion. For a while, it ranked higher than Google on the overall chart. Hank was very excited about this result and posted three related posts on social media. According to AppBrain, Focus Friend has now entered the Top 5 of the efficiency app download rankings in the App Stores of many countries.

Image source: Instagram@hankgreen, AppBrain

More products are waiting to go global,

Immersive simulated flight and the "AI tyrant"

Perhaps Focus Friend is not a typical successful commercial case, but its popularity overseas is enough to show that the product meets a wide - ranging demand. In the domestic focus app market, there have also been some interesting products this year.

In January this year, Focus Flight, a focus - themed flight app, was launched. According to the official account, the developer is a flight enthusiast and an ADHD patient. Knowing well the troubles of distraction and procrastination, the developer created this app to better seize the efficient moments brought by Hyperfocus (a state of excessive focus that ADHD patients may experience, where they are completely concentrated on tasks they are interested in). Although the two products in the previous chapter have different focuses in gamification and companionship settings, they both adopt a relatively rigid "phone - locking" design. Different from them, Focus Flight achieves the focus function through a sense of ritual and scenario - setting.

Image source: Focus Flight

Its sense of ritual is mainly reflected in the "boarding" process. After logging in, users need to select a departure airport. Depending on the focus time, the app will provide destinations with similar flight durations; during the "check - in" process, users can choose the task scenario, and the design of swiping the screen is similar to the actual check - in experience. When the focus period officially starts, the app will turn on flight mode and present a realistic real - time flight map, visualizing the focus time as the flight progress, and providing white noise such as cabin sounds, raindrops, and ocean waves. Users can turn off flight mode and use other apps during the focus period. Although users have more freedom, they also need to be more self - disciplined for better focus. After the focus time ends, the app will provide flight ticket souvenirs, flight history, and trend analysis, achieving a full - process scenario - setting.

Currently, Focus Flight offers three subscription plans, mainly including unlimited flights, window - view perspective, data analysis, standby display, widgets, and other benefits. Focus Flight is available on the App Store globally, but most of its users are still from China. In terms of commercialization, it has been performing averagely so far. According to Diandian Data, its monthly revenue has not exceeded $5,000 yet. However, its interactive design and scenario - setting concept are worth learning from.

On the right are the subscription plans and some benefits. | Image source: Focus Flight

In addition to enhancing the user's immersion when performing tasks from a functional design perspective, in the author's personal experience, the most difficult part of a task is often getting started. Behind this, besides the habit of procrastination, there is also a sense of cluelessness about the task. An interesting app the author recently discovered, "Tyrant Mode," just focuses on this problem.

In short, this app uses an "AI tyrant" to force users to start specific tasks, rather than just setting a time period. After users input a task, the AI will automatically determine the task's priority based on the four - quadrant rule (users can also operate manually) and generate brief start - up suggestions based on the task. Users can choose which apps they want to "lock."

After starting to act, the app has two layers of interfaces. The first action interface only shows the task name. On this layer, the user's "mental value" (which can be understood as the procrastination quota) will decrease over time. Only by clicking "Start Action" and entering the second - layer interface can users truly start the task and stop the consumption of mental value.

On the second execution interface, when users first enter, the app will show the ideal situation after completing the task, giving users positive psychological hints to motivate action, that is, "manifesting the best result." After users start executing the task, it will change to short motivational messages and provide an inspiration - note function. The inspiration - note function supports automatically associating users' random thoughts with the current task. Over time, users will find out in what situations they are most likely to have inspiration. If users return to the first - layer interface during execution, the mental value will decrease again. It can be said that this app combines positive and negative "PUA" techniques.

The red box shows the mental value and inspiration notes; the