I kept deleting and redownloading Instagram because I couldn't stop watching Reels but needed the app for DMs. Tried screen time limits, just overrode them. So I built this.Dull loads Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and X and filters out short-form content with a mix of CSS and JS injection. MutationObserver handles anything that lazy-loads after the page renders, which is most of the annoying stuff since these platforms love to load content dynamically.The ongoing work is maintaining the filters. Platforms change their DOM all the time, Instagram obfuscates class names, YouTube restructures how Shorts appear in the feed, etc. It's a cat-and-mouse thing that never really ends.Also has grayscale mode, time limits, and usage tracking.Happy to answer questions.
FL score
out of 100
Verdict
high confidence
Competition
14
competitors found, emerging market
Trend
No signal yet
An iOS app that selectively removes Reels, Shorts, and other addictive short-form content from social media feeds, allowing users to retain essential app functionality.
The pain
The gap
Build angle
Strengths
Questions about this idea?
FlyBot reads the scoring and gives you a second opinion on “Dull – Instagram Without Reels, YouTube Without Shorts (iOS)”.
Risks
Next steps
Fly Labs Method
Is the pain real, is there a gap, is it the right time, can one person build it.
Strong validation for a niche problem with clear user demand and a distinct solution gap, although ongoing maintenance could be a challenge.
Value Equation
Dream outcome and how likely it feels, against the time and effort it costs.
Strong potential for making money due to clear market pain, a compelling value proposition, and an emerging, growing market.
One-Person Business
Curiosity pull, identity fit, and a path from free value to paid for a solo creator.
A highly clear problem with strong creator fit and solid monetization, but audience reach and ongoing complexity need consideration.
Viral Frameworks
Hook strength, shareability, and how cheaply it can be tested.
Strong viability as a micro-SaaS due to highly specific targeting, clear value, and a proven business model, though maintenance is a risk.
Builder Lens
Evidence the problem exists, timing, defensibility, and a model that fits on a napkin.
Highly demanded, targeted solution for a persistent problem that will only grow, with a clear and narrow initial offering.
Why this verdict
Five lenses, one composite. How scoring works
The angle
This weekend
Who is already there, emerging market
An app that introduces a mandatory pause when you open distracting apps, prompting you to take a breath before proceeding.
Pricing: Free version available with limited features. Pro version: $2.99/month, $19.99/year, or $49.99 lifetime. Family Plan: $24.99/year or $69.00 lifetime. Student discount of 50% on annual subscription ($10/year).
A comprehensive app and website blocker that works across multiple devices to help users focus.
Pricing: Monthly: $8.99, Yearly: $3.33/month (billed annually at $39.99), Lifetime: $99.50 (may vary, check site for current pricing) or $160 one-time purchase.
A screen time app for iPhone and Mac that blocks apps and websites, tracks usage, and provides tools to focus.
Pricing: Free version with basic features. Premium: $8.29/month (billed annually at $99.99), $19.99/month (billed annually at $239), or $399 lifetime.
A robust website and application blocker known for its unbreakable blocks, helping users to eliminate distractions.
Pricing: Free Basic version with limited features. Pro version: $39 one-time payment for a single device, or $49 for unlimited personal computers (includes lifetime updates).
A productivity app that tracks time spent on applications and websites, providing detailed reports and blocking features to improve focus.
Pricing: Free Lite plan. Solo Premium plan: $6.50/month (billed annually) or $12/month (billed monthly). Team Plan: $6 per user/month (billed annually) or $9 per user/month (billed monthly).
A customizable content blocker that limits or rations the use of distracting websites and apps with powerful 'force' modes.
Pricing: Monthly: ~₹668.4 (~$8 USD), Yearly: ~₹335.95/month (~$4 USD/month), 2 Years: ~₹227.53/month (~$2.75 USD/month). Lifetime purchase also available for $119.99.
A gamified timer app that helps users stay focused by growing a virtual tree; the tree dies if the user leaves the app.
Pricing: Free to download with in-app purchases. Full version is a one-time cost of $2.79 (CAD) or $1.99 USD. Pro features (like planting real trees, custom tags) are available via in-app purchases ranging from $0.99 to $35.99.
An app that adds 'friction' to accessing distracting apps by requiring users to complete challenges or use a physical NFC tag.
Pricing: App subscription: Monthly: $4.49, Yearly: $44.99, Lifetime: $194.99. Bundles with NFC tag also available: Tag + 6 Months Subscription: $44.95, Tag + 1 Year Subscription: $59.95, Tag + Lifetime Subscription: $199.95.
An Android app that specifically blocks short-form video feeds like Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Facebook Reels, without blocking the entire app.
Pricing: Core features are free, with some extra features available in a Pro version.
An Android app that disables Reels on Instagram and Shorts on YouTube, along with blocking entire apps or specific features to limit screen time.
Pricing: Not specified, but focuses on a 'commitment device' mechanism.
An Android app designed to block Shorts and Reels sections of apps while allowing other features, and also offers full app and site blocking.
Pricing: Not specified.
A tool to block distracting apps and websites, including specific sections like Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts on Android devices.
Pricing: Not specified, but offers Quick Block, Schedules, Strict Mode, and Insights as key features.
What they charge
Recent news
Cisdem, March 16 2026
RescueTime, March 05 2025
AppBlock, May 13 2025
Sensor Tower, March 27 2026
Reddit, March 11 2026
Market signals
The market for digital well-being and attention management apps is growing, driven by increasing awareness of social media addiction and the desire for focused work/life. There's a clear demand for solutions that specifically target addictive short-form video content like Reels and Shorts, as evidenced by newer apps focusing on this niche. While specific funding rounds for this exact problem space weren't immediately found, the consistent development and iteration of apps in this area, many of which are bootstrapped, indicate a strong and active market.
What frustrates people
Last summer we faced a conundrum at my company, Tiger Data, a Postgres cloud vendor whose main business is in timeseries data. We were trying to grow our business towards emerging AI-centric workloads and wanted to provide a state-of-the-art hybrid search stack in Postgres. We'd already built pgvectorscale in house with the goal of scaling semantic search beyond pgvector's main memory limitations. We just needed a scalable ranked keyword search solution too.The problem: core Postgres doesn't provide this; the leading Postgres BM25 extension, ParadeDB, is guarded behind AGPL; developing our own extension appeared daunting. We'd need a small team of sharp engineers and 6-12 months, I figured. And we'd probably still fall short of the performance of a mature system like Parade/Tantivy.Or would we? I'd be experimenting long enough with AI-boosted development at that point to realize that with the latest tools (Claude Code + Opus) and an experienced hand (I've been working in database systems internals for 25 years now), the old time estimates pretty much go out the window.I told our CTO I thought I could solo the project in one quarter. This raised some eyebrows.It did take a little more time than that (two quarters), and we got some real help from the community (amazing!) after open-sourcing the pre-release. But I'm thrilled/exhausted today to share that pg_textsearch v1.0 is freely available via open source (Postgres license), on Tiger Data cloud, and hopefully soon, a hyperscalar near you:https://github.com/timescale/pg_textsearchIn the blog post accompanying the release, I overview the architecture and present benchmark results using MS-MARCO. To my surprise, we were not only able to meet Parade/Tantivy's query performance, but exceed it substantially, measuring a 4.7x advantage on query throughput at scale:https://www.tigerdata.com/blog/pg-textsearch-bm25-fu
AI
Hi HN!I recently switched from a Fedora/GNOME laptop to a MacBook Air. My old setup served me well as a portable workstation, but I’ve started traveling more while working remotely and needed something with similar performance but better battery life. The main thing I missed was a simple taskbar that shows the windows in the current workspace instead of a Dock that mixes everything together.I built boringBar so I would not have to use the Dock. It shows only the windows in the current Space, lets you switch Spaces by scrolling on the bar, and adds a desktop switcher so you can jump directly to any Space. You can also hide the system Dock, pin apps, preview windows with thumbnails, and launch apps from a searchable menu (I keep Spotlight disabled because for some reason it uses a lot of system resources on my machine).I’ve been dogfooding it for a few months now, and it finally felt polished enough to share.It’s for people who like macOS but want window management to feel a bit more like GNOME, Windows, or a traditional taskbar. It’s also for people like me who wanted an easier transition to macOS, especially now that Windows feels increasingly user-hostile.I’d love feedback on the UX, bugs, and whether this solves the same Dock/Spaces pain for anyone else.P.S. It might also appeal to people who feel nostalgic for the GNOME 2 desktop of yore. I started my Linux journey with it, and boringBar brings back some of that feeling for me.
AI
### Describe the project you are working on Godot C# bindings ### Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project For the past weeks, I've been discussing with several Unity users intending to move to Godot C# regarding dealing with the C# garbage collector. The most common complaint I hear from users is that, in Unity, allocations can trigger unexpected GC spikes into the game. In Godot, we target to make all of the high performance APIs (those that intended to be called every frame) not allocate any memory, so theoretically the GC should not be a problem. Additionally, Godot starting from 4.0, uses the Microsoft CoreCLR version of .net, which also supposedly has a better garbage collector than Unity. But in all, after several discussions with Unity users, neither is enough reassurance for them, and they would really feel safer if Godot exposed a zero allocation API. ### Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation The idea of this proposal is that Godot exposes zero allocation versions of many functions in the C# API, that users can use if they desire. Technically, this could be done from the binding generator itself, without breaking compatibility, and without doing any modification to Godot itself. ### Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudo-code, mock-ups, and/or diagrams **WARNING** I am not familiar with C#, so take this as pseudocode. Imagine you have two functions exposed as to C#: ```C# void MyClass.SetArray( Vector2[] array); Vector2[] MyClass.GetArray(); ``` This works and is pretty and intuitive. However, it has two problems: * GC is allocated on return * Memory is copied to Godot native formats every time there is a call. The idea is to add NoAlloc versions, which can be generated directly by the binder automatically when required: ```C# void MyClass.SetArrayNoAlloc( Godot.Collections.PackedVector2Array array); void MyCl
AI