App Roulette : Forest: Stay Focused 

We try out apps so you don't have to! 

Developer: forestapp.cc
Genre: Productivity
Size: 7.43MB
Price: Free / In-app purchases
Available for: Android & iOS 

If there's one thing most of us are guilty of, it's smartphone addiction. Despite pressing matters  requiring our undivided attention, we can't help but glance at our phone screens for “just a teeny second” - in case we get an important message, obviously - only to end up on Facebook or get back to playing a game now that our lives have been replenished. 

This is where Forest: Stay Focused saves the day and helps you get stuff done. This nifty app helps beat phone addiction in a pretty ingenious, if not insanely adorable way. 

How it works 

Forest is one of the most simple and straightforward apps out there with a nice, smooth UI. There's almost nothing you have to do after downloading the app - simply select the duration and change the tree if you feel like it. 

What you essentially do is plant a seed in the forest. It will gradually grow as long as you don't use your phone for the duration of the time you specified. If you do use your phone or leave the app, the tree will wither away. If you can successfully stay away, you can soon grow your own forest! 

In case you thought you were above caring for an inanimate, digitized object, you’d be pleasantly surprised. The mere thought that Jack - yup, we named our tree #1 - might die if we left the app had us persevering and fighting the urge to update our progress on Twitter! 

The app includes an “app whitelist”. These are the apps you can use without killing your tree. On a side note, we do wish that the app allowed us to compete with friends and had online leaderboards so we could compare our standing with others to increase motivation. But this will have to do. For now. 

Downsides 

This app is unfortunately not foolproof. We were able to exit the app by pressing the home screen button and upon returning to the app, we saw that Jack was still growing. Yay!!! But despite the happy dances, the fact that Jack was still alive in spite of us leaving the app defeats the whole purpose of Forest, really, which kinda sucks. Also, the time slot available is limited to 10-120 minutes. Anything more than that and you will have to plant another seed. We’re guessing they figured 120 minutes was the longest possible time we could go without checking our phones. Which is probably true, in all honesty. Hopefully, future updates will include more options and solve these issues. 

In-app purchases 

The in app purchases are pretty insignificant and you could do without it. 

To get or not to get? 

Despite the minor shortcomings, we think this is a great app to get if you're easily distracted and need to focus on work or your studies. 

By Rihaab Mowlana