About Friction
A focus timer that makes leaving the tab the one thing that costs you, with radio, live TV and lessons to stay with instead of a feed.
What it is
Friction is a free web app for studying and working without being pulled away. You choose how long to focus and lock in. While you are locked in, the clock runs only while this tab is in front of you. Leave it and the session records a drift, the one unit Friction measures.
Around the timer there is a station to stay with: internet radio, live TV channels, podcasts, news, lessons built from Wikipedia text by fixed rules, a small arcade you pay for with credits you earn by focusing, study windows such as a notepad and a calculator, and Together rooms for studying with friends.
Why it exists
Most focus tools block things or scold you. Friction does the opposite: it gives you something good to do inside the tab, and keeps an honest count of how often you left. It does not invent proof, it does not send you notifications to come back, and it has no feed.
Who makes it
Friction is made and run by one independent developer. It has no investors and no sales team. If you have a question, a bug or an idea, write to hello@frictionx.app.
How it is paid for
Friction is free to use. The hosting, the database and the cloud browser cost real money, so the site may show advertising from Google AdSense on its public pages, such as the blog. Ads never change the timer, the lessons or your data. How ads and cookies work is explained in the Privacy Policy and the Cookie Policy.
Where AI is used, and where it is not
Lessons, their questions and the Debrief are plain rules and computed text, never AI. AI appears in only three labelled places: demos for lesson topics without a built-in one, an optional Ask AI window you open and type into, and a check that helps the Browser window block games and short-form social media. The articles on the blog are written with AI and published automatically, and each one says so.
Your data
Everything you make (sessions, notes, settings, credits) is kept in your own browser. There is no account. See the Privacy Policy for the few things that do leave your browser, and how to erase them.