Analog's Beacon Approach to Screentime Earns Calm Tech Certification

Analog is an app and a physical hub that restricts iPhone apps when a user enters a designated area or taps the device to the hub. The product was designed primarily for home use, allowing families to create phone-free zones around bedtimes, meals, or common areas without relying on anyone to manually put the phone down.

Analog is a quiet physical device intended to set healthier digital boundaries in the spaces that matter most, allowing users to place it in a room to create shared expectations that activate automatically.

Analog hub requires no subscription. When in range, phones with the app will have reduced capabilities.

We loved the exceptional design language and form factor of the Beacon and iOS app. The size of the Beacon is just the right size: large enough to be noticeable, and heavy enough not to fall over. App setup and zone creation were flawless, and the Beacon was strong enough that, during testing, arriving at the garage outside of the house was enough to trigger the phone into "dumbphone" mode.

• A single Beacon can be configured to cover an entire home, or households can deploy multiple beacons to create distinct zones for different spaces, each with its own schedule, permitted apps, and member list.

• The accompanying iOS app, available in the App Store, allows zone members to see who is participating at any given time and gives parents visibility into their children's app access across each zone.

• The hardware operates without requiring WiFi or ongoing charging, reducing the need for another thing to keep track of in the home.

Calm Tech Institute highly recommends this product for homes and families with iPhones. This product is especially ideal for families struggling with household screen time, particularly the tension between parents and children over phone use during meals, bedtimes, and shared time at home.

Additional Product Highlights:

• Shared and synchronous. Everyone participates at the same time, including parents. It creates a household norm.

• Automatic. Decide once. Analog enforces the boundary for everyone, every time, without reminders or willpower. It creates a habit.

• Built into the space. The space carries the rule. You don't have to remember to tap in and tap out. Apps automatically adjust for time and place. It feels natural.

Analog's iPhone App is powerful and easy to configure for multiple uses

The beacon's physical size and the shared group mechanic distinguish Analog from software-only screen time tools. When a Beacon is placed in a room, it creates what the company calls an Analog Zone.

Parents can then determine which apps are permitted within the zone, including setting different rules for their children's phones. Those restrictions activate automatically for everyone in the zone according to a schedule the household configures in advance, meaning the rules apply to parents and children alike rather than functioning as a top-down parental control.

Analog frames its design philosophy around the concept of pre-commitment: the idea that decisions made ahead of time reduce negotiation and second-guessing in the moment, keeping family time calmer and more present.

This positions the product less as a disciplinary tool and more as a coordination mechanism -- one that removes the need for repeated conversations about phone use by encoding household norms into the physical environment itself.

The product is currently iOS-only, sold through the company's website, and includes the app at no additional cost with a Beacon purchase.

Congratulations, Analog! We're so happy to have you in the CTI family.