We all have apps on our phone that we wish we opened a little less often, like TikTok or Reddit. Cold Turkey is an iPhone app that won’t let you open particular apps until you practice a few Spanish, French, or Japanese flash cards beforehand. This helps you fight the impulsive desire to scroll while also helping you learn a few words.
The application was made by indie developer Gustavo Nascimento, an avid language learner who likes to review words throughout the day. “The problem with reviewing flashcards on my phone is that while it’s an amazing tool, it’s also incredibly easy to get distracted by other apps,” said Nascimento. Cold Turkey is an attempt to solve both problems at once.
Getting started is easy: download the app and open it. You will be asked to enable access to Screentime and Notifications—make sure you enable both. You will also be asked which language you want to practice and which applications you want to block.
Credit: Justin Pot
After you’ve set everything up, you’ll notice that the icons for distracting applications are semi-transparent. Try to open one and you’ll be told you need to practice a language before you can open the application; a notification will also show up. Tap that notification, review a few flash cards, and you can use the app.
You can customize how many words to review in one session and how long reviewing the words unlocks the app. You can also change the language anytime.
Cold Turkey is free if you close a pop-up asking you to upgrade. The free version allows you to block two individual apps and one entire category of apps. The paid version, which costs $7 a month, $20 a year, or a one-time $60 fee, lets you block as many apps or categories as you want while also allowing you to block websites.
Having this set up for a couple of days, I find that it introduces just enough friction to reduce my habitual scrolling on Mastodon and Reddit. Sometimes I go through the effort and review the cards; sometimes I decide to do some long-form reading instead. Either way, I feel like the application is helping me, so I’m probably going to stick with it. Give it a shot if this combination of language learning and distraction blocking appeals to you.
