All statements about Focus Friend

39 statements about Focus Friend in 14 videos, by upload date.

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2025

2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John says that as of recording Hank's app Focus Friend is the most popular app in the United States, ahead of ChatGPT, TikTok, Gmail and all others. — 00:00:03
2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John explains Focus Friend: a bean likes to knit but is distracted whenever you use your phone; focus mode lets it knit while you work away from the phone, and its socks decorate your room. — 00:00:30
2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John has used Focus Friend for weeks; writing a lot since getting home from tour, he says it has helped him tremendously to focus on writing instead of his phone. — 00:00:43
2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John likes that stopping focus mode makes the bean's knitting evaporate and the bean look disappointed: he doesn't want to disappoint the bean, so he leaves his distracting apps alone. (playful) — 00:01:12
2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — recommendation: John recommends Focus Friend for kids going back to school and calls its design and illustration top-notch. — 00:01:25
2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John praises that the app collects and sells no personal data, needs no login and, best of all, has no ads: a clean, free, effective app is vanishingly rare in 2025. — 00:01:30
2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John notes as a user that after a couple of weeks of constant use there are no more rooms to decorate, though Hank is working on that. — 00:01:43
2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John explains the app pays for development with optional in-app purchases, such as upgrading the bean, which he supports if it keeps the experience ad-free. — 00:01:55
2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John recalls Hank calling to say he had made the app with a developer named Bria; John thought the pitch brilliant and loved the idea of buyable beans like a Hank Bean. — 00:02:11
2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John bought the John Bean for $5.99 to support the app and jokes that it is a 70-year-old bean, though it drinks Keats & Co. coffee and its shirt is on point. (playful) — 00:02:40
2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John's main complaint: he still has a diminishing number of brown hairs, yet John Bean is entirely gray; he asks to be at least salt and pepper. (playful) — 00:02:55
2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John says that apart from forcing him to reckon with his own mortality, Focus Friend is pretty great. (playful) — 00:03:38
2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John says that ever since inventing 2D glasses Hank has been on a non-stop run of making things; each new idea gives John gray hairs, so he asks Hank to slow down. (playful) — 00:03:50
2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John genuinely congratulates Hank on having the number one app, then goes back to writing with Focus Friend. — 00:04:15
2025-08-19 · The Problem with My Brother's Hit New App — John: After the sign-off John marvels that Hank keeps doing it, wonders where his energy comes from, and calls being the tail to Hank's comet a full-time job. (playful) — 00:04:30
2025-10-10 · Maybe This is My Problem — Hank says he and his friend Bria made a focus timer app that blocks social media and was the most popular app in America; he has enjoyed these collaborations. — 00:03:29
2025-10-24 · What Will Books Become? — announcement: Hank announces Focus Friends now has a count-up timer and a second room, and a third room is in the works. — 00:05:47
2025-11-28 · Three Things! (Wait, no, actually four...) — announcement: Hank announces Focus Friend has won Google's App of the Year, outright rather than in a category, which he calls wild. — 00:03:22
2025-11-28 · Three Things! (Wait, no, actually four...) — announcement: Hank: Focus Friend has two new rooms (all users should now have the kitchen), a count-up timer and changeable wallpaper colors. (hedged) — 00:03:53
2025-11-28 · Three Things! (Wait, no, actually four...) — ask: Hank tells viewers to check out Focus Friend, which the team keeps working on. — 00:03:53
2025-12-09 · Hank Green, from A to Z — John says Focus Friend, co-created by Hank, was the Google Play Store's 2025 app of the year; it helps you use other apps less so a little bean in your phone can knit socks. — 00:00:58

2026

2026-01-02 · I Got a New Disease and I Kinda Liked It. — Hank calls Focus Friend a kind of drug: he, like many people, finds it easier to help others than himself, so staying off his phone becomes about not bothering a fake bean cat with a name and a house. — 00:03:52
2026-01-02 · I Got a New Disease and I Kinda Liked It. — announcement: Hank says he did not work out Focus Friend's psychology, it just seemed like it would work; it had a bonkers launch and year: top app in the App Store, Apple's social impact award and Google's app of the year. — 00:04:21
2026-01-02 · I Got a New Disease and I Kinda Liked It. — Hank: People tell Hank in public they use Focus Friend for everything from time with their kids to studying for the bar exam to watching a movie without their phone; he is really proud of it. — 00:04:50
2026-01-02 · I Got a New Disease and I Kinda Liked It. — Hank thinks one reason Focus Friend won app of the year is that it has no ads, no data tracking and is free. — 00:04:50
2026-02-13 · Why Isn't Everybody a Nonprofit?! — announcement: Hank says Focus Friend users can get the Baked Beans bean, and all the money from it goes to the Project for Awesome. — 00:01:05
2026-02-14 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 4! — announcement: Hank says more runes for Focus Friend are coming soon and thinks a bedroom is being beta tested, with some people having access. (hedged) — 05:43:57
2026-02-15 · Project for Awesome 2026 part 5! — announcement: Hank says Focus Friend users can get the baked beans bean, and that money also goes to the Project for Awesome; John thanks him for making a bean just for the P4A. — 04:48:58
2026-03-10 · Is Hank Green Running for Congress? — John will tell congressional offices Hank probably won't run: he is too busy making Hank's channel videos about weird fish and co-creating apps that help John focus. (playful, hedged) — 00:03:34
2026-05-26 · Hank Green Is a Fool — John's comment says Hank's money comes from books plus Hank's channel, Focus Friend, VidCon, 2-D glasses (which made money) and endless Hank projects. — creator comment
2026-10-09 · The Productivity Lie — Hank says that drive even led him to create a whole app that is basically a Pomodoro timer with a bean living in your phone. (playful) — 00:03:27
2026-10-09 · The Productivity Lie — announcement: Hank tips viewers about to buy a lifetime Focus Friend subscription to wait a week or so and turn on notifications: a sale is coming. — 00:03:33
2026-10-23 · The Best Email I Ever Got — announcement: Hank says the limited-time sale on the Focus Friend Lifetime Pro subscription, which he earlier told viewers to wait for, is on now and ends on Halloween (31 October 2026). — 00:00:00
2026-10-23 · The Best Email I Ever Got — Hank: Focus Friend winning Google's 2025 App of the Year outright, not in a category, is a huge deal but fell flat for Hank. — 00:03:28
2026-10-23 · The Best Email I Ever Got — Hank says he does not know what App of the Year means, how app ecosystems work, what the other apps are like or why Focus Friend won, only that it is a good app. — 00:03:57
2026-10-23 · The Best Email I Ever Got — Hank: Because Focus Friend launched to a lot of people, Hank says, it can run without advertising, tracking or manipulative subscription tactics, pro-social choices hard for other app makers. — 00:03:57
2026-10-23 · The Best Email I Ever Got — Hank: Bria, who co-leads Focus Friend with Hank, does care about the award: she has made apps and knows app developers, and her being in that world makes the app much better. — 00:04:42
2026-10-30 · The Last Normal Year — announcement: Hank says the Focus Friend sale ends tomorrow or the day after (31 October or 1 November 2026). (hedged) — 00:08:07
2026-10-30 · The Last Normal Year — recommendation: Hank says Focus Friend can help you have a little more control over your relationship with your phone without paying anything. — 00:08:07