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Focus Friend

app · in 14 videos (2025–2026)

Hank's app, made with developer Bria, in which a bean knits socks while you stay off your phone; it is free, with no ads and no data tracking. It became the most popular app in the United States and the Google Play Store's 2025 app of the year, also winning Apple's social impact award, and Hank keeps adding rooms and features.

By: Hank Green · Within: John Bean

Videos by year: 2025: 5 · 2026: 9

Threads

Also named in the threads: Hank's 'million dollar idea' phone calls to John (2013)

Often together

What comes up in the same parts of the videos; the number is how many parts.

Bizarre Beasts (2) · Google (5) · hankschannel (4) · Dear Hank and John (3) · online advertising (2) · social media (2) · Crash Course (4) · Project for Awesome (5) · Awesome Socks Club (2) · Good Store (2)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

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
    • 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
    • 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
    • John recommends Focus Friend for kids going back to school and calls its design and illustration top-notch. — 00:01:25
    • 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
    • John says that apart from forcing him to reckon with his own mortality, Focus Friend is pretty great. (playful) — 00:03:38
    • John genuinely congratulates Hank on having the number one app, then goes back to writing with Focus Friend. — 00:04:15
  • 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
    • 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
  • 2025-12-09 · 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
  • …and 9 statements more in 2025 — all statements of 2025

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
    • 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
    • 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
  • 2026-02-13 · 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
  • 2026-10-23 · 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
    • 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
  • 2026-10-30 · 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
  • …and 6 statements more in 2026 — all statements of 2026