Unplug FAQ
Answers about Unplug, from your first logged day to a finished plan.
Last Updated: November 11, 2026
1. General Questions
Q1: What is Unplug?
A1: A screen time calculator and digital detox planner. It shows what your daily screen time adds up to over the rest of your life as a grid of weeks, keeps a daily log of the numbers from your phone's report, sorts your apps by how they leave you feeling, has a ten-statement self-check, makes a day-by-day plan and times your phone-free blocks. Everything runs in your browser.
Q2: How much does it cost?
A2: Nothing. It is free, with no registration and no limit. Like every page on ZeroDataUpload, it is supported by advertising.
Q3: Do I need to install anything or create an account?
A3: No. Open the page in a modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari or Opera) on a computer, tablet or phone. Your data is kept in that browser, so there is nothing to sign in to.
Q4: Is anything I type uploaded?
A4: No. Your logged days, apps, check answers, plan and phone-free time stay on your device and are never sent to a server. The page itself loads the site's ads and analytics, as every page on the site does; the Privacy Policy explains those, and what you type in the tool is never part of them.
Q5: Can Unplug read my screen time automatically?
A5: No. A web page cannot see what other apps on your phone do. You copy the numbers from your phone's own report: Digital Wellbeing on Android, Screen Time on an iPhone. That takes about a minute each evening, and it means nothing about your phone is ever collected.
Q6: Does it work on my phone?
A6: Yes. The page works on phones, tablets and computers. Many people keep it open on a computer and copy the numbers from the phone, but you can do both on the phone.
2. Your Time
Q7: How are the years on screens worked out?
A7: Your daily screen time is multiplied by the days left until the age you expect to live to (365.25 days a year). The total is shown in years and in weeks of whole days and nights, and as a share of your waking hours, which uses the hours you sleep.
Q8: Why does it ask how long I expect to live?
A8: Because the hours left depend on it. It is your own guess, and 80 is only an example: change it to whatever you think fits. If your age is at or past the age you typed, Unplug says so instead of guessing.
Q9: What do the coloured squares mean?
A9: Each square is one week of a life, one row per year on a phone and one column per year on a wide screen. Grey squares are weeks lived, light ones weeks ahead. Your screen hours, added up, fill the last weeks of the grid in purple; the green part is what the Take back slider gives back. The framed square is this week.
Q10: Where do the books, kilometres and languages come from?
A10: They are what the same hours could be at the rates shown under each one: 6 hours for a book of about 300 pages, 5 km for an easy hour of walking, 8 hours for a night of sleep and 3 hours for an evening with people. A language close to English is counted at 700 hours of classes; the US Foreign Service Institute estimates 600 to 750. They are examples, not promises.
Q11: What is the pay figure?
A11: Optional. If you type your take-home pay and the hours you work a month, Unplug shows what an hour of your time is worth at that pay and what your screen time comes to at the same rate. It is not money you spend; it is a way to put a size on the hours.
3. Today and the Log
Q12: Where do I find the numbers to log?
A12: On Android: Settings, then Digital Wellbeing and parental controls, for screen time, unlocks and notifications per day. On an iPhone: Settings, then Screen Time, then See All App and Website Activity, then Day, for screen time, pickups, the first pickup and notifications. Menu names differ a little between phone makers and system versions.
Q13: Can I log a day I missed?
A13: Yes. Use the arrows beside the date, the keys [ and ], or tap the date to pick another day. Days in the future cannot be logged. Tapping a day in the 30-day chart opens it too.
Q14: What is the aim on Today?
A14: The daily screen time you are aiming for. Without a plan it is the aim set in Settings (3 hours at first); while a plan runs, each day has the plan's aim, which comes down step by step. Days in a row within the aim counts back from today, or from yesterday until today is logged.
Q15: What does pickups an hour mean?
A15: Your average pickups a day over the last seven days, divided by the hours you are awake, which come from the sleep hours on Your time (8 at first, so 16 hours awake).
4. Your Apps
Q16: How does Unplug decide what to do with an app?
A16: From the minutes a day, the alerts a day and how the app usually leaves you feeling. An app that leaves you feeling worse is cut back to 40 percent of its time (at least 10 minutes) when you use it 20 minutes or more, and removed when less. An app with no change gets a limit of 60 percent from 45 minutes a day, and one that leaves you feeling better a limit of 80 percent only from 2 hours a day. Limits are rounded to 5 minutes. They are suggestions.
Q17: What happens to its alerts?
A17: Alerts from people who need a quick reply stay on. Other people's messages go into a summary you read when you choose. Alerts the app sends by itself, such as offers, likes or news, are turned off, unless the app leaves you feeling better, when they go into a summary too.
Q18: Why is an app not counted?
A18: Until you say how an app leaves you feeling, Unplug suggests nothing for it, counts none of its minutes in the changes and adds no plan step for it. Pick Worse, No change or Better on its row.
Q19: Are the app names links to the apps?
A19: No. The names are only labels you type or pick from the list; nothing is opened and no app is contacted.
5. The Check
Q20: Where do the ten statements come from?
A20: From the Smartphone Addiction Scale, short version, published by Min Kwon, Dai-Jin Kim, Hyun Cho and Soo Yang in PLoS ONE in 2013. Unplug words them for adults: work or study instead of class and assignments, chats and social media instead of two named sites. Each answer counts from 1 for strongly disagree to 6 for strongly agree, so totals run from 10 to 60.
Q21: Why does Unplug not tell me whether my score is high?
A21: The study that made the scale worked with 540 school students with an average age of 14.5 in South Korea and suggested 31 for boys and 33 for girls as a point for a closer look. There is no agreed point for adults, so Unplug does not rate your score. It shows how your answers change from one check to the next, which is what you can act on.
Q22: Is the check a diagnosis?
A22: No. It is a self-check. If your phone use worries you, or it gets in the way of work, sleep or the people around you, talk to a doctor or a counsellor.
Q23: How often should I take it?
A23: Whenever you like; many people take it again after a plan or a month. A check on the same day as an earlier one replaces it. Every check is listed with its change from the one before, and each can be deleted.
6. The Plan
Q24: How is the plan made?
A24: You choose up to three areas (such as endless scrolling, constant alerts or sleep and mornings), the length, the start and the pace. Each day brings new steps, easier ones first: set-ups you do once, habits you keep and one-day tries, at most one try a day. A look back comes every seventh day and at the end. Steps from Your apps, such as a limit on one app, come first.
Q25: How does the daily aim come down?
A25: From your screen time now to your aim, in steps of 5 minutes, reaching the aim 70 percent of the way through the plan and staying there. A day's aim never goes above where you started or below your aim. Gentle aims for 20 percent less, steady for about a third less and firm for half, unless you type your own aim.
Q26: Can I change a step?
A26: Yes. The swap button next to a step today or later gives a different step of the same kind, no harder than that day allows; Undo puts the first one back. Ticks are kept on the plan, and habits carry on as keep going on the days after.
Q27: How do I put the plan in my calendar?
A27: Press Add to calendar. A calendar file is saved with one all-day entry for each day: the first new step as its title, and the day's aim, the new steps and the habits to keep going in its notes. Open it with your calendar app. Print and Copy give the same plan on paper or as plain text.
7. Phone-Free Time
Q28: How does Put the phone down work?
A28: Choose 15 minutes to 2 hours, or until you stop, and press Start. The block is counted from the clock, so it keeps counting with the screen off or the page closed. When it ends, the minutes count towards your phone-free time for the week; a block that runs past midnight counts on both days. A block shorter than a minute is not counted.
Q29: Is there a limit on an open block?
A29: Yes. A block with no set length counts at most 12 hours, so a block left running by mistake does not fill your week. Unplug says so when it stops one.
Q30: What is the urge pause?
A30: When you feel the pull to pick up the phone, I want to check my phone shows a slow wave for 90 seconds: breathe in for 4 and out for 6 with it. Afterwards you choose to keep the phone down or to check it. Many people find the pull is weaker once they have waited, and each urge you wait out is counted for the day.
8. Settings and Your Data
Q31: Can I try Unplug before typing my own numbers?
A31: Yes. Settings has Try with example data when nothing is logged yet: 24 days, six apps and a check. A banner says you are looking at example data; Clear it removes it all.
Q32: Where is my data kept, and how do I delete it?
A32: In this browser on this device, under one entry for this tool; nothing is saved on a first visit until you type, pick or start something. Delete everything, in Settings, removes it after you confirm, and the rest of the site is left alone. Data from the earlier Unplug app is brought over once. A private window or cleared browser data starts afresh.
Q33: How do I move my data to another browser?
A33: Save a backup in Settings, then Restore it in the other browser. A backup is a small file that holds everything; restoring checks each value and replaces what is in Unplug there after you confirm.
Q34: Can I use Unplug with the keyboard?
A34: Yes. The keys 1 to 5 switch views, [ and ] go to the day before and after on Today, 1 to 6 answer during the check and Backspace goes back, and Esc closes a window. Tab reaches every button and box. The keys work while the tool is in use, not while you type in a box.
Q35: How is Unplug different from the Life Discipline Tracker, the Clock and Prana?
A35: The Life Discipline Tracker scores a whole day across 23 areas of life, with screen time as a few of its items; Unplug is only about the phone, with your apps, a self-check and a plan. The Clock's timer counts down any length and rings; Unplug's phone-down timer counts the time you spend without the phone towards your week. Prana is a full breathing tool with fifteen techniques; Unplug's urge pause is one 90-second slow breath before you pick the phone up.
Still have a question?
The help page walks through every part of Unplug. For anything else, use the contact form.