Brick Review: Can This Tiny Plastic Device Really Fix My Doomscrolling?

• Brick is a physical NFC device that blocks distracting apps on your phone, and the only way to unblock them is to tap it again physically
• It costs $92 (but there’s also a shipping fee)
• Unlike software blocker apps, there’s no override setting on your phone; the friction is what helps keep you disciplined 
• Where you keep the Brick determines how well it works, and the more inconvenient the location, the better
• It has some bugs and limitations worth knowing about before you buy

I’ve known for years that I spend too much time on my phone (and specifically, social media). I’ve tried basically everything to fix it. Screen Time limits on my iPhone that I ignore on autopilot, app blockers that live on the same device they’re trying to keep me off, brief periods of deleting Instagram entirely before reinstalling it forty-eight hours later. Nothing has stuck, and for a long time I’d convinced myself that this was just a me problem. 

But my inability to stop doomscrolling isn’t entirely my own fault. Social media platforms are deliberately engineered to be hard to put down (the infinite scroll, the variable reward loop, the notifications timed to pull you back in).

According to a 2026Global Digital Trends Report, Australians are now spending an average of nearly 20 hours a week on social media and almost six hours a day online overall. So, I’m not alone.

The complicating factor is that I’m a content creator and writer, so being online is part of the job, which makes it difficult to just put the phone in a drawer. I need to be on my phone, but not before bed, or across the morning when I’m getting ready, while I’m having a conversation with someone, or increasingly, while I’m watching TV. 

The scrolling while watching TV was the catalyst for me deciding enough was enough – I needed to break free from my social media/phone addiction.

So when Brick started appearing all over my feeds (which, yes, I’m aware of the irony), I was sceptical but curious, keen to give it a go and see if this tiny piece of plastic was the cure I’d been looking for.

TLDR: What is the Brick Device?

Brick is a small, grey NFC (Near Field Communication) device. It’s fits neatly into your palm, is magnetic, and pairs with a companion app on your phone. You choose which apps you want blocked, and when you’re ready to lock yourself out, you open the app and tap your phone against the Brick. The selected apps immediately disappear. To get them back, you have to physically locate the Brick and tap again.

The app was created with the idea that you can’t use software to fight software – a low tech solution to a very modern problem – and the big point of difference with Brick is the physical distance between you and the ability to override the app blocks. 

Setting Up the Brick

Setup takes less than five minutes. You scan the QR code, download the app, connect the device, and build your blocklist. You can create multiple profiles for different scenarios (I have one for work hours, one for evenings, and a nuclear option for days when I hand the Brick to my partner and ask him to take it to work).

Your calls and texts always stay accessible no matter what, and blocked apps don’t disappear from your home screen; they just show a message that reads “This is a Distraction. Your phone is currently Bricked,” which is somehow more effective than it sounds.

The scheduling feature is particularly useful. Rather than relying on yourself to manually tap the Brick (which requires the same willpower we’ve already established, I don’t have), you can set Brick to activate automatically at a specific time. I have mine scheduled to kick in at 9pm every night, which means I’ve made the decision once and I never have to make it again. And yep, it’s really that easy. 

What the Brick is Like to Use

Placement is everything when it comes to the Brick, and getting this right is the difference between a product that changes your habits and one that sits on your desk looking like an expensive fidget toy.

I started by keeping mine in the garage, which meant that unblocking my phone required leaving the house. The option to “Unbrick” my phone isn’t gone, but the barrier was high enough that when I felt the itch to open social media, I’d remember where the Brick was, and decide I truly couldn’t be bothered to walk to the garage. And sure enough, the itch would disappear. 

On days when I needed to be completely social-media-free, I handed the Brick to my partner and asked him to take it to work with him, which removed the possibility of accessing social media entirely.

You can also activate Brick mode remotely without the physical device by holding the in-app button for five seconds, which is handy for locking yourself before you leave the house. Deactivation, though, always requires the physical tap. 

Brick gives you five emergency unblocks per device, which are full overrides that work without the physical Brick and are there for situations where you’ve lost it or need access in a real emergency. Once those five are used up, you’ll need to email Brick’s support team to replenish them, which is the intended deterrent against using them casually. It works in theory, though I’d argue five is too generous – knowing you have that many passes in your back pocket takes some of the edge off the friction.

The Brick Review: Did it Fix My Phone Addiction?

I was nervous before I Bricked my phone for the first time. The pull of social media has always been strong for me, and I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to give up unfettered access to my comfort apps.

But the moment I tapped my phone against the Brick that first morning, I felt relieved. I expected to spend the day resisting the urge to scroll, but instead I found it surprisingly easy to stay offline. I got actual mental clarity. I got work done. During my lunch break, I sat outside in the sun and ate without any distractions – and found myself much more productive that afternoon.

When I did reach for my phone to scroll out of habit, well, I was bricked.

I used it on weekends too, locking myself out first thing in the morning to stop the automatic reach-for-phone habit before the day even started. And at night, I still kept the Brick in the garage, which meant no scrolling before bed.

Within a week of consistent use, I noticed my sleep and mood improved. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why, but I guess it’s something to do with the absence of that constant low-level anxiety, that perpetual availability, that just allowed me to be more in the present.

The Downsides of Brick 

Brick has changed my relationship with my phone in a way that nothing else has, but it’s not without issues. 

1. The most glaring one is a loophole that probably occurs to all new users within the first week. If you go into your iPhone’s Screen Time settings and turn off Brick’s access, your blocked apps come back immediately. Which, yes, is an extremely specific nightmare scenario for anyone like me, who has a history of finding their own loopholes. The good news is that Brick has a feature specifically designed for this: Strict Mode. When you enable Strict Mode, it locks your Screen Time settings and prevents you from deleting the Brick app while you’re in a session, meaning that particular escape hatch gets nailed shut. My recommendation is to treat Strict Mode as a mandatory setup step, before you turn on your first session.
2. On Android, some users report that blocked apps briefly open before closing rather than being hard-blocked, and the icons don’t grey out the way you’d expect. The NFC scanning can also be temperamental, sometimes needing a few taps before it registers, and it works better lying flat on a surface than stuck to a wall (which is worth knowing if your fridge was your strategy). 
3. There are also some documented workarounds for browser blocking, where hyperlinks in other apps can sometimes bypass the web restrictions, so Brick is generally stronger at locking apps than it is at controlling the open web.
4. My other gripe is the emergency unblocks. Five full overrides that work without the physical device sounds reasonable until you realise that just knowing they’re there changes your relationship with the friction. Personally, I used an unblock not in an emergency, but because I just really wanted to go on social media and was too lazy to walk 50 metres to Unbrick my phone. And once your 5 emergency Unbricks are used, getting them replenished simply means emailing support. 

One last thing: Brick only works on your phone. If your version of doomscrolling migrates seamlessly to your laptop the moment your phone is locked, it’s not going to help you there. It’s a phone-specific solution, and if your screen time problem lives across multiple devices, you might need something like a social media block app running alongside it to cover your bases.

Brick vs the App-Blocking Alternatives

	Cost	Platform	Physical barrier	Can you bypass it?
Apple Screen Time	Free	iPhone only	No	Yes – “Ignore Limit” is right there
Android Digital Wellbeing	Free	Android only	No	Yes – “Pause for now” does the same damage
Opal	$26/month or $130/year.	Phone + desktop + browser	No	Yes – software on your phone, motivated you will find a way
Freedom	$60/year or $299 one off fee	Phone + desktop + browser	No	Harder, but still software-based
Brick	One-time fee of $92	iPhone + Android	Yes	Not without walking to get it

Scroll horizontally to view full table

Final Verdict: Is This $92 Piece of Plastic Worth It?

After trying Apple Screen Time and other social media blocking apps, I found Brick to be the best solution to help me curb my social media usage. Moving the override somewhere physical was apparently the solution I needed (must be lazier than I thought I was). The physical barrier turned a reflex into a decision, and most of the time, when it became a decision, my answer was no, I don’t actually need to go on social media right now. 

It’s not a perfect product, and at $92, it’s a real ask for a piece of hardware this minimal, but I think paying once beats paying indefinitely for an app that you can still override.

If you’ve already tried the willpower approach, and you’ve found a way around all of the social media blocking apps (which, honestly, most of us have) Brick is the first thing I’ve used that addresses the architecture of the problem rather than just adding another layer of the same one.

Brick Device FAQs

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DISCLOSURE: This writer was gifed a Brick for the purposes of this review. Read Man of Many’s affiliate and disclosures policy here.