Earn

What can you earn screen time with?

Five things: minutes in a productive app, steps, a workout or any brisk minute, a meditation session, and time in daylight. App minutes come from Screen Time and the rest from Apple Health, with nothing to log. Each can unlock your apps for the day or bank minutes for later, and one rule can use several at once.

Ways to earn

Pick the one you already do, or the one you keep meaning to.

📚

A productive app

Minutes with the app open on screen: Kindle, Duolingo, Anki, GoodNotes, any app you choose. Time in the background earns nothing.

From Screen Time Productive apps, and what counts in each → 🚶

Steps

Your iPhone counts them on its own, no watch needed. A step goal for the day, or every 100 steps banks a minute.

From Apple Health Lock Instagram until you've hit your steps → 🏃

A workout

Any workout saved to Apple Health from any app: Strava, Nike Run Club, Peloton, Hevy, the Watch. Or any brisk minute an Apple Watch notices, Start button or not.

From Apple Health Earn your screen time with exercise → 🧘

A meditation session

A completed session from Headspace, Calm, Waking Up, Insight Timer or any app that shares with Apple Health. Read from Health, not the screen, because most sits happen with the screen off.

From Apple Health Put the sit before the scroll → ☀️

Time in daylight

Measured by an Apple Watch on your wrist, Series 6 or SE 2 and later. No Watch, no daylight goal; a step goal is the outdoor goal that works on iPhone alone.

From Apple Health, Apple Watch only How daylight is measured → ✍️

Anything Apple Health can't see

A paper book, an instrument, a paper journal: add it as a habit you check off yourself. And if Health missed a walk or a sit, you can log it from the rule and it counts right away.

On the honor system What tracks itself, and what doesn't →

Two shapes

Unlock the day, or bank it.

Every one of the five can work either way. And one rule can hold several ways to earn the same apps: reading and a walk, with either one opening the apps or both required. In a balance, every way fills the same balance at its own rate.

Unlock for the day

Do the thing, and the apps open on their own for the rest of the day. Tomorrow morning the slate resets and the good thing comes first again.

Strava A workout → Apps open all day
Kindle 20 min read → Apps open all day

Bank minutes

Minutes earned become minutes of scroll at a rate you pick, from three for one to one for three. The balance counts down while you use the apps, and it can roll over day to day.

Headspace 10 min sit → 30 min of scroll
🚶 3,000 steps → 30 min banked

By app

The ones people ask about by name.

KindleReadingLock Instagram until you've read, in Kindle, Apple Books or any reading app. DuolingoDuolingoKeep TikTok locked until you've done your Duolingo. Babbel, Pimsleur and Busuu too. AnkiAnkiYour review minutes open your apps. Minutes, not cards: Tonic never sees the deck. StravaRunningToday's run unlocks the feed, from any app that saves to Apple Health.

Apps people earn with

The apps people have named, most common first.

Apple never tells Tonic which app you picked, so Tonic only knows a name when you choose to give it one. These are the apps people have named. Any app you pick works the same way.

What doesn't earn, so you know before you set it up.

Not counted

  • An app in the background, or audio with the screen off. Only the app on screen counts.
  • Audiobooks and podcasts: listening happens with the screen off.
  • A Kindle e-reader: a separate device, invisible to Tonic.

Not offered

  • Sleep. You can track it, but it cannot unlock apps, because you cannot choose to sleep in the moment.
  • Daylight without an Apple Watch. Nothing else can measure it.
  • Push-ups, reps or anything counted by camera. A paper book or an instrument is a habit you check off yourself.

Quick answers

Do I need an Apple Watch?

No for most of it. Your iPhone counts steps on its own, app minutes come from Screen Time, workouts come from any fitness app that saves to Apple Health, and meditation comes from your meditation app. An Apple Watch adds two things: brisk minutes you never pressed Start on, and time in daylight, which only the Watch can measure.

Can I earn with more than one thing?

Yes. One rule can hold several ways to earn the same apps, for example 20 minutes of reading and a walk. For a daily unlock you choose whether either one opens the apps or both are needed. In a balance, every way fills the same balance at its own rate.

Do I have to log anything or take proof?

No. Tonic reads the activity your phone and watch already record, and app minutes from Screen Time. When the goal is reached it notices in the background and unlocks the apps itself, usually within a minute; the exact timing is up to iOS.

Does sleep count?

No. You can track sleep as a goal, but it cannot unlock apps, because you cannot choose to sleep in the moment the way you can choose to walk or read.

What does it cost?

Free to start: lock two apps and earn from one source, a productive app or one Apple Health activity, for as long as you like. Tonic Unlimited covers your whole phone for $29.99 a year or $9.99 a month, with the first 7 days free.

How earning works, step by step → · Which trackers and watches work

Checked against the app on September 28, 2026.

Start with two apps and one way to earn.

1
Pick the apps that get in your wayInstagram, TikTok, the one that always goes first.
2
Pick one of the fiveA chapter, a walk, a workout, a sit, some time outside. Tonic tracks it for you.
3
The good thing first, then the feedAdd a second way to earn whenever you like. They share the same rule.
Get Tonic free Free to start · no account needed · iPhone and iPad, iOS 17.4 or later