This content originally appeared on HackerNoon and was authored by Imperative
\ Hank Green’s new app [Focus Friend]() helps you focus by having an adorable knitting bean “work alongside you” while you stay off your phone. If you start scrolling, the timer stops, your bean’s knit unravels—and the poor critter looks sad. This guilt-based twist on the Pomodoro method turned productivity into a weirdly wholesome experience.
Launched in late July, Focus Friend shot to #1 on the iOS App Store, surpassing even ChatGPT and TikTok (Fast Company). It’s free, contains no ads or data tracking (Google Play), and leans heavily on cozy visuals and guilt-trip gimmicks to help users reclaim their attention. Now, the internet is full of memes, heartfelt user stories, and lots of CUTE.
42 Real Internet Reactions
- "The Focus Friend app from entrepreneur Hank Green is all about an adorable bean that needs to get its knitting done." – Inc. Magazine on X
- "Want to stop doomscrolling? Let a cute knitting bean guilt-trip you into focus instead." – DesignTAXI
- "Focus Friend swapped my screen time for bean time." – Zachary Brown, The Verge
- "Hank Green’s new app Focus Friend is taking over the App Store — and it’s powered by a sock-making bean that gets sad if you scroll TikTok." – Trending on X
- "If you fail, you will make an anthropomorphic bean very sad, because its knitting project depends on your ability to stay focused." – Amanda Silberling, TechCrunch
- "…the best idea I ever had." – Hank Green on TikTok
- "Everyone stop downloading ChatGPT for just a second, okay?" – Hank Green on Threads
- "This doesn’t seem possible." – Hank Green on X
- "It’s about letting people be in control of their attention, not selling their attention to someone else." – Hank Green on TikTok
- "The mobile ad ecosystem kinda blows." – Hank Green on Bluesky
- "It’s genuinely absurd that my brother, vertical video sensation Hank Green, has the sixth most popular app in the world right now. (Good app, too.)" – John Green on X
- "Wait!!!! What in the ADHD is this!? Immediately downloading." – Glo Atanmo on Threads
- "Focus Friend is more popular than Google 😌." – Hank Green on X
- "New #1 app just overtook ChatGPT and Google — and it’s extremely cute." – Yahoo News
- "Focus Friend has crossed 500K installs… It’s the #1 downloaded iOS app overall." – Appfigures
- "Focus Friend has kept me from a Procrastination Doomscroll™ with pretty good success so far." – Reddit user
- "I didn’t want to be the monster interrupting my poor bean’s focus, nor did I want to let Hank Green down." – Reddit user
- "My bean is named Chickpea!" – Reddit
- "I just named mine Refrito ’cause he’s a pinto bean. I’m uncreative as hell lol." – Reddit
- "Smurmins L. Barg… I’m skeptical about his potential to get a lot of decor with me at the reins…" – Reddit
- "It’s adorable! I love my bean — I’m so proud of their socks. They work so hard!" – Tumblr
- "It’s like practicing healthy boundaries, but with myself." – Tumblr
- "Hah shoot – I grabbed this, tried it once, thought it would be super helpful, and never launched it again. Oopsie!" – Reddit
- "Once I close them they don’t exist anymore. It’s a cute idea, I guess." – Reddit
- "So many productivity apps are overwhelming – this is perfect in its simplicity." – Google Play review
- "Just using this app for one day has cut my screen time in half. I love my little bean and earning socks!" – Google Play review
- "I have ADHD and this has been helping so much. It’s cute and works great!" – App Store review
- "You made us a 2025 version of a Tamagotchi." – TikTok commenter
- "It’s part Tamagotchi, part therapy, all Gen Z bait." – Social post
- "4th place in the downloads, jfc. I think people are starved for simple and honest softwares with no evil schemes and data stealing." – Tumblr
- "Reblog to make ChatGPT lose to a cute knitting bean." – Tumblr
- "I love this little app! … helps me not pick up my phone…and end up awake until 2:00 am." – Google Play review
- "I’ve used it to study my class work, and even turned off the TV to listen to the calming bean music." – Google Play review
- "The app is limited like Neko Atsume – sweet, simple, to the point." – App Store review
- "I appreciate the amount of designs and the general lack of a paywall." – App Store review
- "Hm, I tried it out… I can just switch apps (I’m on Android) and let it run in the background…" – Reddit
- "I love the fact that the timer keeps going if you have it in the background… this feature makes it usable for me." – Reddit
- "It’s super cute and I started trying it today… though I’ll likely get bored of this one too, it is much cuter [than other apps]. That said, I love Hank Green, and I hope more folks find it helpful!" – Reddit
- "Don’t worry, lil bean, I’ll stay off Reddit for you." – Meme on X
- "Who knew a knitting bean could double as a mindfulness coach?" – Tumblr
- "Cheering on a productivity tool like it’s the home team in a sports final? That’s new." – Tumblr
- "A knitting bean has done the impossible – it got the internet to focus, even if just for a few sock-filled minutes at a time." – Meta comment
Conclusion
From guilt-tripping beans to meme-able focus tools, the internet’s reaction to Focus Friend is charmingly chaotic. Verified reporters praise its cozy ingenuity. Users relate to the gentle incentive. Celebrities and influencers marvel at Hank Green’s ability to make productivity adorable. Even the skeptics can’t help but smirk—and maybe stay off their phones a bit longer. Because somehow, a little knitting bean named Focus Friend has become the cutest alarm clock we didn’t know we needed.
This content originally appeared on HackerNoon and was authored by Imperative
Imperative | Sciencx (2025-08-22T17:05:56+00:00) WTF is Focus Friend App? What 42 Real Internet People Think. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/08/22/wtf-is-focus-friend-app-what-42-real-internet-people-think/
Please log in to upload a file.
There are no updates yet.
Click the Upload button above to add an update.