Free trial
3 days
- The whole app unlocked for 3 days
- On the yearly plan, nothing to pay today
- A reminder before it ends, if you allow notifications
- Cancel before day 3 and you pay nothing
Live Smile to Unlock
A real smile opens your apps.
Pick the apps you overscroll. Opening one asks for a real smile, then it stays open for about 15 minutes. All on device, no account, no ads.
- No ads, no account
- Smile detection stays on device
- Works offline in 31 languages
- 3 day free trial
Point your iPhone camera here
Download on the App Store
A real smile is the key
Open a protected app and Smile to Unlock asks for a quick smile break. The front camera looks for a natural smile - no big grin needed - and detection runs entirely on your iPhone. No photo is uploaded, ever.
A daily goal you can smile at
Home greets you with a goal ring - three smiles a day keeps it filled, and practice smiles count too. Your protected apps sit on a hand drawn shelf, and streaks grow from smiles and skipped scrolls alike, with milestones at 7, 30, 100 and 365 days.
Protection that plays fair
Pick the apps and whole categories you want a little distance from, with Apple's own Screen Time picker. After a smile, an app stays open for an honest window - about 15 minutes, about 30 minutes or about an hour. Each app can have its own window or follow your default.
Your week, drawn by hand
Every unlock builds your streak and simple insights - smiles this week, your smiliest time of day, your longest run. The whole app is drawn rather than templated, so the chart looks like something from a notebook instead of a dashboard.
Your smiles, cut into a little film
Every smile is saved so you can look back on it, on your phone only. Pick five or more and Smile to Unlock cuts them into a short film with a few words, made entirely on your device and yours to keep or share.
PRIVATE BY DESIGN
Your reading stays yours
Smile detection runs entirely on your iPhone and no photo or face data ever leaves it. Smile photos are kept on your device only, and you can switch them off, remove one, or delete them all at any time in Settings. No account, no ads, no analytics.
Simple pricing
Premium
3 days free, then monthly / yearly
- Protect any number of apps and whole categories
- Unlock windows of about 15 or 30 minutes, or an hour
- Insights, your smiliest hours and the 30 day chart
- No ads, no account, works offline
Cancel anytime in your App Store settings.
Questions & answers
How much does Smile to Unlock cost?
Smile to Unlock is a subscription app and it needs a subscription to use. There is no free tier and no limited free version. You start with a 3 day free trial on the yearly plan, which gives you the whole app, and there is also a monthly plan with no trial. The App Store page and the paywall inside the app show the current price for your country, so you see exactly what you will be charged before you buy, and yearly costs less over a year than paying month by month. There are no ads on either plan.
Does my smile or a photo of me ever leave my phone?
No. Smile detection runs entirely on your iPhone, and no photo or face data is ever uploaded. Smile to Unlock does keep a photo of each smile, including the one from calibration, so you can look back on them. Keeping them is on from the start, the camera permission prompt says so before the camera ever opens, and you can switch it off in Settings under Keep your smile photos, remove any single photo, or delete them all. Deleting photos never affects your counts or your streak. The photos live only in the app's own storage, never in your photo library. The one exception is a smile film you make yourself: if you tap save, that video goes to your photo library, and only then.
How does the unlock window work?
After a smile, the app stays open for a window before it asks again - about 15 minutes, about 30 minutes or about an hour. We say about because iOS relocks apps on its own schedule and cannot relock sooner than roughly 15 minutes, so Smile to Unlock promises honest windows instead of exact minutes. You can set one default window in Settings and give any app its own.
What if the camera cannot see me, or I cannot smile right now?
Turn on Hold to unlock in Settings and a press and hold button appears whenever a smile cannot be read: straight away when VoiceOver or Switch Control is on, when the camera is unavailable or busy such as during a call, and after a few unsuccessful tries. It counts as a normal unlock and no photo is involved. It is off to begin with, because with it off a real smile is the only way through, so turn it on if you want a guaranteed way past.
Does Smile to Unlock need the internet?
No. Smile to Unlock works fully offline - the smile detection, your protected apps, your streaks, and your photos all live on your device, and there is no account to create. The only thing that needs a connection is starting, buying or restoring a subscription, which goes through Apple.
How do I cancel?
Premium is an auto-renewing subscription billed through your Apple ID. Cancel anytime in your App Store settings under Subscriptions, or tap Manage subscription inside Smile to Unlock's settings. Cancel during the 3 day trial and you are not charged. Otherwise you keep the app until the end of the period you paid for, and refunds are handled by Apple under their policies.
Get Smile to Unlock on the App Store
No ads, no account · Smile detection stays on device · Works offline in 31 languages · 3 day free trial