"I was in the middle of an important client meeting when my boss caught me swiping on Tinder," recalls Ondrej Zak, co-founder and CEO of Zario, reflecting on the time when he was addicted to his smartphone. “It was an embarrassing moment for sure,” says Zak for whom this came as a wakeup call and started working on an app that helps reduce screen time. “I was addicted to my phone for quite some time until I realised that I had a problem because my parents and my friends were telling me. But I never admitted it and always told them I work in digital innovation and build digital products, and hence I spent more time on my phone,” says Zak. Zak, who co-founded the Zurich-based startup alongside Killian Chiao, says he possibly tried every tool available on a modern smartphone to keep his addiction in check, but nothing really worked. “I asked my best friend to set up parental controls for my phone, but I eventually redownloaded the apps that I had deleted or found workarounds,” Zak said, adding that he wanted to reduce screen time, but the bad habits were so strong that they always pulled him back and kept him glued to his smartphone. "When I was off the phone for some time, I was almost getting nervous about not checking it. There was always a constant tension and anxiety about it. I really felt I was going crazy,” he continues. It was only when Killian recommended Zak to pick up "Indistractable" by Nir Eyal that he started to understand how these apps work which gradually helped him change his phone habits. But soon, Zak realised that phone addiction was a global problem, and many young people were addicted to their smartphones. "If tools like screen time controls don't really help people reduce their time on phones significantly, then it’s a problem that should be solved; it should be easier for people than it was for me to get rid of addiction." Around the time the pandemic was at its peak, Zak and Chiao left their jobs and started working on the first prototypes. This was well before the duo launched the Zario app in 2022. Initially, they developed a chatbot that taught people how to use their phones in a better way using different challenges. Zak tested the chatbot on WhatsApp and later brought it to Telegram. Based on the feedback they received, Zak and Chiao brought in a CTO to the company, and with his help, work on Zario began. Zak says the Zario app has been developed closely after consulting a professor of behavioural addictions at the University of Zurich, who validated the approach they incorporated into building the app. To develop the app, Zak and the team initially referred to books, went through a lot of tips and tricks available on the internet, and turned them into small learning blocks to create challenges. In these challenges, people can choose the one that suits them the most based on their preferences, helping them set up their phones in a better way. For example, users of Zario can create a shortcut where they can make their phone screen black and white, making the use of social media apps boring for users. They can also move all distracting apps to a separate folder outside of the home screen so that they are not tempted to open them, and they can go through their notification settings to disable all notifications that they don't really need. Some features worked really well, while others didn't. Zak and the team took a step back and realised that there are two types of people struggling with phone addiction. One of them, whom he likes to call "the checkers," opens their phones at every available moment, whether they are waiting for the train or just have a spare second. They constantly check if anyone wrote to them or if anything happened in the world by checking the news. For them, he developed a system where every time they open a problematic app, the Zario app pops up, lets them wait for 3 seconds, and then gives them a choice whether they really want to open it or not. Additionally, there's a feature that gradually reduces the number of times you can open each app on a day or week-by-week basis. The second type of people addicted to their phones are the "scrollers," who open an app for searching something but end up spending more time on it. For them, the Zario app has a feature called "individual session limits," which, when set up, caps a session limit. For example, whenever you go to Instagram or YouTube Shorts, the Zario app pops up on top and notifies you that the time for using Instagram is up. The Zario app is available on both Android and iOS, but Zak says he has been more focused on Android due to a greater level of freedom and a larger user base. However, Zak indicated that he has been working on bringing the same level of functionalities to the iOS version as the Android one by the end of the year. Smartphones are useful tools, but they are also making people addicted to them, which is a matter of concern. Brands that design and sell these smartphones, and the social media companies that offer apps are aware of the phone addiction problem, but very few steps have been taken to address the issue. A study by the University of Derby revealed that using smartphones makes people narcissistic and, therefore, should come with a health warning. "Google has even less interest in reducing the time you spend on the phone," Zak responds, when asked why companies like Google haven't done much to curb smartphone addiction on Android, the world's most popular mobile operating system. "Google owns a vast majority or a high percentage of all ads across many different apps, including their own apps. So, the more time you spend on your phone, the more ads you see, which is the core source of income for Google," he says. However, unlike Google, Zak adds Apple is more willing to build better tools to reduce screen time on its iPhones. "I think because of the regulatory pressure, they have to build something and provide a solution, but they don't really have an incentive to build something that really works," he says. Zak calls the rise of "dumb phones" a trend when asked how some users are switching to feature phones as a way to disconnect from smartphones and social media. "In my social circle, I don't know anyone who really did that, except for one friend, but he's a very radical person." "Switching to a dumb phone from a smartphone can be a radical step, but it also means losing access to amazing tools like Google Maps or having Google always available at your fingertips," he continues. In the early phase of the launch of the Zario app, Zak found that if users completed at least ten challenges, they could reduce phone addiction by 90 per cent and screen time by 1 hour per day. However, this depends on how addicted you are to your smartphone and which apps are the culprits. "I would say in the first week, you can expect about a 10 per cent to 20 per cent reduction in screen time because that's the week where you kind of think about the topic, and it's on the top of your mind. What we aim for is about a 5 per cent reduction week by week for the problematic apps." According to Zak, two-thirds of users on the Zario app who sign up find social apps to be distracting, which is why they come to this platform. Instagram and TikTok continue to be problematic apps for many users, but some also find messenger apps distracting. In fact, gaming apps like Candy Crush also make up the second largest group of the most distracting apps. A small percentage of users also block news apps, trading and portfolio apps. In India, however, YouTube, Instagram, Chrome, Reddit, Wattpad and Netflix are the top apps marked as problematic by users. The Zario app has seen over 40,000 downloads since its launch. India, the US, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK are the top markets for Zario. As for the business model, the iOS version of the app is completely paid, but users get a seven-day free trial. However, on Android, Zak uses a freemium model where users get to block one problematic app for free, but if you want to block more apps, then you have to pay. Zak’s startup is bootstrapped, but it recently received $150,000 in equity-free support. In April, the startup got support from two innovation programs in Switzerland focused on digital health. It also became the number one in the EU startup summit. Zak said they are in the middle of closing a pre-seed round with angel investors in Switzerland for 500,000 Swiss Francs. Zak’s has an eight-member team spread across the world.
