Imates

A focus timer that doesn't leave you alone with it. Start a session and your character sits down at a desk in a shared study hall, alongside everyone who is focusing at that moment.

The same hall at 11pm: the lamps lit, the window dark blue, the same four characters at their desks — The same desk, 9am and 11pm.

Imates is said “i-mates”, as in internet mates.

Coming to Google Play. The store badge goes here when the listing is live.

The hall at dusk, four of its six desks taken

A room full of people working

When you study, your character takes a desk in the hall, and so does everyone else who is studying right now. You can see who is working, on what, and how long they have left, and they can see you. A timer on your own is easy to abandon. A room where other people are visibly working is harder to walk out of.

The room follows your day: morning light through the window, a pool of it on the floor in the afternoon, and at night the lamps come on. Want company you know? Make a private room and share its code.

A count-up session running in Imates, with pause and finish

Sessions that suit you

Set a length, or count up with no end. Turn on pomodoro and the breaks are handled for you. While a session runs, a live countdown sits in your notification shade and keeps ticking with the app closed. Every focused minute earns a token, and tokens buy new characters and desk pets.

Your statistics show your hours by day, week, month and year, your longest session, your streak and a calendar that fills in as you go. Agree a goal with a friend and fill the same bar together; its name is encrypted on your phone, so only the two of you can read it.

The Imates sign-in screen: Continue with Google, or use an email instead

Your account goes where you go

You sign in with Google, or with a code sent to your email: there is no password. Your calendar, sessions, minutes, tokens and everything you have earned are kept with your account, so a new phone picks up where the old one left off.

The privacy policy says exactly what is stored, and you can delete your account from the app at any time. No adverts, and nothing to subscribe to before you can use it.