Rep counting
Hit your daily limit and your apps lock. The only key is a few push-ups, counted live by your camera. Finish the set, and your whole day resets.
100% free to use. No subscription, no paywall, nothing to cancel.
Everyone says they're going to lock in. Almost nobody does.
100% free
Meridian costs nothing to use. No subscription, no paywall, no trial that runs out.
~1 min
The cost of a reset. A short set of reps, and your limit goes back to zero.
0 frames
Nothing leaves your phone. Pose detection runs on-device and discards every frame.
It's on the App Store now, and it's free. A couple of minutes to set up, then your limit means something.
Requires an iPhone. Meridian uses Apple's Screen Time API, so the apps and categories it shields are the ones you choose.
How it works
No snooze button, no "just five more minutes." The only way through is the work.
The apps that eat you alive lock behind a shield. No snooze button.
Push-ups, counted live and on-device. A minute of real effort.
Your timer resets to zero. Not bonus minutes, the full day, yours again.
Meridian's home screen is a sun at its meridian. Full and glowing when your day is fresh. As your screen time burns down, the sun sets. When it's gone, your apps are shut.
Doing your reps brings it back up. That's the whole loop, and there's no way to skip it.
Your camera never leaves your phone. Frames are read for joint angles and thrown away, so nothing is recorded and nothing is uploaded.
The obvious question
A few reps. A minute of effort. That's the whole ask.
Not because it's hard, but because almost nobody will drop and do push-ups in the middle of a library.
The friction is the point. That tiny bit of effort is what breaks the reflex.
Push-ups ship at launch. Squats, plank, and steps land shortly after.
Add your friends, stack your Peaks, and watch the leaderboard. Keep them honest, and they'll keep you climbing.
You set your own level too. Beginner through high, with thresholds that adapt as you get stronger.
A bad reel costs nothing. Scroll past it, another's already loading. No wait, no effort, just the next hit. Your brain starts expecting every reward to work that way.
Then you try to lock in. Grades. A recruiting cycle. Something you actually want to be great at. All of it takes months before it pays off. There's no dopamine at hour one.
So the easy thing always wins the moment you're tired. That's not a willpower problem. It's a design problem. Your phone is built to be easier than anything worth doing.
Meridian puts a small cost between you and the easy hit, so the easy hit stops being free.
Why we built it
A bad reel costs nothing. Scroll past it, another's already loading. Your brain adapts to that, and it starts expecting every reward to work that way.
Then you try to lock in. Grades. A recruiting cycle. A craft you actually want to be great at. And you hit the wall every one of those has: it takes months before it pays off. There's no dopamine at hour one. So the thing rewarding you every ten seconds always wins the moment you're tired, bored, or stuck.
That's not a willpower problem. It's a design problem. Your phone is built to be easier than anything worth doing.
Meridian doesn't ask you to have more willpower. It puts a small cost between you and the easy hit. A few reps, not because the exercise is hard, but because almost nobody will drop and do push-ups in the middle of a library.
Every set buys back time. Real time, reset to zero, yours to spend on the things that don't reward you instantly but are actually worth doing.
The sun doesn't wait. Neither should the work that matters to you.
Yes. Meridian is 100% free to use. No subscription, no paywall, and no trial that quietly expires.
Yes. Meridian is on the App Store now, free, for iPhone.
Push-ups for now. Squats, plank, and steps are already built into the app as locked options and will be turned on in a coming update.
You can. Meridian isn't a prison, it's a cost. The point isn't to make cheating impossible, it's to make the easy hit stop being free. One minute of friction is enough to break the reflex for most people.
No. Pose detection runs entirely on-device. Frames are read for joint angles and thrown away immediately, so nothing is recorded, stored, or uploaded.
You set your own level, from beginner through high, and the rep threshold adapts to you. More exercise options are on the way.
Any of them. Meridian uses Apple's Screen Time API, so you pick the apps and categories yourself, whether that's Instagram, TikTok, games, or whatever else is eating your day.