Screen time they actually earned.

Set the quests. Your kid finishes them. You approve with a PIN. Earned minutes unlock the apps you both agreed on, and the nightly fight is over.

Join early access See the loop

Android · offline · no account · no ads

accounts your kid has to create

minutes banked in a typical day

to approve a finished task

Bed made+15 min approved

6-day streak+10 bonus minutes

9:41

Hi, Mia

Screen time to spend

45min

1206 daysLevel 4

Today's quests3 left

Make your bed+15 min · 10 coins

Read 20 minutes+20 min · 15 coins

Homework+25 min · 20 coins

Approvals

0 waiting

Mark a quest done on the kid's phone, then approve it here.

Nothing waiting

You're all caught up.

Enter parent PIN

Any 4 digits works in this preview

Spending time

45:00

remaining in this session

Unlocked now

Games

Video

Draw

Still locked

Chat

Store

Browser

Bedtime is 8:30 PM. Reward apps lock automatically, with a 5-minute warning.

Live preview. Tap Done on a quest, then approve it on the parent phone.

Make your bed +15mRead a chapter +20mFinish homework +25mEmpty the dishwasher +10mWalk the dog +20mPractice piano +30mLaundry away +10mTidy your room +15mTry a new vegetable +10mWater the plants +5mBring in the mail +5mHelp with groceries +15mMake your bed +15mRead a chapter +20mFinish homework +25mEmpty the dishwasher +10mWalk the dog +20mPractice piano +30mLaundry away +10mTidy your room +15mTry a new vegetable +10mWater the plants +5mBring in the mail +5mHelp with groceries +15m

One loop. That's the whole app.

No monitoring feed. No restriction dashboard. No guilt. A deal your kid can see, understand, and win, five steps deep and no deeper.

You write the quests

Tasks worth minutes, coins, or both. Set once, repeat daily or weekly.

Your kid taps Done

Optional photo proof. The value shows up front, so there is no haggling after.

You approve with a PIN

Four digits, two seconds. No login, no second account, no missed notification.

Minutes land in the bank

+45min

Nothing expires. They can save a whole week for one long Saturday.

Apps unlock, then close

Only the reward apps you picked. At bedtime Earnest locks them, gently.

See how it works, step by step

Two currencies, one honest deal

Both earned the same way. Spent on very different things, which is exactly what makes the system feel fair to a nine-year-old.

Minutes

45min

Minutes buy screen time. Earned by finishing quests, spent to unlock the reward apps you chose. They never expire and they never inflate.

GamesVideoCreative appsMusic

How the Time Bank works

Coins

120

Coins buy real-world rewards that you set. Kids save toward something they picked themselves, which turns chores into a plan instead of a punishment.

Ice creamMovie nightFive dollarsLate bedtime

See the Reward Shop

Everything you need, nothing you don't

Eight pieces make the loop work. There is no ninth screen, no upsell tier, and no feature that exists to harvest something.

Time Bank

The heart of it. Earned minutes bank up and get spent to unlock reward apps. Watching that number grow is the whole motivation engine.

Learn more

Quests

One-off, daily, or weekly. Categories, values, and optional photo proof.

Learn more

Reward Shop

Coins buy the rewards you define, movie night, ice cream, five bucks.

Learn more

Schedules and bedtime

School hours and bedtime lock reward apps. Override is one PIN away.

Learn more

Streaks and levels

XP, levels, daily streaks with bonus minutes, and badges worth chasing.

Learn more

Privacy first

On-device. No data collection. PIN hashed with PBKDF2.

Learn more

Multiple kids

Separate quests, banks, and rules per child, on one device or several.

Learn more

Enforcement

Basic mode works anywhere. Optional Max mode blocks uninstalls.

Learn more

Most parental controls take time away. Earnest hands it over.

Same category, opposite premise. Everything below is what Earnest ships in early access, next to the tools most families try first.

	Earnest	Screen Time / Family Link	Monitoring apps
Core idea	Kids earn time	Parents ration time	Parents watch activity
Kid has agency	Yes, it's the point	No	No
Reads messages / browsing	Never	Some	Yes
Child account required	No account at all	Yes	Yes
Works offline	Fully	Partly	No
Ties chores to screen time	Built in	No	No
Price in early access	Free	Free	See vendor

See the full comparisons

No ads. No account. Nothing leaves the phone.

Earnest ships without the patterns most kids' apps are built on. Four promises, in plain terms, with the ceiling stated honestly underneath.

Works offline

Everything runs on the device. No cloud account, nothing to sign into, nothing to sync.

No account required

No email, no profile for your kid, no login wall standing between you and the app.

No ads, ever

A kids' app with nothing inside it trying to sell your child something.

No content interception

Earnest doesn't read messages or browse for you. It unlocks apps and counts time.

Honest about the ceiling: Basic mode works on any Android phone with zero setup. Blocking uninstalls and locking the whole device need an optional Max protection mode you turn on yourself, and it is never required. Read more on the enforcement page.

Fair questions

The ones parents ask in the first five minutes, answered without marketing hedging.

Won't my kid just game the system?

They can only claim what you wrote, and nothing counts until you approve it with your PIN. Photo proof is optional per quest for the ones that matter. Gaming this system looks exactly like doing the chores.

Does this need a second phone or a family account?

No. Earnest runs on your child's Android device and you approve with a PIN on that same device. No account, no second app, nothing to configure in a web portal.

What happens when they run out of minutes?

The reward apps lock. Everything else, calls, camera, school apps, anything you didn't mark as a reward, keeps working. You can grant minutes manually any time.

Can they uninstall it?

In Basic mode, a determined kid can. Optional Max protection mode uses Android device owner to block uninstalls, but it needs a deliberate setup you opt into. We'd rather say that than pretend.

Is there an iPhone version?

Android first. iOS restricts the app-locking APIs Earnest depends on, so an iPhone build isn't on the near roadmap. If that changes, early-access members hear first.

What does it cost?

Free during early access, no card required. Long term the plan is a one-time purchase or a modest family price, never ads, never selling data.

Be there for the first release

Earnest is Android first and free during early access. Join the list and we'll tell you the moment it's ready to install.

No spam. One email when it ships, then nothing until you ask. Free during early access, no card required.