Bloom Card vs. Brick: My verdict after trying both gadgets to cut screen time

Bloom Card

4 / 5

Very good

 on Google.

I’m on track to have spent 16 years of my life glued to my phone screen. That’s what Bloom, developed a tap-able NFC-enabled card that creates a physical boundary between the user and their dopamine-triggering device. 

I’ve been using the Brick since last October and have found it to be a straightforward way to remove distractions as I work, leisure, and sleep. But it’s not perfect. There are a few bugs, and the app is quite minimalist. 

A friend of mine and fellow Brick user told me about the Bloom Card and gave me one of his own. He said it addresses some of the Brick’s flaws, so I tested it out for a few weeks. 

Bloom vs. Brick

First things first: the Bloom Card is $39. You tap your phone to it, and it blocks distracting apps. The differences become more apparent in each app’s software, as the hardware of an NFC-enabled card or block is practically the same. Bloom’s app has a better user experience, though, with a Friends tab, for example, that incorporates social accountability.

Also: I bricked my iPhone to prevent doomscrolling – and accidentally fixed my life

You start by selecting the apps you want to block and creating disabling schedules, a process I think Bloom does better. Bloom has a dedicated tab for creating regimented schedules, with default schedules already created, so a lot of the work you’d have to do to put in these schedules on Brick is already handled for you. 

For example, there’s a Morning Zen schedule you can turn on from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. that I quite like, a Deep Work schedule from 10 a.m. to noon, and a Wind Down from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., among others. 

Within each schedule, you can enable or disable certain apps. If I turn on Deep Work, I can enable social media apps during the workday (as I use them for my job) but disable messaging apps, which tend to distract me. For Wind Down, I disable social media and messaging apps. 

Also: How I turned my regular tablet into a full-fledged e-reader (whether it’s an iPad or Android)

Ironically, for a device that’s meant to help you disengage with your phone, the app was very engaging. As I mentioned, there’s a Friends tab where I can track my focus time against my friends. You can also see a Global leaderboard, where users are charting their focus for up to 458 days through Bloom. Lastly, there’s the Insights feature, which displays your screen time, daily pickups, and focus time through Bloom. 

Why I (temporarily) deleted the app