01
Invite
Someone you already know.
Send one link to a partner, a roommate, a friend, your gym bro. SpotterKey never matches you with a stranger — only people you invite can join.
Coming soon to iPhone
A gym promise your phone can’t ignore.
Choose your workout days and the apps at stake. If either of you skips, the other holds the key—within rules you both agreed to.
Founding BetaFree for the first 100 activated pairs.
- Mutual, never one-sided
- Your apps, your choice
- No live location sharing
- Emergency exit always available
Try it as the Spotter
Someone you trust holds the key. Only within the rules you both set.
Alex chose the apps. The rule decided the miss. You choose from the two outcomes Alex already agreed to — that’s the whole of a Spotter’s power.
Workout missed
Alex missed Leg Day.
Their chosen apps are now shielded.
Choose what happens next
- 1
Alex picked the apps — not you.
Only the person putting something at stake can choose what it is. A Spotter never sees or edits that list.
- 2
The rule triggered the shield, not a person.
The workout window closed with no arrival at the gym. Nobody pressed a lock button; a Spotter has no such button.
- 3
You could only choose what Alex agreed to first.
Both outcomes were confirmed before the week started. Nothing can be added or made harsher after a miss.
- 4
Alex can always leave.
The emergency exit lifts the shield immediately and records a Pact Broken. SpotterKey measures the cost of backing out — it never pretends to be inescapable.
A Spotter has one power: choosing between outcomes you picked in advance. That is the entire product.
Three steps
Invite. Commit. Show up.
No training plans, no calorie logs, no coaching. SpotterKey does one thing: it makes skipping the workout you already planned cost something you actually notice.
02
Commit
Separately, and in advance.
You each pick your own workout days, your own gym, and the entertainment apps you’re willing to put at stake. Neither of you can touch the other’s rules.
03
Show up
Or your phone notices.
Arrive inside your window and stay the minimum time, and nothing happens. Skip it, and your own phone shields the apps you chose until your Spotter decides.
Your pact
Choose the workouts — and the apps you’d actually miss.
A gym pact only works if the stake is real. So you pick it yourself, before the week starts, while you still agree with your own judgement.
You choose your own stakes
Apple’s Screen Time picker runs on your device. SpotterKey receives an opaque token — never the app names, never your usage.
One gym, one window, one minimum stay
The first version keeps the contract small on purpose: fixed days, one location, one arrival window. Fewer knobs, fewer excuses.
Nobody can raise the stakes later
Once both of you confirm, neither side can add apps, extend a shield, or invent a new punishment after a miss.
Two endings
Show up and nothing happens. That’s the point.
SpotterKey is quiet on the days you keep your word. It only becomes a product on the evening you were about to talk yourself out of it.
You showed up
Everything stays unlocked.
- Two quick location checks: one on arrival, one after your minimum stay.
- No notification to your Spotter, no card to swipe, no post to make.
- The week is logged as kept, for both of you.
You skipped
Your own phone shields your own apps.
- The shield runs locally on your iPhone. No server reaches across to another device.
- Your Spotter gets one notification and only the options you approved.
- If anything goes wrong or you need out, the emergency exit releases it and records a Pact Broken.
The moment it matters
You reach for the app. It reaches back.
This is the whole product, in one screen. Not a notification you can swipe away — the thing you were about to do instead of training, holding the door shut, on the phone of the person who agreed to it.
And still: your Spotter can only pick from what you approved, and the emergency exit is one tap away inside SpotterKey.
Why it’s different
Not a blocker. Not a bet. A promise with a second name on it.
Willpower apps fail at the exact moment you need them, because the only person who can override them is the person who wants to.
A screen-time blocker
SpotterKey
You set a limit, then raise it at 9 PM.
The outcome was agreed with someone else, before the week began.
Blocks by clock time, whether or not you trained.
Triggered by one thing: the gym session you already planned.
A partner app that lets someone lock your phone.
Nobody can lock anything. A Spotter picks between two agreed outcomes.
One-sided. You’re the one being managed.
Mutual. You’re both under the same kind of pact, separately set.
Money on the line, and a bill when you fail.
No money. The stake is the scroll you’d have done instead.
Consent & safety
Built so it can’t become a control tool.
An accountability app that hands one person power over another’s phone is a bad product and a worse relationship. Every rule below exists to make that impossible.
Mutual, or not at all
There is no one-way pact. Both people sign one, both can be shielded, both hold a key.
Only you choose your own apps
Your Spotter cannot see, add to, or edit the list of apps you put at stake.
Limited recovery, never remote control
A Spotter picks between outcomes you confirmed in advance. They cannot lock anything, at any time, for any reason.
No live location sharing
Two checks at your own gym, on your own phone. The server learns pass or fail — not where you are.
Always available
- Emergency exit, on every screen, at every moment
- End the pact and unpair, from either side
- Revoke permissions or delete your account in the app
- If our servers go down, shields release on their own
Never in the product
- No stranger matching, ever
- No public feed, leaderboard or shaming
- No money at stake
- No parental-control or partner-surveillance mode
Founding Beta
Free for the first 100 activated pairs.
A pair counts as activated when both of you have joined. Reserve your own spot, then send one link to the person you want holding the key.
- Both of you go to the front of the TestFlight list
- Free for the whole beta — no card, no trial timer
- Your feedback shapes the recovery rules before launch
Find Your Spotter
Free during the beta. We’ll email you once — when TestFlight opens. How we use your email
No Spotter yet
You can still put something on the line.
A solo pact works the same way, minus the second person. You pick the workout days, the gym, and the apps you’re willing to lose for a day — and the rule you set holds you to it.
You set the terms in advance
Days, gym, minimum stay, and which apps are at stake. All of it decided while you still agree with your own judgement.
6 PM you doesn’t get a vote
The rule that runs is the one you wrote. Nothing can be softened after a session is already missed.
It becomes a pair whenever you want
Invite a Spotter later and your pact carries over. You don’t start again.
Set a personal commitment
Solo pacts are a warm-up. SpotterKey works best with two.
Pact
Personal gym commitment
- Workout days
- Mon · Wed · Fri
- Window
- 6:00–9:00 PM
- Gym
- Iron Works · 35 min minimum
- At stake
- 3 apps you picked
You
Your own rules
Fair questions
The parts people push back on.
What exactly is a “Spotter”?
Someone you already know and trust — a partner, a roommate, a friend, a gym bro. SpotterKey never matches you with a stranger and has no directory to browse. The only way in is an invite from a person you chose.
Can my Spotter lock my phone whenever they want?
No. There is no button anywhere in the app that lets one person shield another’s phone. A shield only happens when a workout you scheduled yourself passes its window unmet. All your Spotter can do at that point is pick between the two outcomes you agreed to in advance.
Which apps get shielded?
Only the ones you selected yourself, through Apple’s own Screen Time picker, before the pact started. SpotterKey receives an opaque token from iOS — not the app names and not your usage. SpotterKey itself is never shielded, so you can always reach your pact, your record, and the emergency exit.
How do you know whether I actually went?
Two location checks against the single gym you set: one when you arrive inside your window, one after your minimum stay. That’s it. There is no continuous tracking, no route history, and no live location shared with your Spotter — the server only ever learns pass or fail.
What if I genuinely need those apps right now?
The emergency exit is always available and lifts the shield immediately. It also writes a Pact Broken into your shared record. SpotterKey doesn’t pretend to be inescapable; it makes backing out visible instead of free.
What happens if we both miss leg day?
You each get shielded on your own phone, and you each still get to make the call on the other’s miss. The pact is symmetric by construction — there is no version of it where only one of you is on the hook.
What does it cost?
The Founding Beta is free for the first 100 activated pairs. We’re not setting a price until we know the app actually changes how often people train.
iPhone only?
For now, yes. Shielding apps requires Apple’s Family Controls framework, which has no Android equivalent. We’re counting how many invites fail because a partner is on Android — that number, not a guess, will decide whether Android happens.
What do you do with my email address?
We use it to tell you when TestFlight opens and to send occasional build updates — nothing else, no sale, no ad targeting. One click unsubscribes, and you can ask us to delete your waiting-list record at any time.
What if I don’t have anyone to invite yet?
Reserve your own spot first and share the link when someone comes to mind — pairs get into TestFlight ahead of individuals. If you’d rather commit alone for now, there’s a solo pact you can set with yourself, and you can invite a Spotter later.