The labeling of tobacco products requires warnings on their external surface. The U.S. Surgeon General also urges a warning label on social media sites. One startup responds by launching a set of new tools that puts the power to fight app addiction directly into users' own hands. Designed for iOS, Roots offers an upgrade over most other screen-time apps in that it measures not just how many hours you spend on the device but also what happens inside those moments through its "digital dopamine" tracker. Other features allow users to block themselves from the most addictive apps and add reminders to obsessively stop scrolling through algorithmic social feeds, among other things.

It was founded by entrepreneur Clint Jarvis as a reaction to his own burnout in the startup world.

First, he found ways to make himself have a more balanced lifestyle through incorporating things like meditation and getting outside. However, during this time, after completing his participation in the entrepreneur-in-residence program at Wildwood Ventures, the emphasis of the app changed to solve more of a pressing issue-namely, how people are really interacting with their devices in an unhealthy way.

"If you just think about the mission of the product, it's to help people find better balance with technology," Jarvis said. "We live in a very digital world … our phones are incredible tools. But they're also very addicting," he says. "We need to think of the phone as more of a relationship. … How do we set boundaries?"

Roots is an app designed to aid users in making better decisions about what to spend their time on and what not to bother with.

"That 10 minutes on your Kindle is not the same as 10 minutes on Twitter [now called X]," Jarvis observed. "Digital dopamine gives you a way to actually quantify the impact of what you're doing on your phone."

This "digital dopamine" is actually a brain chemical also called the "feel-good" hormone which can be triggered through the use of social media and other addicting apps.

With Roots, you can set better intentions, such as how much time you want to spend scrolling, and when you want that behavior blocked. Built-in digital dopaminemeters measure the quality of your screen time across different apps and translate that into actionable insights to help you make decisions about your use of technology.

To break this cycle of scrolling, it offers a few tools-standard things like downtime scheduling and app limits by specific apps or categories. It integrates with Apple's Screen Time API to help configure some of these settings.

On the other hand, it also goes a bit further in things such as a "Monk Mode" feature that lets you get serious about stopping your scroll with the ability to set limits and blocks that even you can't override. You can't even log out of Roots, change your phone's date and time, or use other workarounds to bypass this specific feature. Users loved this mode in beta testing, because it finally allowed them to set a hard limit on their more addictive apps.

Roots also provides a "balance score" that lets you quantify phone use in a personalized manner, so you see where and how you can improve. Over time, Roots may add some sort of leaderboard that lets people see how they compare to others, too.

You can also have a reminder to quit scrolling, and you can personalize it with some suggestions of other things to do, such as reading a book, spending time with family, a walk, and many more.

Freemium app monetizes through in-app subscriptions at a cost of $9.99 per month or $59.99 per year. The paid plans offer advanced features like Monk Mode, the digital dopamine report, and many more.

As you engage with Roots, you build streaks as you remain below your screen time limits, enabling the rewards, which includes cheat days. Premium subscribers who get into good habits will receive a real-life scroll stopper, which brings forth a "speed bump" over your phone-digital equivalent of the Livestrong bracelet or rubber band. This scroll stopper would help you and your fingers rethink scrolling through apps when picking up your phone.

According to Jarvis, roots reduced screen time in beta tests by 2 hours a day for the average user.

Where Roots began as a venture by current CEO Jarvis, it has grown into a co-founded app with other key players, including Pontus Wellgraf, Head of Design;Pontus comes to this role after designing for MasterClass, Netflix, Microsoft, Huawei, Samsung, and Ford; Vikram Chauhan, Head of User Experience; Vikram is the founder of Quiet Parks International, a nonprofit dedicated to reductions in noise pollution and the saving of quiet spaces in nature; and Head of Development Marcin Czech.

The startup is seeded with $550,000 in pre-seed funding from Wildwood Ventures and other angel investors from Atlanta.