Short breaks through the day

A small sun who rings two to five times a day, each time with one short break: a stretch, a slow blink, a question to think over. No account, no streaks, nothing about you is recorded. Then he goes quiet until the next ring.

Made together with illustrator Ilya Kazakov, who drew Sanék and the app icon.

1What it is

Sanék is an iPhone app with one character: a small sun. He rings two to five times a day — once in the morning, up to three times during the day, once in the evening — and each ring brings one short break. Sometimes it is a stretch with a timer, sometimes a slow blink, sometimes a question with no field to answer it in.

In the evening he says he is switching off until morning, and suggests the screens do the same.

2Why the fast answer fails

To write

The fast answer is unlimited notifications. Write out what that costs: a reminder that can interrupt at any moment is one more thing to manage, and managing it is the opposite of what it is for.

3The hard part

To write

Not the data here but the discipline — everything left out and staying out. The break engine keeps no records about the person: no input field, no “give me another”, no depth level that grows with use.

4Product decisions

Two to five rings, not a chosen interval. The day has a shape — morning, a few check-ins, evening — and the app follows it.
The morning ring is a real alarm; the daytime and evening ones are plain notifications. All-day alarms were too loud for what they carry.
Nothing is typed and nothing is stored: a break has only “Done” and “later”. No streaks, no statistics, and the evening is never mentioned the next morning.
No account. Seven days free, then one purchase — no subscription.

5Where it is now

In internal testing on TestFlight since September 2026. The English version comes first; French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean follow before release.

6Screens and artifacts

To write

Screens: the morning ring, a break, the night screen.