Elapsed
A mobile usage tracker built around one ambient object instead of another screen-time dashboard.
The idea
Most screen-time tools wait until the end of the day, show a chart, and ask the user to feel bad about a number. Elapsed tries to make time noticeable while it is accumulating.
The main screen has one object. Early in the day it is quiet, soft, and slow. As usage builds, it becomes denser and more active. The surrounding field behaves like a cloth made from particles moving through depth, not a set of decorative sine waves.
Interaction
The default view shows the current state and a small time readout. Tapping into it reveals app totals, foreground intervals, and the day timeline. The detail screens are still restrained because the product should not turn into an analytics console.
The motion is causal. Usage changes the mass, pulse, turbulence, and recovery of the object. It should never feel like a random visualizer pasted behind a timer.
Platform reality
Android can observe more foreground activity and calculate intervals such as an app entering and leaving the foreground. iOS does not expose arbitrary app-open events to a normal third-party app. The iOS version has to use the Screen Time and Family Controls boundaries Apple provides, with a smaller Dynamic Island surface as a companion rather than pretending both platforms expose the same data.
Current state
The interaction and visual system are being prototyped first. The remaining work is turning the motion model into a stable implementation and deciding exactly how much of the idea survives iOS policy without forcing users to launch apps through Elapsed.