Reclaim your attention with Retention.
Retention acts as a study entry token for your distracting apps, and provides in-app progress tracking.
Built for students. Turn the apps that waste your time into checkpoints that move your studying forward.
Want app time?
Quick study first
You're good to go!
Retention
To unlock Instagram, make some progress in your life.
The f-stop (f/2.8, f/4, etc.) represents the ratio of the lens focal length to the diameter of the aperture opening. Each
Stay focused on what matters
Reclaim your attention with Retention.
Retention acts as a study entry token for your distracting apps, and provides in-app progress tracking.
Want app time?
Quick study first
You're good to go!
Mobile users check their phones an average of nearly 200 times per day. Our goal is to turn each one of those events into a micro study session.
The Process
Schedule. Interrupt. Track. Compound.
Schedule times to block distracting apps with your flashcards.
Manual Mode
Answer a prompt to get into the apps of your choice
To unlock Instagram, make some progress in your life.
The f-stop (f/2.8, f/4, etc.) represents the ratio of the lens focal length to the diameter of the aperture opening.
Stay focused
Track your weak areas
36 squares
Confidence Order
Watch how your mini study sessions compound.
Study Sessions Today
Step 01
Choose when distractions get blocked.
Pick the times your phone shuts the door on distracting apps — weekdays, weekends, or manual.
Step 02
Retention interrupts the habit.
When you reach for a distracting app, a study checkpoint shows up first. Answer a prompt, then continue.
Step 03
See exactly what you know.
A confidence map shows what's locked in, what's still landing, and what needs more reps — at a glance.
Step 04
Every interruption compounds.
Small study sessions stack up across your day. You leave with measurable progress instead of doomscroll regret.
About Retention
Not enough time to learn something new?
Too busy to study?
Common issues include…
Unused pockets of time
Unused time pockets
Small gaps of time between tasks quietly slip by, unless deliberately used
1 minute here, 5 minutes there, it adds up
Lack of organization
Spending more time finding gaps in knowledge, than actually making progress.
Finding gaps in knowledge instead of learning
Memory loss
While you're constantly taking in new information, you're also forgetting a lot of old information.
Taking in new info, and forgetting the old
Our Story
We built Retention because we needed it.
We're a group of students at UC Santa Cruz who needed to study more consistently — but we also struggled with screen time.
We tried the usual screen time blockers and productivity apps. None of them really worked. They felt too easy to bypass, too annoying, or disconnected from the actual reason we were trying to focus: studying.
So we built something different. Retention turns distraction into a study checkpoint. Instead of just blocking apps, it makes you review material before opening the apps that usually waste your time.
We built this because we needed it ourselves.
The Retention crew
Meet the Founders
We are a team dedicated to over-delivering functionality, customizability, and an aesthetically pleasing experience for our users.
Bedir Elbakri
Co-Founder, Designer, & CEO
Visionary leader focused on harvesting the longevity of knowledge.
Berat Ercevik
Co-Founder & Lead Developer
Product architect with an intuition for optimal user experience, and effective functionality.
Aaron Sharif
Co-Founder & AI Expert
Engineering master's student, guiding the team in API usage, powering AI, and data security.
