Remember two years back when Pokemon Go burst onto the scene and made everyone crazy and more than a bit accident prone? There’s now a new app on the App Store that has an interesting and useful twist on the Pokemon Go addiction: Hatch (which was formerly a social network called ‘Hyper’) recently launched the first game for iOS which helps users break their tech addiction by hatching and collecting rare creatures. Hatch is essentially Pokemon Go, but for focusing.
The average person apparently checks their phone 80 times a day. This “tech addiction” (which Apple recently addressed at the WWDC by releasing their own apps to help curb this addiction), is what Hatch is taking on. The way the Hatch app works is really simple and intriguing: you choose how long you want your ‘focus session’ to last, for e.g. 30 minutes, 45 minutes etc, and then you go about your work.
If you stay focused for the entire duration of the session, a mystery creature will hatch; these creatures are a fun mix: sometimes it’s a cute sheep, sometimes a feisty panther. Collecting these mystery creatures is the whole point, of course. If, instead, you leave the app and go on social media for example, your creature will die. Sob. Nobody wants a dead, unhatched mystery creature, so you’ll most likely be a good human being, work and stay focused for the entire session. The mystery creature hatches, and you get your work done. Tech addiction = 0, mystery creature/your work = 1.
Hatch is featured by Apple in their ‘New Apps We Love.’ It’s also a top 100 productivity app in the US, Canada etc. They also have a limited edition rainbow penguin hatching this month for Pride.
The Hatch app can be downloaded from itunes.
