The Off Switch

01/11/2026

https://www.off-switch.co.uk/post/you-don-t-need-a-gadget-for-every-room

01/11/2026

America's favourite phone box has had a baby.

Last Thursday Brick launched Brick Night, a second gadget, this one for the bedroom. It spots your phone when you walk in and locks your chosen apps until you leave. Clever stuff. Also one more thing to buy, and one more box on the bedside table.

Here's the thing. Nobody in Britain is short of boxes. What we're short of is evenings. It's half term, the clocks have just gone back, and the glow under the duvet has never been brighter.

And let's be fair, it's not only the kids up at midnight. The grown-ups are scrolling too.

Stop Bricking It.

The Off Switch is one tap card from a UK company. In the free iPhone app you choose which apps go quiet. Tap the card against the phone and they stay quiet until it's tapped again. Bedroom, kitchen, Nan's front room, wherever you are. Calls and texts always work, so your nan can still get through.

No subscription. No account. Nothing leaves the phone. £20 plus £3 UK postage. (Brick costs £44.75, UK price checked 26 Oct 2026.)

One card. Any room. off-switch.co.uk

17/10/2026

Next orders are en route! It’s fantastic knowing how many peoples lives we’re changing!

12/10/2026

Before the end of October, Ofcom is due to hand Parliament its homework on a tricky question. How do you prove someone online is over 16?

It matters. The under-16 social media ban is due from spring, and in July Ofcom's own report found the big platforms had failed to enforce the minimum ages they already had. Thirteen was the rule. It turned out to be more of a suggestion.

So by all means, let the regulators and the tech giants argue about face scans and ID checks. That's their job, and we hope they get it right.

But no age check reaches the kitchen at nine at night. The homework that keeps getting interrupted. The "five more minutes" that turns into forty. And, if we're honest, our own thumbs doing exactly the same thing on the sofa.

Stop Bricking It. Start practising.

The Off Switch is a tap card from a UK company, about the size of a bank card. Choose the apps that go quiet in our free iPhone app, then tap the card against the phone. They stay quiet until it is tapped again. Calls and texts always work, so your nan can still get through.

No subscription. No account. Nothing leaves the phone. £20 plus £3 UK postage.

The ban starts in spring. Practice starts tonight. off-switch.co.uk

19/09/2026

We've just done something marketing people advise against. We published a genuinely fair review of our biggest competitor.

Brick is the American magnetic puck you tap your phone against to lock away distracting apps. It's a good product. 4.9 stars, tens of thousands of reviews, and a strict lockout philosophy that some people absolutely love. Credit where it's due.

But if you're buying in the UK, the picture changes. That $59 list price converts to about £47, then transatlantic shipping and import duty push it towards £60 by the time it reaches your door. And it can only ever be Brick: no school, charity or business can put their own name on it.

The Off Switch is the same winning mechanism, built the other way round. £20 plus £3 postage, £23 delivered, designed and shipped in the UK. Tap the card against your phone and the noise stops. Tap again when you're ready and it all comes back. Built around self-regulation, not punishment.

Because here's the real difference. The Off Switch assumes you're practising.

Read it here: https://www.off-switch.co.uk/post/off-switch-vs-brick-the-honest-uk-comparison

Get yours at off-switch.co.uk

Choose calm with The Off Switch. The card is a friendly nudge, the tap creates the habit, and the routine does the rest. Pay once for the card, keep the core app free, and keep your data where it belongs.

15/09/2026

Nearly one in five UK schools now lock phones away for the day. The evidence says the hours don't disappear. They move to the evening!!

The SMART Schools study at the University of Birmingham compared 30 English secondaries and found restrictive phone policies made no difference to overall daily use or to pupil wellbeing.

Pupils at ban schools averaged the same four to six hours a day as everyone else, and some described losing sleep to claw back the time.

That is not an argument against pouches and lockboxes. They were designed to protect the school day, and they do. But the calm ends at the gate, at the exact minute six hours of notifications arrive in one lump.

Our new piece for schools looks at the handback moment, and at a simple idea: pupils already perform a physical tap at the unlocking station every afternoon.

The missing piece at home is the same gesture, pointed the other way. A card by the front door, tapped against the phone, and the noise stops until the family says otherwise.

Nothing for the school to install, no cost, and calls are never blocked. Something concrete to offer at parents' evening when the inevitable question comes.

Read it here: https://www.off-switch.co.uk/post/the-3-30-cliff

26/08/2026

Sickness absence is at a fifteen-year high. The right to switch off has been shelved. And the wellbeing benefit most employers already pay for is used by about one person in twenty.

None of that is caused by the phone alone. But the phone is how workload now travels, and the research says it costs attention simply by being in the room.

Our new article sets out the evidence and makes the case for a benefit that lives on the desk: a card with your organisation's name on it that staff tap against their phone to quiet the feeds, with calls and essentials always on and nothing collected.

Choose calm with The Off Switch. The card is a friendly nudge, the tap creates the habit, and the routine does the rest. Pay once for the card, keep the core app free, and keep your data where it belongs.

20/08/2026

Off-switch. Now. Off-switch.co.uk

26/07/2026

England just made phone bans in schools the law.

As of 29 June, every state-funded school in England is legally required to be phone-free from the moment pupils arrive until the final bell. Ofsted will be checking. No ifs, no buts.

It's a big deal. And it's long overdue.

But here's the thing researchers at the University of Birmingham found when they studied this: banning phones at school doesn't make the problem go away. Students in schools with the strictest bans were actually going to bed later, skipping homework, and dropping physical activity — making up for the hours they'd lost during the day. The scrolling didn't stop. It just moved to 9pm.

So the school has done its bit. What about the rest of the day?

Most parents are left choosing between confiscating the phone (which starts a fight) and hoping for the best (which doesn't work). Neither feels great.

That's why we created The Off Switch. It's a small NFC card — you hold it and tap it against your phone, and it silences the distracting apps: social media, streaming, games, whatever you choose. Calls, texts, and maps stay active. Tap again when you're done. No passwords. No timers. No arguments.

No subscription either. No account required. Nothing leaves the device.

It's not about surveillance or punishment. It's about giving young people (and honestly, the rest of us) a simple, physical way to choose focus when they actually want it. The Off Switch is a tool, not a tracker.

The school is covering 9am to 3pm. Someone needs to cover the other seventeen hours.

Sound familiar?

Get yours at off-switch.co.uk £20. No subscription. No account. Just tap.



https://www.off-switch.co.uk/post/england-has-banned-phones-in-schools-nobody-s-banned-them-at-home

Choose calm with The Off Switch. The card is a friendly nudge, the tap creates the habit, and the routine does the rest. Pay once for the card, keep the core app free, and keep your data where it belongs.

26/07/2026

A great event! If you are a school or parent looking for solutions for children's smartphone use after school, please get in touch!

off-switch.co.uk