Not A Browser vs Brick

25 August 2026 · facts checked against public sources on that date

Brick is a $59 magnetic puck you stick to the fridge. Tap your phone against it and the apps you chose become unavailable; tap it again to bring them back. There is no PIN, no override in the app, and no way to change your mind from the sofa.

It is the most interesting design in this comparison set, and it solves a different problem to ours.

Its real innovation is about time, not hardware

The puck gets the attention, but the NFC tag is not the clever part. Passive NFC tags cost pennies; there is no battery and nothing to charge.

The clever part is when the decision happens.

Every software blocker asks you to be strict with yourself at the moment you least want to be: the app is blocked, you want it, the unlock button is right there, and you are tired. That is a bad moment to be relying on resolve.

Brick moves that decision to the morning. You tap the puck and leave the house, and the phone stays bricked because the puck is on the fridge and you are on a train. The version of you making the decision is the calm, well-rested one; the version of you who would undo it is physically unable to.

Trading a decision made under pressure for one made in advance is a real behavioural insight, and it is why Brick has the following it does.

Where Not A Browser makes the same trade differently

We are doing a version of the same thing, without the object.

The decision, I do not want a search bar on this phone, gets made once, in advance, when you set the default browser and disable the others. From then on there is no moment of temptation to survive, because there is nothing to tempt. Not a locked thing, an absent thing.

The difference is reversibility. Brick's commitment lasts until you get home, which is exactly the point: it is a session, deliberately bounded. Not A Browser's is not bounded at all. You can undo it in about a minute by re-enabling Chrome, and that is deliberate too. this is a restriction you chose, not a lock you are trapped behind. What makes it hold is not difficulty but that there is no moment at which undoing it would feel necessary. The errands all still work.

The gap Brick leaves

Brick blocks apps. It does not answer the browser question, and depending on how you set it up it makes the question sharper.

If your Brick mode blocks the browser, then during a bricked session your phone will not open a link, a QR menu or a verification email, and the puck is on the fridge, so you cannot make it. That is either excellent discipline or a bad afternoon at an airport, depending on the day.

If your Brick mode leaves the browser available, you have a phone with the social apps gone and a search bar intact, which is the setup most people find does not hold.

Not A Browser removes that trade-off: the browser stops being a thing you have to decide about blocking, because what is left of it can only open what it is handed.

Together, they are a complete answer

This is the pairing we would actually recommend to someone who has tried software and undone it.

Brick handles the apps, with a physical commitment that software cannot fake. Not A Browser handles the browser, so nothing about the errands breaks while the apps are gone. Between them there is no gap left for the habit to move into, which is usually what happens when you close only one of the two.

Brick has been on Android since September 2025, so this combination works on the same phone as Not A Browser.