Strict mode, and the way out you keep

Every commitment device needs an answer to “what if I genuinely need this right now”. Ours is five, for life, and they do not refill — scarce enough that you will not spend one on boredom, and present enough that the product cannot strand you.

How an emergency unlock works

1. Open Spark and choose Emergency unlock.
2. Hold to confirm for five seconds. The hold is deliberate: it is long enough to be a decision rather than a reflex.
3. The session ends immediately. No key, no network, no waiting for us — it works with the key lost, flat or three hundred kilometres away.

The app shows how many you have left before you spend one. They do not refill on a timer or any other way.

What Strict mode changes

It removes that escape hatch. While Strict is on, a session ends when its time is up or when you hold your phone against your Spark — nothing else. It also guards the obvious workaround: uninstalling the app to clear the block. On Android that is a screen that intervenes when you head for the uninstall; on iPhone it uses Apple's own removal restriction.

Turning Strict mode off needs the key too. That is the entire point of it, and it is why the app makes you confirm what you are agreeing to before it goes on.

What it does not do

• It is not a wall. A determined person with time can still get past any of this — Android's safe mode, a factory reset, a second phone. We say so plainly because a product that claimed otherwise would be lying.
• It is not parental control. It has no dashboard, no reports and nothing another person can watch. It is a commitment you make to yourself.
• Calls always get through, Strict mode or not.