Rexa
Focus, sound and screen time in one roar.
A brainwave audio engine, guided reset rituals, multi-day courses and native app blocking, shipping to iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, widgets, Android and the web from one codebase.
Client
R5IoT (in-house product)
Year
2026
Type
App · Wellness
Platforms
Stack
The problem
Most focus apps do one thing. One blocks apps, another plays sounds, a third does breathing exercises, and people end up switching between them on the phone they're trying to put down.
Rexa puts it all in one app: block the apps that pull you in, then use sound, guided resets and courses to stay focused, wind down or fall asleep. No account, no ads, and data stays on the phone.
What we built
Rexa is our own product, sold on the App Store as RexaRoar: Focus & App Blocker. It's one Ionic React and Capacitor codebase with custom native plugins in Swift and Java for the things the web can't do.
It ships on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Android, Wear OS and the web, plus home-screen widgets, Live Activities and an iMessage extension. Subscriptions run through RevenueCat with a free trial, weekly, annual and lifetime plans.
- Languages
- 20
- Multi-day courses
- 20
- Platforms from one codebase
- 6
- Commits since January 2026
- 911
What took the most work
01
Audio made on the phone
Most of the music and all of the tones are generated live. A native AVAudioEngine plugin mixes noise, binaural and isochronic tones, nature scenes and generative music with no memory allocation while rendering, so it keeps playing on the lock screen.
02
App blocking on iOS
Built on Apple's Screen Time APIs with shield extensions and a DeviceActivity monitor that turns blocking on and off on a schedule, even when the app is closed.
03
App blocking on Android
Android has no Screen Time API, so a foreground service watches which app is open and draws an overlay over blocked ones. If the overlay can't be shown, Rexa brings itself to the front instead.
04
The watch as a remote
Apple Watch and Wear OS start sessions, run rituals and show complications. Commands sent while the phone app is closed get queued and play when it opens.
Where it is now
Rexa is on version 7.2, with store assets for each release from 7.0 on. The app and website are in 20 languages, and an affiliate program pays partners 30% of a first purchase.
Highlights
Brainwave engine
Binaural, isochronic, monaural and solfeggio tones with live waveform and spectrum visualizers.
Native blocking
Screen Time on iOS and a custom overlay service on Android lock distractions during a session.
Reset rituals
Breathwork mandala, 5-4-3-2-1 grounding, NSDR, worry stone and narrated Rexatales.
Everywhere
Apple Watch companion, tablet layouts, home-screen widgets and an affiliate program.
Inside Rexa
8 images
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