Nothing vs One Sec: An Honest Founder Comparison
One Sec adds a one-second breath before an app opens; Nothing adds a finished minute you complete.
One Sec is a better nudge than Nothing. If a one-second pause is all it takes to stop your reach, use One Sec — the research backs it. I built Nothing because that pause was never enough for me. My thumb slid right past it. Nothing replaces the scroll with a finished minute instead of delaying it. Same instinct, different depth.
Both apps sit between you and the feed. Both are quiet, neither shames you, and each is built on a genuine idea about how the reach works. But the size of the interruption is almost opposite, and that's the whole decision. Here's the honest version.
What One Sec is built for
One Sec is a friction layer. Before a chosen app opens, it plays a one-second breathing animation and asks whether you still want in. That tiny gap cancels a lot of reaches. It's light, it stays out of the way, and — rare in this category — it's backed by real published evidence. If a small speed bump is the thing you're missing, it delivers.
The evidence is worth crediting. In a 2023 study in PNAS, researchers followed 280 people using One Sec across six weeks. After the one-second pause, people closed the target app 36% of the time. Over the six weeks, attempts to open those apps fell 37%. That's a real effect from a very small intervention, and it's honest of the makers to publish it. One Sec earns its place.
The catch hides in the other number. If people closed the app 36% of the time, they opened it the other 64%. For a light habit, the nudge is plenty. For a reach that's closer to a reflex, the delay becomes something your thumb learns to tap through. That was me. Screen-time limits fail the same way — a wall you dismiss in two taps, still standing between you and nothing better.
What Nothing is built for
Nothing starts one step later — after you admit the delay isn't holding. Instead of slowing the open, it replaces it. Open the app, put the phone face-down, and let a minute pass with nothing attached. The apps you locked stay shut until the minute ends. A completed rest, not a checkpoint you wave through on the way to the feed.
The difference is substitute versus delay. One Sec asks, "are you sure?" Nothing asks, "what do you want to do with the gap instead?" — and hands you an answer: sixty seconds of nothing. Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism argues that removing an app rarely sticks until you've decided what fills the space it leaves. A one-second breath doesn't fill it. A finished minute does.
There's also a pull you can't tap through. Ward and colleagues (2017) found a phone drains your focus just by sitting there, face-down and silent. A delay still opens the app and hands the feed back. A completed pause moves your hand somewhere else first. If the doomscroll is the loop you keep losing to, a real substitute tends to hold where a speed bump slips.
Side by side
A few differences drive the choice more than the rest — the depth of the interruption, whether the app opens at the end, and what you're left doing with the gap. The table below is the short version. Neither column is wrong. They're aimed at two different sizes of the same problem.
| | Nothing | One Sec | |---|---|---| | The interruption | A finished 1-minute pause | A one-second breath | | End of it | Locked apps unlock after the minute | The app opens if you continue | | Substitute or delay | Replaces the scroll | Delays the open | | Mood reflection | Yes | No | | Free tier | Yes — core timer always free | Yes, with premium | | Published evidence | Newer, less studied | A peer-reviewed PNAS study | | Platforms | iPhone | iPhone, plus browser |
Two columns worth being honest about. One Sec has the published evidence and the wider reach — it runs across many apps and the browser with almost no effort. Nothing is iPhone-only and younger. If a frictionless nudge across everything is the fit, One Sec wins that on the merits. You can weigh both against the rest of the field on the full comparison page.
You can also run both. Keep One Sec as a light nudge on the apps you barely wrestle with, and use Nothing for the one reach that keeps winning. If putting the phone down still feels like a fight you lose, there's a smaller way in — and a gentler route out of the scroll, built around replacing the reach rather than banning it. The verdict hasn't moved: pick the depth that matches your problem, and let the smaller tool be the one you keep.
FAQ
Is Nothing a good alternative to One Sec?
It depends on why the delay stops working. One Sec adds a one-second breath before an app opens, and for a light habit that's often enough. Nothing goes one step further — it replaces the open with a finished minute, and keeps the locked apps shut until you take it. If you slide straight past the one-second pause, the fuller substitute tends to hold better.
Nothing vs One Sec for doomscrolling — which is better?
If a brief delay breaks your reach before you're in the feed, One Sec is lighter and does the job. If you tap past the delay and land in the scroll anyway, Nothing gives the reach somewhere real to go — sixty seconds of nothing, finished before the app unlocks. Different depths of the same instinct.
Can I use One Sec and Nothing together?
Yes, and it's a reasonable setup. Keep One Sec as a light nudge on the apps you barely wrestle with, and use Nothing for the one reach that keeps winning. They don't conflict — One Sec slows the many, Nothing replaces the one that matters most.
Sources
- Grüning DJ, Riedel F, Lorenz-Spreen P (2023). Directing smartphone use through the self-nudge app one sec. PNAS, 120(8), e2213114120. PNAS
- Ward AF, Duke K, Gneezy A, Bos MW (2017). Brain drain: The mere presence of one's own smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2(2), 140–154. UT Austin Repository
- Newport C (2019). Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World. Portfolio/Penguin. Book page
— Anton Lev, Founder Founder of Nothing. Building tools for people who can't sit still. GitHub
FAQ
- Is Nothing a good alternative to One Sec?
- It depends on why the delay stops working. One Sec adds a one-second breath before an app opens, and for a light habit that's often enough. Nothing goes one step further — it replaces the open with a finished minute, and keeps the locked apps shut until you take it. If you slide straight past the one-second pause, the fuller substitute tends to hold better.
- Nothing vs One Sec for doomscrolling — which is better?
- If a brief delay breaks your reach before you're in the feed, One Sec is lighter and does the job. If you tap past the delay and land in the scroll anyway, Nothing gives the reach somewhere real to go — sixty seconds of nothing, finished before the app unlocks. Different depths of the same instinct.
- Can I use One Sec and Nothing together?
- Yes, and it's a reasonable setup. Keep One Sec as a light nudge on the apps you barely wrestle with, and use Nothing for the one reach that keeps winning. They don't conflict — One Sec slows the many, Nothing replaces the one that matters most.