Friction

A calm news reader with topics you can mute

Read headlines from many sources on one quiet screen. Open any story to see its full summary, then follow the link to the source if you want more. If a subject is wearing you out, hide it for a day or a week, and bring it back whenever you like.

What you can do here

• Headlines come from a fixed list of public feeds
• Hide a topic by word, for a day or a week, always with an undo
• Stories open in a panel with the full summary
• Nothing is personalised, and there is no endless feed

Friction fetches the feeds through a small relay that keeps nothing. Which stories you open and which topics you hide are stored only in your browser.

About Friction

Friction is a free focus timer. There is no account, and everything you make stays in your own browser. It uses AI in only three labelled places: demos for lessons without a built-in one, an optional Ask AI window, and a check that helps the Browser block games and short-form social media.

Why Friction exists

Friction is a distraction-free alternative to bloated productivity apps. I built it because most focus tools want an account, a subscription and a stream of notifications, which is the opposite of focus. This one is a single screen that counts every time you leave it, and it is free.

Free minimalist focus timer

If you are tired of bloated apps, this is a focus timer with nothing to set up and nothing to pay for. Pick a length, lock in, and see how many times you drifted away. There are no ads, no feed and no streak guilt trip.

No signup aesthetic study clock

Open the page and study. There is no account to make and no email to give, so it works the moment you arrive. The station look, the music and the study windows are there to make a long session pleasant, and you can turn the motion down.

Clean web-based productivity tool

It runs in your browser on a laptop, tablet or phone, so remote workers can use it on any machine with nothing to install. A notepad, calculator, to-do list, timer and converter sit on the focus screen, and your data stays in your own browser.

Explore Friction

• Home: Friction is a free focus timer with internet radio, live TV and lessons.
• Focus: Pick a length, tune in to radio or silence and lock in.
• Radio: Search thousands of internet radio stations by genre or name and keep one playing while you work.
• TV: Browse free live TV by category and keep a channel on while you focus.
• Podcasts: Search millions of podcasts, play episodes with your place remembered and share one with a friend in a room.
• Music: Play whole free songs from Audius, Openverse, Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and the Internet Archive, filtered to your age.
• Learn: Lessons built from Wikipedia text by fixed rules, with idea cards, questions, a timeline and an interactive demo.
• Books: Search free public-domain ebooks and read them in a quiet page-by-page reader, with your place kept in this browser.
• Arcade: Focused minutes earn credits, and credits buy arcade rounds and shop extras like breaks and a sound machine.
• Together: Make a room with a six-character code, lock in with up to twelve friends, chat and share a radio station or show.
• Leaders: See who has brought the most people to Friction.
• Blog: notes on focus, study and attention.