Friction
Podcast search and player for focus sessions
Search millions of podcasts, open a show and play any episode in the same player as radio and TV. Friction remembers where you stopped, so you can come back to an episode later and carry on. Episodes can be shared with friends in a focus room, with their position.
What you can do here
- Search uses the Apple iTunes podcast directory
- Episode lists are read directly from each show's own feed
- Your place in every episode is saved in this browser
- Share an episode with friends in a focus room, with its position
There is no account and no profile. Only the words you search for are sent to find shows.
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.
- Music: Play whole free songs from Audius, Openverse, Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and the Internet Archive, filtered to your age.
- News: Read headlines from many sources on one quiet screen, open the full summary, and hide any topic for a day or a week.
- 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.