Support

Email support@good-bully.com. If something isn’t working, tell us which phone you have and which version of iOS or Android it’s running — it saves a round trip.

Permissions

Why does GoodBully need Screen Time access?

iOS only lets an app put a shield in front of other apps through Screen Time. Without that access, GoodBully can’t do anything.

What are the two permissions on Android?

Usage access lets GoodBully see which app is on screen and how long you’ve used it today, which is how it counts your minutes. Display over other apps lets it draw the shield on top. You turn both on yourself in Android’s settings, and GoodBully walks you there.

GoodBully does not use Android’s Accessibility Services. That means it can’t read your screen or what you type — and it also means it can’t block individual websites, which apps built on that service can.

Can GoodBully see which apps I use?

It sees the apps you choose to limit and how long you use them, so it can count your minutes against your limits. It keeps daily totals per category, not a record of each app, and they are stored on your phone rather than sent to us. See the privacy policy.

Why is GoodBully asking for health data?

Only if you add a moving goal — minutes of exercise you want to get in each day. It reads your exercise minutes and workouts to count them toward the goal. Say no and everything else still works.

Why does Android show a “Shields are on” notification?

Android requires a visible notification for a service that keeps running. That’s what keeps your limits working while your screen is on. It stops checking when the screen is off.

Using GoodBully

What’s a check-in?

Halfway through your daily limit, the shield comes down once to say how much you’ve used. If the minutes are going much faster than the day, it also checks in at a quarter. “Keep going” lets you straight back in and doesn’t count as a pass.

How do I get past a shield?

Tap “Let me in anyway” and choose 15 minutes, 1 hour, or the rest of today. With Pro’s strict shields turned on, there’s no way past until the block ends.

My shield didn’t come back after a pass.

A shield normally returns when the pass ends. A pass that would run past midnight ends at the start of the next day instead. Opening GoodBully always puts back any shield whose pass has run out.

What is a focus session?

A block you start yourself that shields everything you’re avoiding, with no way past until it ends. You choose how long, from 15 minutes. It’s part of Pro.

What does “goals first” do?

Put what you want more of on top as goals — a language app, exercise — and what you want less of below as guilty pleasures. With goals first, the guilty pleasures stay shielded until today’s goals are done, and the shield names the one that’s next. It’s part of Pro.

What’s a challenge?

A set number of days inside your limits — one, then three, then a week, then thirty. When it ends you see how each day went, and if you kept enough of them, the gumball machine drops a capsule. Raising a limit restarts the challenge; lowering one doesn’t.

How do I get more bullies?

Pass challenges. Keep more days and the capsule is rarer: Silver for a Common bully, Blue for a Rare, Gold for a Legendary. Bullies can’t be bought.

What is “Doesn’t count”?

Apps whose time shouldn’t count against your day, like music, maps or calls. Their minutes are left out of Today’s total. Edit it on the Plan tab.

What is Time back?

On the Progress tab: how much less a day you’re spending on guilty pleasures than where you started, counted from your own Screen Time. Until the drop is real, it tells you how far there is to go.

Why does GoodBully ask for my first name?

So the shield can use it. Put in whatever you like.

Do I have to give an email address?

No. It’s optional, and nothing in the app depends on it. The privacy policy says how it’s used.

How do I turn GoodBully off?

In GoodBully’s settings, set Shield mode to Disabled to lift every shield. Deleting the app also removes its shields, unless you’ve turned on Pro’s “No deleting apps” and a block is running.

Pro

What’s in Pro?

Goals first, strict shields, focus sessions, scheduled blocks, blocking app deletion during a block, and your full history instead of the last two weeks.

How do I cancel Pro or get a refund?

Through the App Store, Pro is billed by Apple: cancel in Settings under your name, then Subscriptions, and request a refund at reportaproblem.apple.com. Through Google Play, it’s billed by Google: cancel and request refunds under Payments & subscriptions in the Play Store. Details are in refunds and cancellation.

Does Pro carry across my phones?

Within one store, yes — the same Apple Account or the same Google account. A subscription bought through the App Store doesn’t carry to Google Play, or the other way round, because the two stores bill separately.