Rewire vs One Sec
Breathing pause between you and the apps you open mindlessly.
Last updated May 2026.
One Sec popularized the "pause before you open the app" idea and has the published research to back the concept (Grüning, Riedel, and Lorenz-Spreen, PNAS 2023, showing a 57% reduction in app opens). Rewire takes the same underlying insight (friction at the moment of impulse changes the outcome) and builds a much larger behavioral system around it. Here is how the two compare.
The one-line answer
One Sec is a single, scientifically validated intervention (breathing pause). Rewire is twelve interventions plus a Dopamine Score plus Detox Challenges and accountability partners.
If your only problem is mindless Instagram opens, One Sec might be enough. If you are dealing with deeper urge patterns (porn, gambling, weed, junk food, alcohol, compulsive scrolling combined), Rewire's scope is built for that.
How they actually work
One Sec inserts a friction pause between you and a distracting app. You tap Instagram, a breathing exercise appears for around 7 to 10 seconds, and then you choose whether to continue. Pro adds Re-Intervention (a doom-scroll emergency brake that kicks you out after a set time), emotion tracking, journaling, and healthy alternative suggestions.
The mechanism is real and the research is solid. The 2023 PNAS paper found a 57% reduction in app opens, validated again in field experiments by the Danish government with young consumers and the German government with adolescents. One Sec has a dedicated research scientist, Dr. David Grüning, affiliated with the Max-Planck Institute and Stanford.
Rewire uses friction too, but at a different point in the loop. Rather than intervening at the app-open moment, Rewire intervenes at the urge moment. You tap the orange "I AM HAVING AN URGE" button, set the intensity, run through a 15-second breathing exercise, then pick from two intervention cards. Each one is a different clinical protocol:
- Pattern Break (physical pattern interruption)
- Identity Lock (identity-based behavior change from the Atomic Habits framework)
- Grounding Reset (sensory grounding from CBT)
- Future Message (temporal self-distancing research)
- Reflex Override (Inhibitory Control Training, Verbruggen and Logan)
- Face Calm (facial feedback plus PMR, Coles et al. 2022)
- Pressure Release (Progressive Muscle Relaxation plus DBT TIPP, Jacobson 1938)
- Urge Surfing (MBRP, Alan Marlatt) and four more
Rewire also tracks your Dopamine Score (0 to 100), and includes Detox Challenges (24 hours, 7 days or 30 days), Rewire Cam, widgets, and Accountability Partners.
Pricing
One Sec: Free tier lets you set an intervention on one app. Pro is $19.99 to $50 per year depending on region (3.99 EUR per month, 14.99 EUR per year, or 99.99 EUR lifetime per the official store).
Rewire: Free tier includes the Dopamine Score, urge logging, four micro-interventions, Detox Challenges, and Accountability Partners. Rewire Pro unlocks the remaining eight interventions, the App Blocker (with NFC tag or QR code unlock), deeper analytics, habit logging on Apple Watch, and iCloud backup.
Both are cheaper than Opal or Freedom. One Sec is more expensive than Rewire on the annual plan, but the lifetime option exists.
Where One Sec wins
- Published peer-reviewed research. PNAS 2023 with the Max-Planck Institute is genuinely impressive and unmatched in this category. Rewire's interventions are each backed by peer-reviewed papers, but Rewire as a product has not run its own randomized controlled trial. One Sec has.
- Cross-platform. Works on iOS, Android, and as a browser extension for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. Rewire is on iPhone and Android, with no browser extension.
- Simplicity. One job, done well. If you want a single tool you understand in 30 seconds, this is it.
- Scheduled and delayed interventions. You can configure interventions to fire immediately, after X minutes of usage, or as Re-Interventions (repeated pauses) inside the same app session.
Where Rewire wins
- Scope. One Sec stops you at the app door. Rewire helps you when the urge hits regardless of whether an app is involved. You can use Rewire during a porn urge, a weed craving, a junk food binge moment, or a compulsive scroll. One Sec is structurally limited to the app-open trigger.
- Multiple intervention modalities. A breathing pause is one tool. Rewire ships twelve, each based on a different clinical protocol. If breathing does not work for you in a given moment, you have eleven alternatives.
- Identity-based change. Rewire's post-intervention choice screen asks you to declare "I am the kind of person who..." which is identity-based behavior change from the Bem self-perception tradition. One Sec stays at the friction layer.
- Quantified metric. Dopamine Score gives you a number that moves with your behavior. One Sec tracks app opens and time saved. Different granularity.
- Built for the long middle. Habits take a median of 66 days to form (Lally et al., 2010), long after the novelty fades. Rewire's Detox Challenges give you three lives and bank gems at milestones, so one slip does not end the attempt, and your daily streak counts showing up instead of resetting when you slip.
Use both, or use one
These two genuinely complement each other. Use One Sec to add a breathing pause at the app-open moment, and use Rewire for the urge moments that bypass the app entirely (the weed craving while you are walking home, the porn urge at 2 AM, the junk food binge after a bad day).
If you have to pick one:
- Pick One Sec if your problem is purely about reducing time on specific apps, you want one tool that does one thing well, and the breathing-pause mechanism resonates with you.
- Pick Rewire if you are dealing with urge-based behavior (porn, gambling, weed, alcohol, food, compulsive scrolling), you want a quantified behavioral metric, and you want interactive interventions that go deeper than a breathing pause.
TL;DR comparison
| Rewire | One Sec | |
|---|---|---|
| Core mechanism | 12 micro-interventions at urge moment | Breathing pause at app-open moment |
| Number of interventions | 12 (each cited) | 1 primary (with breathing variants) |
| Published research | Each intervention cited from peer-reviewed papers | Direct PNAS 2023 trial of product |
| Quantified metric | Dopamine Score (0 to 100) | App opens / time saved |
| Scope | Behavioral urges (porn, food, scroll, weed, etc.) | App-specific friction |
| Platform | iOS, iPad, Apple Watch, Android | iOS, Android, browser extension |
| Identity-based change | Yes (post-intervention choice) | No |
| Free tier | Full core loop | One app only |
Try Rewire free on iPhone and Android
Twelve research-cited interventions, the Dopamine Score, and Detox Challenges from 24 hours to 30 days. No account needed for the core app.
