9:47pm, the lease email
It’s been open in a tab for six days. Name “reply to lease email”, choose Gentle, start the timer, and decide the first physical move yourself. Sidle stays quiet while you work.
ADHD · focus
A quiet place to start. Unlimited, free.
Meet Sidle.
Sidle gives adults unlimited silent body-doubling sessions: name the task, choose Gentle, Steady, Quiet, or Wry, start the timer, and put the phone face-down. No booking, camera, login, streaks, or judgement.
Free to use. Any optional upgrade is shown in the App Store before purchase.
What it does
The working free loop pairs a task you choose with a quiet session, lock-screen timer, and local Moment afterward. It provides structure without watching, scoring, or deciding whether you succeeded.
How it works
Open the app, type the task, choose a vibe and start. The timer continues on the lock screen while Sidle stays silent. Pause, finish, or step away on your terms; the app does not monitor your screen or productivity. The free loop does not call an AI service.
Who it’s for
For adults 18 or older who want low-pressure structure while starting a task, including adult students using silent sessions in a library and adults facing the email that has been open for six days.
Accessibility built in
Native iPhone app, calm by design: no login, no streaks or shame mechanics, Gentle, Steady, Quiet and Wry session styles, and a lock-screen timer so the phone can lie face-down.
Unlimited silent body doubling
Open it when you are ready to begin.
No booking or login
Open Sidle and start a free silent session without scheduling another person, creating a login, or turning on a camera.
Name the thing
Type the task you chose to work on. The silent loop keeps that task and the resulting Moment in the app.
Choose the tone
Gentle, Steady, Quiet, and Wry change the session’s local texture without introducing scores, streaks, or pressure.
A timer where you can see it
The session timer appears on the lock screen, so the phone can lie face-down while the work happens.
The session is yours
Pause, finish, or step away. Sidle does not watch the screen, judge output, or decide whether the session counted.
Keep a Moment
The task and elapsed session time stay in your local Moments history. You can return to them without building a streak or meeting a daily target.
Things Sidle refuses to build
The features we said no to, on purpose.
No streaks you can break. No red badges, no guilt copy, no “you missed a day.” No upsells in the middle of a session. No companion you have to look after. A brain already flooded with shame doesn’t need software that manufactures more of it.
The free loop includes unlimited silent sessions, Gentle, Steady, Quiet and Wry styles, and your local Moments history. Pro adds a user-written “For next time” move kept on this phone and an on-device mid-session hello. You choose the next move yourself. Regional prices and any trial eligibility live in Apple’s purchase sheet.
Connected features have separate data-handling rules. Provider text goes to DeepSeek in China only after explicit adult consent. Raw provider-session rows are scheduled for deletion after 90 days; the device-scoped note and profile can be removed from Sidle’s Settings. The current service and deletion boundaries are documented in full. The free silent loop and on-device Pro features work independently of that service.
A day with Sidle
Three moments Sidle was built for.
The adult-study library session
Phone face-down, timer on the lock screen. A silent session is still a session — body doubling does not need audio or AI to provide structure.
Three weeks away
Life happened. Reopening the app costs nothing: no emptied streak, red badge, or guilt copy. Choose a task and begin another silent session.
For study & campus
Built for the library, honest about the age rating.
Unlimited free silent sessions suit libraries and study halls; the lock-screen timer keeps the phone face-down. Adult students use body doubling for study — a presence beside you while you start the essay — and Sidle is that presence on demand.
Honest notes for campus staff: Apple’s current public page still shows 9+, but Sidle’s current terms set an 18+ minimum while a higher-age override waits for a future app version. Treat it as an adult app, not a school-age recommendation. It needs no login, which also means there is nothing for a school to centrally manage; on school-owned devices it deploys like any App Store app. Start at the schools & professionals door.
For therapists and coaches: body doubling’s evidence base is anecdotal and emerging — external structure that many people find makes task activation easier. Sidle claims a way of working many people find useful, not an intervention, and it is not a medical or therapeutic product.
Deployment notes for school IT
- iOS 18 or later, iPhone only.
- No camera — by design. No monitoring, no productivity score.
- No login to provision. Free sessions and Moments stay in the app; Pro ritual text and memory follow the disclosed service-retention and current 24-hour-credential boundary.
- App Privacy label: “Data Linked to You” — purchases, user content, identifiers and usage data, all for app functionality.
- Adults 18+ under Sidle’s terms. Apple’s current public 9+ badge is an older classification that cannot be raised until a future app version.
- Free to deploy through Apple School Manager Apps and Books (device-based assignment).
Procurement facts, each with an Apple citation: how schools get our apps.
Honest limits
What Sidle is not.
Adults 18+ only. A self-directed focus support, not treatment; body-doubling evidence is anecdotal and still emerging. Optional provider-backed AI requires a separate DeepSeek/China-processing consent step and can fall back to the local silent loop.
Questions, answered honestly
Before you download Sidle
What is body doubling?
Doing a task alongside someone who is simply present — not helping, just there. Many people find that presence useful while starting, although the evidence is still emerging. Our plain-language guide: body doubling without a camera.
Does body doubling actually work?
The honest answer: the evidence is anecdotal and still emerging. Many people find it genuinely useful; nobody should sell it to you as a treatment, and we don’t. Sidle claims a way of working, not an outcome.
Why would presence help me start?
Task initiation is often the hardest executive-function moment — the gap between intending and beginning. External structure, including another presence, gives the start something to push against. Qualitative, not clinical: it helps many people, and you’ll know quickly whether you’re one of them.
Is Sid a real person?
No. Sid is an app character. Nobody is watching or waiting for you. A free silent session uses a task you choose, a timer and a local Moment; it does not call an AI service.
Does Sidle watch me or score my productivity?
No camera, no monitoring, no productivity score. Sidle doesn’t know what you did during a session unless you tell it.
What if I abandon a session halfway?
It still counted. Stepping away is not failure; the session lands in your Moments like any other.
What’s free?
Unlimited silent sessions, Gentle, Steady, Quiet and Wry styles, and your local Moments history — which never expires while it remains in the app. No login or sign-up.
What does Pro add?
Pro adds a user-written “For next time” move, kept on this phone, and an on-device mid-session hello with optional voice or a background notification. For connected features, check the current service note and separate consent and data-handling rules. The on-device features work independently of that service.
Do I need a login?
No name, email, password or login. Open the app and start. Sidle uses a pseudonymous service identity for Pro conversations, entitlement continuity and deletion; it is not used for advertising or cross-app tracking.
What does Sidle keep?
Free session and Moments history stay in the app. Optional provider-backed AI uses a device-scoped anonymous profile; raw session rows are scheduled for deletion after 90 days, and Settings can delete this device’s provider profile and note while preserving local Moments and Apple Pro. The exact retention and deletion boundaries are in the privacy policy.
Is Sidle therapy or treatment?
No. Sidle is not a medical or therapeutic product. If starting is hard in ways that hurt, a clinician is the right companion for that conversation.
Can an adult student use it for studying?
Yes. For adults 18 or older, silent sessions suit libraries: phone face-down, timer on the lock screen, structure without sound or AI.
What happens if I miss a few days?
Nothing. No streak empties, no badge turns red, and no guilt copy appears. Open the app and begin another silent session when you are ready.
Ready when you are.
Sidle is free to use; any optional upgrade is shown in the App Store before purchase.