We grew up before smartphones filled every spare moment.
Today, as everyone of us, we value everything they make possible — staying connected, working, navigating and organising our lives.
But we also started noticing how often we reached for them without consciously deciding to.
In every spare moment of time.
As expats with family living far away, smartphones are genuinely important to us.
But the problem is the habit built around the phone.
The habit of grabbing it all the time.
A few empty seconds could be enough to reach for the phone, unlock it and start scrolling before we had even decided what we wanted to do.
A magical moment — and still, the phone in hand for no reason.
Most digital wellbeing tools intervene after the interaction with the phone has already started.
We wanted to try something different.
What if there was a small physical pause between the impulse to check the phone and the moment you unlock it?
A pause long enough to ask:
Why am I unlocking my phone right now?
If there is a reason, nothing should stop you.
If there is not, that interruption may be enough to break the automatic sequence.
That became the idea behind ReCover.
The product had to create friction without becoming a burden. It had to be easy to live with, simple to use and easy to remove whenever you genuinely wanted access to the phone.
One of the main design challenges was making ReCover adjustable to the width of different smartphones. We did not want to design a product around one particular phone. We wanted one simple object that could adapt to different devices and sizes.
That requirement became an important part of the prototyping process.
We tested different shapes, dimensions and ways of adjusting the product to different phone widths.
Each version helped us refine the same basic balance:
How do we keep it nice, functional and for everyone?
At the same time it had to remain simple, reliable and practical enough for everyday use.
00
A single piece covering the screen — originally designed as part of a full phone case.
We discarded the case. Our value isn't in covering the phone. It's in the ReCover itself.
01
A fixed version, offered in different sizes for different phones. Thinner, but impractical: people had to figure out and pick the right size themselves.
That impracticality is what pushed us to test an adjustable mechanism instead of fixed sizes.
02
First tests of an adjustment mechanism using side tabs, aiming to make ReCover more universal — fitting more phones with fewer, adjustable sizes instead of one fixed size per model.
03
The engraving went deeper, and the adjustment moved to double tabs with a 1mm "saw" edge — fine enough to lock precisely to each phone's width.
ReCover is designed to change the way we perceive our phones. Not making it inaccessible. If you want to use it, you still can.
Its purpose is simply to make the automatic route less automatic. That small physical interruption creates a moment in which an impulse can become a conscious decision.
Sometimes you will still unlock the phone. Sometimes you will realise you did not actually need it. Both are fine.
The important part is that the decision becomes yours again.
We used the prototypes in the same situations where we had originally noticed ourselves checking our phones automatically.
Using ReCover ourselves helped us simplify the product and improve the way it fitted different phones.
The process did not make the product more complicated.
It helped us remove what was unnecessary.
No battery.
No app.
No notification.
No subscription.
Just a physical pause between the impulse to check your phone and immediate access to the screen.
ReCover does not decide when you can use your smartphone.
It simply gives you a moment for agency.
To use your decision power.
The name ReCover came from two ideas.
First, it is literally a cover: a physical object that changes the way you access your phone.
But recover also expresses what we wanted the product to help bring back:
freedom, attention and a more intentional relationship with our phones.
The name captures both the product itself and the reason we built it.
We are Viki and Alo.
We did not want to get rid of smartphones.
We wanted to become more deliberate about when and why we used them.
ReCover came from trying to make that easier.
Our mission is simple: to help move smartphone use from automatic consumption towards conscious choice.
Before unlocking your phone, know what you want from it.
Technology should remain useful, connected and enjoyable.
But the decision to engage with it should belong to you.
A simple physical intervention designed to interrupt automatic phone checking before the screen takes over.
