questions about dimmer

dimmer is a free Chrome extension that makes distracting sites gray, slow and harder to open, with an accountability partner who gets told if you quit. it works on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, X, Reddit and Facebook out of the box, and on any other site you add.

yes. the free plan puts a short pause in front of two sites, and on every site you dim it turns them gray, hides their feeds, tucks their results away on Google and shows a time badge. it also lets you add one accountability partner. dimmer pro adds slow video, sluggish scroll, half screen, check-ins and a pause on every site, for $4.99 a month or $39 a year ($29 a year for the first 500 founding members).

no. nothing is ever blocked. a site you dim takes a few seconds to open, looks dull and plays slower, and you can always continue. the way back to what you were doing is always the bigger button.

Chrome on a computer: Windows, macOS, Linux or ChromeOS. there is no phone app, and dimmer can’t change other apps on your computer.

numbers, never pages: a weekly summary of how often you met the pause, went back or kept going, and for how long. they also get an email if you break the promise you wrote, go quiet for a while, or remove dimmer.

no. the addresses, hostnames and titles of the pages you visit never leave your browser. if you make an account, dimmer’s server gets your email, your time zone, your plan, your partner’s name and email, your promise, when dimmer last checked in, and daily counts. nothing else.

yes, always. turning things up works straight away. turning them down, pausing dimmer or removing a site waits 24 hours, and you can cancel it until then. that delay is the point: the decision gets made by the calmer version of you.

yes. tap “dim this site” on any site, or type it in settings. Chrome asks your permission for that one site, and only that site. you can dim a whole site, one subdomain, or one path like youtube.com/shorts.

dimmer isn’t out yet. join the waitlist on the home page and you’ll get one email the day it’s in the Chrome Web Store.