For classrooms

Boredom Mode is a set of small toys and a small music studio for iPhone: pop domes, carve sand, draw a picture that plays as a song, make a beat, and mix it all together. Here is what a teacher needs to know, in special education, music, or any room with a few minutes to fill.

Nothing to set up, nothing to sign off

• No internet. The app never connects to the internet, so it works the same in any room, with no network to set up.
• No accounts. No sign-in, no names, no class codes.
• No data collected. Boredom Mode collects nothing about anyone, so there is no student data for it to store or share. Its App Store privacy label reads "Data Not Collected". The Privacy Policy says exactly what stays on the device.
• No ads, nothing to buy inside. Paid once, with no subscription.
• The microphone stays off until a grown-up turns on Recording, after a grown-up question. Recordings stay on the device.

Buying for a school

Each copy is paid once. Apple offers schools a volume discount on 20 or more copies of an app, through Apple School Manager. Where Boredom Mode is part of it, the discount shows there when you buy.

iPhone and iPad

Boredom Mode is made for iPhone (iOS 17 or later). It also runs on iPad today, in iPhone mode. A full iPad version is planned.

Setting up a device for class

• Calm makes the whole app quieter and softer, and nothing starts by itself. Choose it under Feel in settings.
• Stay on one toy opens the app straight into one toy and hides the house button, so a child stays where you put them.
• Hide toys you don't need today. At least one always stays.
• Guided Access, built into the iPhone and iPad, keeps the device in this one app. How to set it up.
• On silent, there is no sound. Check the silent switch before a lesson that needs sound.
• Start fresh in settings clears everything made in the toys, ready for the next class.

Settings open only with a press and hold on the gear button, so a quick tap from a child never opens them.

Simple ideas for class

These are small ways to use what the app already does.

• A beat to start the lesson. Beats is a drum sequencer: tap squares to build a beat, then press play and it loops. Children take turns changing a square and hearing what it does.
• Draw a song. In Glow, a child draws with colored pegs of light and presses play. The picture plays as a song, always in tune, and a soft line of light shows which pegs are sounding.
• Take turns on Mix. One child makes a beat in Beats, another draws in Glow, another plays a loop on EM8, the small synthesizer. Mix plays them together. Children take turns sliding their lane up for louder or down for quieter.
• Keep what you made. After the grown-up question, a teacher can save a song, a beat or the whole mix as a sound file or a MIDI file, with the device's own Save to Files.
• A short break. Pop domes, carve sand or ripple water between activities.

Questions

Write to support@boredommode.com. How every toy works is on the Support page.