Genkan Beta
An intention layer
for the apps designed
to exploit you.
Genkan sits between you and the platforms that pull you away from your own intentions. Before you open them, it asks what you're there for. While you're there, it keeps time. When you leave, it asks how it went.
A genkan is the entryway in a Japanese home, school, or office. It functions as the place for removing one's shoes, but also symbolizes the break between the impure outside and the sanctity of space within. Besides being an apt name for a tool that pauses in the space between your world and the internet, no tech project is complete without naming something with a fancy foreign word.
A first tool, not a finished product.
This is an early beta — an honest prototype, not a polished app. It does a few things well: it asks you about your intentions before opening a time-consuming platform, it tracks how long you spend, and it engages you to reflect when you leave. Over time, those reflections build into a personal record of how your online behavior aligns — or doesn't — with what you actually want from your time. They begin to fill your Vault with values, experiences, and responses that will enable other coming TGIP tools like rightwire, helping you re-code your internet environment.
Genkan works as a web app, which means it runs in your browser and can be saved to your home screen. It does not currently integrate directly with native iOS or Android apps — that's a known limitation we're working toward. For common platforms (YouTube, Instagram, X, Reddit, the Wall Street Journal, etc.), genkan includes an "Open" button after your intention check that takes you directly to the web version. On many mobile devices, this will prompt your phone to open the native app instead. For now, this is the most effective available bridge between the intention-check and actual use — and it works. While seemingly insignificant — and occasionally a little irritating — this layer of friction can have a profound impact on the online experience.
A scenario to walk through.
Rather than exploring freely, try going through genkan as if you've decided you spend too much time on one particular platform — YouTube, Instagram, wherever it is for you. Follow these steps:
Go through onboarding honestly
The opening questions aren't decoration. Answer them as you actually would — especially "what does the internet take from you?" Your answers shape how the tool responds to you throughout the session.
Add at least one app you have a complicated relationship with
This is the platform where you open it for one reason and surface twenty minutes later having done something else entirely. Set a time budget that feels realistic — not aspirational, honest.
Actually use it before going to that platform
Open genkan, state your intention, use the "Open" button to go to the platform, then come back to genkan when you're done and complete the reflection. The friction of that loop is the point.
Look at the review screen after a few sessions
This is where the tool starts to show its purpose. The pattern of what you said you'd do versus what actually happened — in your own words — is more honest than any metric an app could give you.
Your honest reaction matters more than encouragement.
After using genkan, we'd genuinely like to know:
- After the intro screen, what did you think this tool was for? Did the reality match?
- Was there any moment where you weren't sure what to do next?
- Did the intention-check feel meaningful, or did it feel like a hoop to jump through?
- What's missing that would make you actually use this as part of your daily routine?
- How long did you give genkan a try? Did it become part of your workflow?
- Would you continue using this? Why or why not — be direct, please.
The values, goals, and reflections you enter in genkan aren't just for this session. They are the beginning of your TGIP Vault — a private record of your stated goals and intentions and how your online behavior measures against them. As TGIP develops with more advanced tools, this Vault becomes the foundation for a personalized good internet: one where your own values, not a platform's commercial interests, govern what you see, how long you stay, and what happens when you leave.
Open genkan.
Takes about two minutes to set up. Works best if you actually try to use it before going online.
Open genkan →For the best experience, save genkan to your home screen — it'll open like a native app and be one tap away when you need it. On iOS, tap the Share button in Safari then "Add to Home Screen." On Android, tap the three-dot menu in Chrome then "Add to Home Screen."
Send us your thoughts.
Feedback can be as brief or as detailed as you like. The questions above are a guide, not a form — whatever is most useful to say is what we want to hear. Send to info@good-internet.org with the subject line "Genkan beta."
If you want to keep using it and share what you observe over time, even better. The most useful signal right now is whether the core loop — intention, session, reflection — has any real effect on how you use the platform you designated.