WeWard lets users lock apps until they hit step goals

WeWard is best known for paying users to log their steps, but its new feature ties that habit directly to screen time. With Walking Mode, a user can restrict access to selected apps — TikTok or Instagram, for example — until they walk a set number of steps, such as 3,000. Both the step goal and the list of locked apps are customizable, so the restriction can be tuned to how much walking, and how much of a given app, a user wants in their day. The company says the feature is supposed to motivate people to walk while also helping them cut down on screen time, for those looking to do so.

Until now, WeWard’s core mechanic was rewarding steps rather than restricting apps: it awards an in-app currency called “Wards” for walking, which users can exchange for cash, gift cards, or donations. There’s also a gamified leaderboard feature, letting users engage in some gentle competition with their friends over who walks the most. Walking Mode adds a screen-time-reduction angle on top of that reward system, without replacing it — a shift the company frames as responding to users already looking for new ways to limit unnecessary phone and social media use.

The France-based app has funding from tennis star and angel investor Venus Williams. WeWard says it has 30 million users across 29 countries, including 4 million U.S. users, and that its data shows the app increases users’ walking time by almost 25%.

“We believe the next generation of products should be designed to create healthier behaviors in the real world, not simply capture more attention,” WeWard co-founder Yves Benchimol told TechCrunch. “Walking Mode is our contribution to that vision, and we hope it inspires a broader conversation about mindful design and how the industry defines success.”

WeWard says users spend only a few minutes per day in the app, which it treats as a positive sign rather than a shortfall, since the app isn’t designed to monopolize attention. The company also says that, unlike some rewards apps that fund their payouts by collecting and selling user data to third parties, it does not engage in that practice. Instead, WeWard says it makes money from in-app purchases, affiliate marketing, premium subscriptions, and advertising.

Why it matters

Walking Mode positions WeWard against the broader attention economy, betting that a product designed to reduce its own usage — rather than maximize it — can still sustain a business through purchases, subscriptions, and ads instead of user data.