Lock&Stock app which rewards students for turning phones off now in Pakistan

Dubai-based tech startup Lock&Stock has begun "ground operations" in Pakistan, the company announced in a statement issued Monday.

Lock&Stock offers a free mobile application that encourages students to keep their smartphones turned off. 

The application is programmed to track the amount of time a student spends away from their phone and blocks their social media notifications, allowing students to focus on doing the things they love.

Students are rewarded with one "key" for every minute they keep their phones locked. They can use these keys for offers and discounts from food, leisure, and retail brands; securing scholarships from top universities around the world; or applying for jobs and internships to different organisations.

Students compete with each other and top-performing users are given a weekly prize. The application also allows students to add their friends to compete against each other.

While discounts and offers are an incentive for students to keep off their phones, Lock&Stock launched a scholarship platform built into the application allowing students to access a network of over 400 universities from around the world.

These universities provide students with fee waivers and bursaries in exchange for students keeping away from their digital devices. 

In 2019 alone, Lock&Stock students secured over half a million dollars in various scholarships and fee waivers through the application. This year, students have secured over a million dollars in scholarships for their September enrollments.

"Since [the app's] inception in the UAE back in 2017, over 50,000 students have spent a combined 558 years offline," the statement issued by Lock&Stock said.

“Digital addiction among students is on the rise, with 16-18 year-olds especially spending hundreds of hours glued to their smartphones. Our brand's purpose is to improve the lives of students and we aim to fight digital addiction among students from around the world," Craig Fernandes, 23-year-old co-founder, and CEO of Lock&Stock, was quoted as saying in the statement. 

Lock&Stock can be downloaded for free from the Google Play Store and App Store.