Altar is an iPhone app that replaces doomscrolling with scripture: a Bible you scroll like a feed, and a Prayer Lock that keeps distracting apps closed until you’ve read.
In a paragraph
Altar gives the habit of scrolling somewhere better to go. Its feed is full-screen verses and short passages, matched to the topics a reader chooses, from anxiety and grief to hope and rest. Prayer Lock uses Apple’s Screen Time to keep chosen apps closed until the reader has read three verses, prayed for a minute or recited a memory verse, and there is always a way out. Streaks, Advent and Lent challenges, verse wallpapers and widgets help the habit last. The King James Version and World English Bible are built in and work offline. There is no account, and nothing a reader does leaves their iPhone. Altar is free; Altar+ adds more lock schedules and rules, every theme, memorisation and more. Altar is made by ELAQ Limited.
What it does
Scroll: a vertical feed of verses across 16 topics. Double-tap to say Amen, save a verse, share it, or open the whole chapter.
Prayer Lock: uses Apple’s Screen Time to put a “Pray first” screen over the apps you choose. Unlock for 5, 15 or 30 minutes by reading, praying or reciting. Altar never sees which apps they are.
Challenges: Advent (26 days from 29 November 2026), Lent (47 days from Ash Wednesday, 10 February 2027) and 40 Days Off Doomscrolling, which starts any day.
Streaks: a daily goal in verses or minutes, and a flame that grows as you keep it.
Verse wallpapers and widgets: Lock Screen wallpapers laid out around the clock, and Verse of the Day and Streak widgets.
Read and memorise: the full Bible with search, highlights and bookmarks, and memorise decks with spaced review.
Logos
The mark is a candle flame inside an arch, standing on an altar table: a quiet place to pray, without picking a denomination.
