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yolkling is a virtual pet that grows when you take care of yourself in real life. your steps, sleep, and time off your phone feed your yolk, and you collect new yolks and dress them up. it is made by one person, it is completely free, and it is the only app that actually wants you to put your phone down. everything below is free to use in a story, no need to ask.

fact sheet

name: Yolkling
developer: Sankritya Thakur, one person
price: free, no ads, no in-app purchases
platform: iOS (iPhone)
requires: iOS 18 or later
category: Lifestyle
website: yolkling.com
press contact: hey@yolkling.com

one sentence

for a quick mentionYolkling is a virtual pet that grows when you take care of yourself in real life.

one paragraph

for brief coverageYolkling is a free iOS app built by one person, a small virtual creature you hatch and raise by actually living well. Steps, sleep, and time away from your phone feed it and make it visibly livelier, and a gentle daily check-in and focus sessions earn you a soft currency to dress it up and grow your collection. There is no gacha, no loot boxes, and no in-app purchases: everything is earned. Friends can visit each other's rooms and send kind notes. It is, as far as we can tell, the only app that wants you off your phone.

the longer version

for a feature

Most apps compete for your attention. Yolkling is built to give it back. It is a cozy virtual pet, called a “yolk,” that you hatch by picking a color and a look, and it becomes genuinely yours over a few weeks of care: it warms up to you, learns to wave, and starts celebrating your wins, but only from things you do for yourself, never from tapping on it.

Connect Apple Health, optionally, and your steps and last night's sleep make the creature visibly livelier on the days you take care of yourself. Start a focus session and it rests and glows while your phone stays face down. Turn on Screen Time, also optional, and the time you spend away from your phone feeds it too, privacy blind: it only ever knows how long, never what you were doing. On a rough day it just gets sleepy, never sick or sad. The team's one hard rule is no guilt mechanics, ever.

The economy is entirely earned: a daily mood check-in, focus sessions, and healthy days pay out a soft currency spent on hats, colors, and room decor, never real money. Friends add each other with a code, visit one another's rooms, and send small kind notes. There are no ads, no subscriptions, and no tracking. It is a one-person project made because the developer wanted an app that was actually on their side.

the angle, if you want one

a few honest hooks, pick whichever fits your outlet:

the anti-doomscroll pet. most virtual pets guilt you into opening the app. this one is designed to reward you for closing it.
built by one person. no studio, no funding round, no growth team. just someone who wanted a wellbeing app that felt kind instead of naggy.
no dark patterns, on purpose.no streak-loss guilt, no loot boxes, no gacha, no push notifications begging you back. the “sleepy, never sick” rule is a real product decision, not a slogan.
privacy by default. health and screen-time signals are processed on device. nothing is sold, nothing is tracked across apps.

assets

app icon and a set of real screenshots, straight off the device, no framing added.

icon-1024.png ↓

growing from steps, sleep, and time off your phone

about the developer

Sankritya Thakur is building Yolkling solo, end to end, design and code. no team, no investors. happy to do interviews, demos, or a quick call, just ask.

get in touch

fastest way to reach a real person for interviews, review copies, or anything else.

hey@yolkling.com

yolkling, made by one person who wants an app that wants you off your phone.