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Pick a length and a bait, hold the seal to cast; when time is up the float dips, hold to reel in, and a sea creature joins your atlas.
- Basics
- Bait and shields
- Shortcut bait
- Data, backup and new phones
- Deep Water membership and purchases
- Shared pond and seals
- AI-generated content
- Contact
1. Basics
How long is a session?
15 to 120 minutes. 15–29 minutes fishes the Shallows, 30–69 the Deep Pool, 70 and up the Open Sea; each has its own creatures.
Can I lock my phone or switch apps?
Yes. Locking, switching apps and taking calls all still count. The Live Activity shows the float and countdown on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island.
What if I need to stop early?
Long-press "Leave" and confirm. Every minute you sat still counts, and the fish that got away waits at the same spot for 48 hours.
Can I pay for fish? Are there odds?
No purchase affects what you catch, and no odds are sold. The rules and odds are published in the app's Fisher's Notes.
2. Bait and shields
What is bait?
Hang the apps that pull you away on the hook. While the line is in, iOS Screen Time keeps them shut; they come back when you reel in. Bait is optional; everything else works without it.
How do I turn it on?
On the cast page tap "外饵" (Bait) to open the Bait Box, tap Authorize, allow it in the system prompt, then pick apps.
Time is up but an app is still shut
When the session ends, iOS tells Hook & Hour's monitor extension to lift the shield; this can arrive a few dozen seconds late. Opening Hook & Hour also clears any expired shield at once.
How do I revoke Hook & Hour's Screen Time access?
Turn off Hook & Hour's access in Settings › Screen Time. Any shields Hook & Hour set are lifted with it.
Can Hook & Hour see which apps I use?
No. iOS gives Hook & Hour only opaque tokens; Hook & Hour cannot tell which apps they are and does not read usage time. This data never leaves your phone. See the Privacy Policy.
3. Shortcut bait
In the Shortcuts app, create a shortcut with the system action "Take Screenshot" followed by "一竿 · 做饵". Run it from your Home Screen and Hook & Hour casts with that screenshot as the first frame.
- In this mode the whole screen is bait: every app except those you kept "ashore" in the Bait Box is shut until the session ends. You can long-press Leave at any time.
- The first run asks you to confirm; after that the shortcut casts directly.
- You add the screenshot step yourself; Hook & Hour cannot take screenshots. The image is used once, in memory only, and is never saved or uploaded.
4. Data, backup and new phones
Where is my history kept?
On your phone. Hook & Hour has no account and makes no network requests other than Apple's In-App Purchase services.
How do I move to a new phone?
Use iCloud Backup or a computer backup. Your sessions, catches, atlas and pond come along.
How do I export or delete my data?
Export your records in Settings. Deleting Hook & Hour deletes all of its data from your phone.
How does Hook & Hour relate to 一竿专注?
They are the same app. On a Chinese-language system both show as 一竿 on the Home Screen; on an English-language system Hook & Hour shows as Hook & Hour. Hook & Hour is provided by Inchfield Technologies Limited outside mainland China; 一竿专注 is provided by a separate mainland entity in mainland China only. They are separate apps: shared ponds and membership do not carry over, but you can export your atlas from one and import it into the other.
5. Deep Water membership and purchases
What can I use without paying?
Focusing, fishing, the reveal, your atlas and your pond are free, and the creatures of the main atlas can all be earned by focusing; one bait list and leaving at any time are free too. Deep Water (US$3.99 a month or US$29.99 a year; only the yearly plan has a 7-day free trial, for first-time subscribers only) and Deep Water Lifetime (US$59.99, one-time) are optional; the price in your region is the one the App Store shows. See section 6 of the Terms of Use.
How do I cancel a subscription?
In Settings › Apple Account › Subscriptions, at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Deleting the app does not cancel it.
New phone, and my membership is gone?
Sign in with the same Apple Account and tap Restore Purchases in 我的 (Me) › 深水 (Deep Water) or in Settings.
What happens when membership ends?
Your creatures, notes and history stay and free features keep working; member features stop until you renew. A line already in the water finishes, and shields are lifted at the end as usual.
6. Shared pond and seals from V1.2
What does a shared pond need?
An iCloud sign-in, on iPhone. The owner sends a system sharing link or QR code, and others accept it to join. For what members can and cannot see, read section 8 of the Privacy Policy.
New phone, and every friend's seal says "re-exchange"?
Your seal key lives only on your old phone; it is not synced through iCloud or kept in backups. After switching or erasing your phone, exchange seals with friends again in person. Fish letters you had not opened can no longer be opened. Your seal book and traded fish are still there.
7. AI-generated content
In line with the EU AI Act's transparency rules:
- Images: the creature portraits, scene paintings of the fishing spots and pond, and the app icon start from AI-generated images, which are then selected, retouched and composited by hand.
- Voices: the voices of the old fisherman and the modern reader in the narrations and dialogues are AI speech synthesis, cloned from original dialogue audio that was itself synthesized; the Tianjin and Chengdu dialect voices in the modern-object notes are a speech model's preset voices. None of them is a real person's voice.
- Motion: the appearance clips of featured creatures and the animation in short science films are generated by AI from the portraits, then cut out and edited.
- Text: some text was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by people.
- Drawn by code: live ripples, the float, weather and particles are rendered by the app itself and are not AI-generated.
In the app, film end cards, narration playback and atlas portraits carry their own labels, and generated files carry implicit labels in their metadata. Hook & Hour offers no AI generation features to users and never uses your data to train any model.
8. Contact
Email: [email protected]
Developer: Inchfield Technologies Limited