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Hydration Hostage
Your screen stays locked until you actually drink water
Reminders are easy to ignore. Dismissing a notification costs nothing. So Hydration Hostage doesn't remind. It locks your Mac on a schedule and only unlocks when the camera (100% on-device, nothing uploaded) sees you actually take a sip. Three escalating modes depending how much you trust yourself. One-time purchase, no subscription. The first of a series of apps that make you do the thing instead of nagging you to. Reminders ask. Hydration Hostage enforces.
I've tried many hydration reminders and ignored all of them. By 4PM my hydration status is two coffees, regret, and "I should drink more water tomorrow". The problem was never remembering. It's that dismissing a notification is free. So I removed that option.
Hydration Hostage sits in your menu bar, and on your schedule it takes over your screen. The normal way out is simple: take an actual sip of water. The camera checks locally and unlocks when it sees the cup reach your mouth. Reminders ask. This enforces. A few things people usually want to know:
100% on-device — Apple's Vision framework handles it. Nothing recorded, nothing uploaded, works fully offline. Esc is always an emergency exit. It's enforcement, not ransomware.
Three modes — Gentle (it asks), Enforcer (it checks), Hostage (it doesn't trust you). Pick how much accountability you can handle.
7-day premium free trial. One-time purchase if you'd love it, no subscription. Buy it once, it's yours.
It's the first of a series — I build apps for problems I caused myself.
It's v1.0 from a solo dev, so I'd genuinely love your feedback. Three things I'm curious about: 1. What's the longest you've gone without water on a deep-work day (be honest)? 2. Have you tried a hydration app before and what made you quit it? 3. What habit should I make it enforce next? (squats and posture are already in the pile 👀)
About Hydration Hostage on Product Hunt
“Your screen stays locked until you actually drink water”
Hydration Hostage was submitted on Product Hunt and earned 5 upvotes and 1 comments, placing #120 on the daily leaderboard. Reminders are easy to ignore. Dismissing a notification costs nothing. So Hydration Hostage doesn't remind. It locks your Mac on a schedule and only unlocks when the camera (100% on-device, nothing uploaded) sees you actually take a sip. Three escalating modes depending how much you trust yourself. One-time purchase, no subscription. The first of a series of apps that make you do the thing instead of nagging you to. Reminders ask. Hydration Hostage enforces.
On the analytics side, Hydration Hostage competes within Health & Fitness, Productivity and Menu Bar Apps — topics that collectively have 750.8k followers on Product Hunt. The dashboard above tracks how Hydration Hostage performed against the three products that launched closest to it on the same day.
Who hunted Hydration Hostage?
Hydration Hostage was hunted by Huy Vu. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
For a complete overview of Hydration Hostage including community comment highlights and product details, visit the product overview.
Huy Vu
Hey Product Hunt 👋 I'm Huy.
I've tried many hydration reminders and ignored all of them. By 4PM my hydration status is two coffees, regret, and "I should drink more water tomorrow". The problem was never remembering. It's that dismissing a notification is free. So I removed that option.
Hydration Hostage sits in your menu bar, and on your schedule it takes over your screen. The normal way out is simple: take an actual sip of water. The camera checks locally and unlocks when it sees the cup reach your mouth. Reminders ask. This enforces.
A few things people usually want to know:
100% on-device — Apple's Vision framework handles it. Nothing recorded, nothing uploaded, works fully offline. Esc is always an emergency exit. It's enforcement, not ransomware.
Three modes — Gentle (it asks), Enforcer (it checks), Hostage (it doesn't trust you). Pick how much accountability you can handle.
7-day premium free trial. One-time purchase if you'd love it, no subscription. Buy it once, it's yours.
It's the first of a series — I build apps for problems I caused myself.
You can try it here: hydrationhostage.com
It's v1.0 from a solo dev, so I'd genuinely love your feedback. Three things I'm curious about:
1. What's the longest you've gone without water on a deep-work day (be honest)?
2. Have you tried a hydration app before and what made you quit it?
3. What habit should I make it enforce next? (squats and posture are already in the pile 👀)