"Did I lock it?" one-tap check-in app
Problem
People with checking compulsions leave the house and immediately panic about whether they locked the door or turned off the stove. The current workaround is snapping photos of the deadbolt and stove dials before leaving — which works, but floods the camera roll with pictures that must be manually deleted.
Opportunity
A dead-simple app with big tappable buttons (front door, stove, garage): one tap logs a timestamped photo-proof that stays in the app instead of the camera roll, with haptic confirmation and a scrollable 'last time I checked' history to calm the anxiety loop.
Market analysis
This exact product already exists: Pruvd is a checking-OCD app built around timestamped photo, video and voice proof of locked doors and off stoves, live on the App Store and actively marketed. The remaining space is a non-clinical, cross-platform framing (Pruvd appears iOS-only) and a deliberately dumb-fast one-tap UX rather than a therapy-flavored experience.
Market · People with checking compulsions and garden-variety leaving-the-house anxiety; niche but high-need, with the Reddit thread itself as a demand signal.
Pricing · Mental-health check-in apps typically run freemium with $3-8/month or ~$20/year pro tiers; one-time unlock also plausible for a utility framing.
Pros
- + Trivially small MVP — camera, timestamped local log, big buttons.
- + Demand is proven by both the thread and an existing commercial app.
- + Android/non-clinical positioning is a real gap left by Pruvd.
Cons
- − Pruvd already ships the core feature set on iOS.
- − Mental-health positioning carries duty-of-care and store-review sensitivity.
- − Photo-proof can itself become a checking compulsion — OCD clinicians warn reassurance rituals feed the loop.
Existing / similar tools
- → Pruvd ↗
Source
r/SomebodyMakeThis (Reddit)
The uncomfortable truth from OCD communities is that photo-proof apps can become part of the disorder: the reassurance works once, then doubt creeps back and the user is re-checking the app instead of the door. A builder who wants to differentiate honestly should design for that — e.g. a gentle “you already verified this 12 minutes ago” interstitial that makes re-checking slower than trusting the log, borrowed from ERP practice — rather than optimizing for infinite engagement with the proof feed. That framing is also the defensible story against Pruvd, instead of a feature-checklist fight.