Study with me online, with real people beside you

Why "study with me" works for so many people

Studying alone can be flat. There is nobody to set the pace, your phone is right there, and stopping for "just a minute" is easy. A lot of people find the opposite happens when others are around: the room sets a pace, and the pace carries you.

The "study with me" idea is exactly that. Someone works, you work. You are not in a lesson and nobody is coaching you. You are simply in good company while you get on with your own task.

Watching someone study versus studying together

There is a difference between watching a study session and joining one. Watching is passive: you press play and hope the example rubs off. Studying together is active. You pick a seat, you set your own goal, you start your own timer and your own work gets done.

In LockinTown you are a participant, not an audience. The other people in the room are real, they are working on their own things, and they can see that you are working too. That mutual awareness is what makes it feel different from a recording.

How to study together online in LockinTown

1. Open the app. Sign in with Google or Apple, or try it as a guest.
2. Pick a room. Choose a library, a cafe, a classroom and more. Twelve rooms are in the app, and some are open from your first visit.
3. Take a desk. You appear as a character, and so do the people around you.
4. Set your session. Choose 5 to 120 minutes, add a tag such as Study or Math and write a short goal.
5. Press start and work. Others in the room can see you are focusing, and you can see them.
6. Break, then repeat. Take a break of 1 to 30 minutes, start another session or leave when you are done.

Study with friends, or with people you have not met

You can use LockinTown two ways. Join a public room and study beside whoever is there, or bring people you know.

• Friends. Add friends by their friend code or ID, join the same room, or start a private room that only people with your invite can enter.
• Servers. A server is a community with its own page, chat and announcements. Servers can schedule group focus sessions, and members vote on the room.
• Everyone else. In a public room you will sit near others from many places. You can say hello with a wave or a cheer, or leave it quiet.

When a friend focuses in the same room for at least half of your session, your coins for that session double.

Quiet company, on your terms

Not everyone wants a call. LockinTown has no camera and no microphone. The app tells your browser not to allow either, so there is nothing to turn off and no one can see your face or hear your voice. If you want to talk, there is text chat in the room, with short messages and no links.

People in a room can see your display name, your character, your country flag, your timer and your focus tag or goal. You choose what to put there. The safety page explains your privacy choices, blocking and reporting.

Make the room feel like yours

• Music and sound. Choose a music station or an ambient sound such as rain, a fireplace, cafe murmur or turning pages.
• Your character. Dress them in outfits from the closet, and spend the coins you earn by focusing in the store.
• Streaks. A day counts after at least 5 minutes of focus, and the app tracks how many days in a row you have kept going.
• Stats. The Progress page shows your recent days and your top tags.

What to study

Anything that needs attention. Revision, reading, essays, problem sets, coding, writing, admin, even a hobby project. The default tags are Study, Reading, Coding, Writing and Math, and you can add your own, so a tag like "Thesis" or "Meditate" is one tap away.

If you are curious about how a timed block works, see the Pomodoro study room page. If you like the library feel, see the virtual library page.