Study with your friend online, without a video call
You and one friend share a board for today. You each run your own focus timer, and you can each see when the other is studying. It works in the browser on your phone or laptop, and it is free for two.
Why not just leave a video call on?
Plenty of students study on a WhatsApp or Meet call that runs for hours. It eats mobile data, it needs a camera pointed at your desk, and it gets awkward when a roommate walks in at 1 am.
What keeps you at the desk is knowing your friend can see whether you started. FocusTribe shows exactly that and nothing else: no camera, no microphone, no chat. Keep talking on WhatsApp. Study here.
How it works
- 1Sign in. With Google, or with a six digit code sent to your email.
- 2Send the invite on WhatsApp. Your friend taps the link and lands in your workspace. Telegram, SMS or a copied link work too.
- 3Plan today on one board. A column each. Write the actual topic, like “Polity, Laxmikanth ch. 12” or “Organic chemistry, 30 PYQs”.
- 4Start your own timer. Your first block is 10 minutes, then 25 by default, and you can change it. Your friend sees you go into focus straight away.
What your partner sees
- Whether you are in focus, on a break or away
- The task you are on right now
- What you planned and finished today
- Your pair streak
- Your screen
- A camera: there is none
- Your daily journal, which stays private to you
Built for long preparation
UPSC, CA, GATE, CAT, JEE and NEET preparation runs for months, and the hard day is not the first one. It is an ordinary Tuesday in month four. That is when most aspirants quit, and it is the day a partner matters most.
The pair streak counts the days you both finished something. If your friend has not started, one tap sends them a short email nudge, at most once every three hours. Rain or white noise can play in the focus room, the break room has a guided breath for the minute between blocks, and a private journal shows you what helped and what distracted you.
How to pick a study partner
- The same exam, or the same stage. Somebody whose hard weeks fall when yours do.
- Similar study hours. You do not need the same timetable, but you should both be at the desk on most days.
- Someone who will say something. A friend who would message you if you skipped a day is worth more than the most disciplined stranger.
When this is the wrong tool
There is no matching and there are no public rooms. If you want to study on camera with strangers, a live study room suits you better, and we keep an honest comparison of them. Not studying for an exam? The same workspace is a Pomodoro timer you can use with a friend.
Frequently asked
Can I study with a friend in another city?
Yes. Nothing is scheduled and the timers are not linked, so each of you starts when you are ready. It works the same for a friend in Kota while you are in Lucknow as it does for two rooms in one hostel.
Do we need a video call or a webcam?
No. There is no video, no audio and no chat anywhere in FocusTribe. Your partner sees your status and your task board, and nothing else.
Does it use much mobile data?
There is no video stream, so it uses far less data than a video call left open for hours. The ambient sounds are audio files, so leave them off if your data pack is small.
Is it useful for UPSC, CA, JEE or NEET preparation?
It gives you no study material. It helps with the daily part that decides whether preparation lasts: planning today’s topics, running focus blocks, and keeping a pair streak going for months with somebody who notices when you skip.
Can more than two people join?
No. A workspace holds exactly two people on every plan, because accountability between two people works differently from a group. A group of four can make two pairs.
Is it free, and do I need to install anything?
It is free for you and one partner, with no card, and sessions are never limited. A paid Pro plan keeps your history beyond 14 days. It runs in the browser on your phone or laptop, and you can add it to your home screen like an app.
What Pro adds, and what it costs where you are, is on the pricing page.
Message one friend today.
Tomorrow, somebody notices whether you sat down. That is the whole setup.
Invite your study partner