How to track Dry January on an iPhone

The free ways first, then what a dedicated counter actually adds.

The short answer

Tracking Dry January needs two things: the date you started, and a way to see how many days it has been without working it out in your head. Everything else — charts, streak badges, a feed of strangers — is optional, and for most people it is noise.

Do it for free, without installing anything

These genuinely work, and for a single month they may be all you need:

• A note or a calendar event with the start date. You do the arithmetic. Free, private, and nothing to maintain.
• Apple's Health app records alcohol consumption if you log it. It keeps the history; it does not show you a day count.
• Try Dry, from Alcohol Change UK — the charity that runs Dry January. Free, and it comes with their coaching material. If you want the campaign's own programme rather than a number, start there.
• Drink Free Days, from the NHS. Free, aimed at cutting down rather than stopping.

When a dedicated counter is worth it

One reason, mostly: you want to see the number without opening anything. A Lock Screen widget puts the day count where you already look twenty times a day, and that is a different experience from remembering to check an app.

The second reason is the one people hit on about day 9: an app that congratulates you loudly, or shows you other people's streaks, can make a bad day worse. A counter that shows one number and nothing else does not.

What Kern does

Kern is a sobriety counter for iPhone with a Lock Screen widget. It shows one number — the days — on the Lock Screen, in a home-screen widget, and in a plain app. No account, no ads, no subscription, and no data collected. It is free for the one thing you are counting; a single one-time purchase adds more counts, and nothing about the first one moves behind it.

• Lock Screen, three sizes — a ring, a panel, or one line above the clock
• Start on 1 January, or backdate it — the date can be in the past
• Milestones from day 1 to 1000 — marked, not celebrated loudly
• Start over honestly — log the slip on the day it happened, and undo a mis-tap
• Personal best kept across a reset — twelve days stay on the record
• Optional money-not-spent — off unless you turn it on

Honest limits

Kern is a counter, not a clinical tool, and not affiliated with Dry January or Alcohol Change UK. It has no coaching, no community, and no advice. If what you want is a programme with support in it, the charity's own app is the better choice and it is free.

More answers

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