How stosmok works
A plain explanation of the app, for someone who has not opened it yet.
First run
Getting started
The first time you open stosmok, setup takes you through a few short animated screens: your language, a welcome, your smoking habit (cigarettes a day, pack size and price, used to calculate money saved), when you quit (right now, or a past date and time if you have already stopped), your reasons for quitting, and a screen about privacy, reminders and optional crash reports. If you are moving from another phone, tap Restore from another phone on the welcome screen instead.
At the end, your dragon hatches. It starts small, grey and coughing. Everything you see after that (the progress ring, the numbers on the home screen, and the health timeline) is calculated from the answers you gave.
Your dragon
Your dragon's stages
Your dragon changes based on your current smoke-free time, not on anything you buy. Skins change how a stage looks, not when it arrives.
Ashling
Small and grey. Cannot fly. Coughs up soot. Its eyes look tired.
Ember
Some warm colour comes back to its belly. It stops coughing.
Cinder
More colour. Taller, with half-grown wings. Reacts when you tap it.
Blaze
Full wings and a flame on its tail. Breathes light instead of smoke.
Skyborn
Full colour. Flies well. Breathes light.
Astral
The last stage. Glowing light around it, star patterns on its body, and it breathes starlight.
When you log a cigarette, your dragon's health score goes down for a short time and comes back over the next two days. Not opening the app never lowers its health.
SOS
What to do during a craving
You can open SOS from every screen. Choose any of the four tools. There is no wrong choice.
When the craving has passed, you answer two quick questions: how strong it was and what caused it. If you smoked, tap I smoked instead. The next section explains what happens then.
If you smoke
There are two different things you can tell the app. They do different things.
Logging a cigarette. Tap I smoked on the home screen or in SOS, or answer Yes to “Did you smoke today?” in the daily check-in. You choose how many cigarettes. Your quit keeps going, and your smoke-free clock is not reset. The app lowers your cigarettes-not-smoked and money-saved numbers so they stay correct, and your dragon's health score goes down for about two days. Nothing else changes.
Starting a new quit. If you are smoking every day again, tap Start a new quit in the same place. Only you can do this. The app never does it for you. Your current quit ends and a new one starts, so the clock and your dragon start again from the beginning. The time you were smoke free before is not deleted. Your lifetime smoke-free time adds up every attempt, and it never goes down. If you were smoke free for 400 days across three attempts, the app still shows those 400 days on the first day of your fourth attempt. You also keep your badges and your level.
The app does not show guilt messages or sad animations when you smoke. Its job is to keep helping you on the next day.
How the health timeline works
The Progress tab shows a timeline of fifteen health milestones, from your heart rate going down after 20 minutes to your overall risk being close to a non-smoker's after 20 years. Each one is reached automatically when your current smoke-free time gets there, and the app shows a message the first time.
The same screen groups the milestones by the part of the body they affect (heart and circulation, blood and oxygen, lungs and airways, taste and smell, immune system, and long-term risk), so you can quickly see what has already improved.
Every milestone comes from CDC and NHS guidance on quitting smoking, and the sources are shown on the same screen. The app also estimates cigarettes not smoked, money saved and life gained. For life gained it uses 11 minutes for each cigarette not smoked, a figure from a 2000 study by Shaw, Mitchell and Dorling in the BMJ. All of these numbers are marked as estimates.
stosmok is not a medical device and does not provide medical advice. Health timings come from CDC and NHS guidance on quitting smoking and are shown as estimates. The life-expectancy figure used in the app (11 minutes regained per cigarette not smoked) comes from Shaw, Mitchell and Dorling, BMJ 2000. If you want medical support to quit, speak to a doctor or a smoking cessation service.
Your data
Backup and moving to a new phone
There are three layers, so you do not lose your progress if you lose your phone.
Layer 1. The local database
All your data is stored on your phone, in a local database. The app reads and writes only there, and it works with no internet at all.
Layer 2. Automatic device backup
Once a day, the app saves a copy of your data in a place your phone includes in its normal backup: iCloud backup on iPhone, and Android Auto Backup on Android. You do not sign in to anything in the app. When you set up a new phone with the same Apple ID or Google account, your data comes back.
Layer 3. A transfer file
A single .stosmok file that you create in Settings, under Move to a new phone. It is the only way to move your data between iPhone and Android, because each platform's backup only works on that platform. You send it with the normal share menu, so Google Drive, iCloud Drive, AirDrop, email and messaging apps all work. You can lock it with a passphrase if you want. Before a restore, the app shows a summary and asks you to confirm, because a restore replaces the data on the phone.
To move from an iPhone to an Android phone, or the other way, use the transfer file. Open Settings, then Move to a new phone, and follow the steps. iCloud backup and Android Auto Backup only work between phones of the same kind.
Badges, levels and challenges
The Rewards tab has two parts: your badges (the ones you have not earned yet are shown locked) and this week's challenges. The shop for dragon skins and themes opens from the same screen.
Most things you do earn XP (experience points): a daily check-in, beating a craving, writing in your journal, finishing a challenge, reaching a health milestone, and earning a badge. XP adds up to levels. Levels unlock free cosmetic items and badge frames, never features you need. Items you can buy and items you earn are different sets, so buying never replaces earning, and earning is never blocked until you pay.
Still have questions?
The support page covers pricing, refunds, and moving your data to a new phone.