Ancient
Antiquity through the early Middle Ages
Founders, generals, philosophers and scientists whose thinking shaped every era after them.
For example: Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Sun Tzu, Hypatia, Ashoka.
The library · 800+ ghosts and counting
Meet a mind that changed history.
The library holds 800+ historical figures and the 7,800+ chapters that trace their lives. Each finished Deep Focus session catches one chapter, painted in dot by dot while your phone stays down. The library keeps growing: 400 ghosts in 2024, 800+ today.
The apparition is the point.
While you work, the image paints itself in on your screen, dot by dot, over the length of your session. The reveal is the reward. Finishing is how you catch it. Leave the app and the clock knows; quit early and the apparition gets away.
What you catch is a chapter, and the chapters come in order. Together they become a record of what you chose to focus on, and who joined you for it.
A life, in order.
A ghost is not one picture. Every ghost is a life told in order, chapter by chapter. New and rebuilt ghosts open cold: where they came from, who they were before the name meant anything. The middle chapters are the years they made their name, and the last is how it ended and what outlived them. Catch every chapter and the portrait closes in a gold ring, under the app's own line: their story is yours now.
Each quote comes with an image, labelled with its source. Carl Sagan on how love makes the vastness bearable, over Apollo 8's Earthrise photograph. Seneca on how short life feels to the unfocused. Ada Lovelace on the poetic side of machines.
Catch the Ghost is built by history lovers. Every ghost is curated by humans, starting with the figures we find inspiring. That curation keeps going, so the library keeps getting better, and every image in the app shows where it came from.
Quote, Story, Image.
Every chapter is one of three types. A Quote is a line attributed to them, with its setting. An Image is a picture from their world, with a caption. A Story is a short passage from their life, written to be read in the minute after you catch it.
Here is Alexander Fleming at his bench, with vials of penicillin crossing the Channel by the crate, over a color photograph of him at work. Tap More to read the rest. How chapters and apparitions work.
Your library grows with every catch.
The Ghosts tab is a running record of who you've caught, each portrait showing how far into their story you are. Open a ghost and you get their portrait behind the scroll, their gallery in the order their life happened, and their biography. Every face there is focus time your feed didn't get.
Any chapter can leave the app with you. Save the artwork straight to your photos, or open the share editor and put the quote on it: three templates in 9:16 or 4:5, with the type sized how you want it. One image, ready for wherever you were going to post it.
Three eras
The library spans three eras, from Hypatia's Alexandria to Carl Sagan's Earthrise. Free players can catch ghosts from all three. Legendary ghosts, the rarest, come with Pro.
Modern
Renaissance through the 19th century
The architects of the scientific method, the abolitionists, and the monarchs who set modern institutions in motion.
For example: Ada Lovelace, Frederick Douglass, Queen Elizabeth I, Montesquieu, Sōjun Ikkyū.
Contemporary
20th and 21st century
Scientists, athletes, writers and leaders within living memory.
For example: Carl Sagan, James Baldwin, Marie Curie, Shuri Tsukiyama, Nelson Mandela.
Rarity tiers
Every ghost has one of four rarities: Common, Rare, Very Rare or Legendary. Rarity pays at the finish. The session that catches a ghost's last chapter pays 10x, and rarity multiplies that again. Legendary is the only tier that needs Pro. Here's what that last session pays on its own; streaks and rooms add more.
| Tier | Access | Finish multiplier | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Common | Free and Pro | 1x | Finishing a Common ghost pays 90 coins. |
| Rare | Free and Pro | 1.2x | The finishing session pays 108 coins. |
| Very Rare | Free and Pro | 1.5x | The finishing session pays 135 coins. Ada Lovelace and Marie Curie are Very Rare. |
| Legendary | Pro only | 2x | The finishing session pays 180 coins. Elizabeth I and Leonardo da Vinci are Legendary. |
The Store
Themed packs, earned with coins.
The in-app Store groups ghosts into themed packs, and every pack can be bought with coins you earn by focusing. Buying a pack lines up its ghosts. You catch them by focusing. Packs get cheaper as you catch their ghosts, and streaks, finished ghosts and Focus Together rooms get you there faster.
Packs are grouped into collections, and you can browse by collection or by category, search by name, and save a pack with a heart to come back to it. Once you own a pack, it lists every ghost inside it, caught or still waiting. Invites pay too: when a friend you invite finishes their first 25-minute session, you get 3,000 coins and they get 1,000. How Share & Earn works.
Great Strategists
4,475 coins
Great Authors
4,335 coins
Actors (I through VII)
4,195 and up coins
Famous Japanese
4,615 coins
Coin bundles are optional one-time purchases: 1,000 coins for $0.99, 5,000 for $3.99 and 10,000 for $6.99.
The Universe
How the library connects to itself.
For Pro members, the Ghost Universe maps connections between historical figures, so catching one ghost can reveal hidden paths to others who shared an era, a discipline, or an influence. The library stops being a flat list and becomes a map. Catch a ghost and the figures linked to them come within reach.
It is a big map, so there is a mini-map in the corner with a viewport box that tracks where you are looking, the way a strategy game does.
Start your library.
Your first ghost is a 25-minute session away.
