Study Bunny Is the Cutest Productivity Timer (but That's About It)
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The Good
- Easy to use
- Adorable graphics
- Engaging gamification
- You don't have to pay
- Great productivity timer
The Bad- Some features just wouldn't work
- There is a payment scheme if you feel like using it
Table of Contents
I know how tedious and frustrating studying can be, which is why I am such a big fan of apps and digital tools designed to make the process easier and more engaging. I tested out Study Bunny, available on iOS and Android, really hoping for the best because it's so darn cute, but unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations—at least not entirely. It is super cute and its productivity timer is great, but if you're looking for more, this might not be it (yet).
The productivity timer is lovely
I'm going to start by saying I really enjoyed the productivity timer on Study Bunny. Basically, this app is just a cute cartoon bunny who thrives when you put time into your schoolwork. You earn in-app coins by completing focus sessions and can spend them on little outfits for the bunny. That's actually about it, but I love simple gamification, so I think that's just engaging enough to make using this timer worthwhile. (It's nowhere near as engaging as, say, Flora, though, as that productivity timer grows virtual trees that add up to make a whole forest the more you use it.)
The interface on this one is very simple. You start the timer and set it with a slider, setting a duration of anywhere from five to 180 minutes. Unlike other apps, the session doesn't appear on your lock screen, nor does it stop if you leave the app. There isn't any accountability built in, necessarily; you have to commit to studying during the time you set. In the app's settings, you can toggle on an "honesty mode" so a "wise old rabbit" appears to ask if you got distracted in the event you do navigate away from the app. Answering in the affirmative triggers a spin-wheel of consequences that resulted in me losing two of my in-app coins.
You can pause or stop your sessions, too. Stopping triggers a pop-up that asks if you're sure you want to, but pausing produces a screen with that wise old rabbit, who offers you a motivational quote like, "If the path to your goal is too rocky, change your path. But never change your goal." Pausing more than seven minutes will also reduce your coin balance.
When you finish a session, you also have the option to watch an ad to earn another coin.
Ads are everywhere
Periodically, full-screen ads pop up and you can't disable them for 30 seconds. This can happen after you complete a study session, when you open the app, or when you try to access the app's other features (more on that later). It can get really annoying really quickly.
Paying can remove the ads
The app functions for free, but it's slow going. Costumes in the shop range from 20 coins for a flower crown to 300 coins for fairy wings—and after completing four study sessions, I still only had three coins. The payment system can help you get loads more coins very quickly: $1 gets you a gold crown that disables ads and enables offline use for one month, $1.99 gets you 100 coins and 100 carrots to feed your bunny, $4.99 gets you 250 coins and 250 carrots, plus a new skin every month, and $14.99 disables ads forever in addition to getting you 250 coins and 250 carrots. If you want to hand over $19.99, you get 500 coins and 500 carrots, a lifetime without ads, the skin of the month, and the ability to add other friends who have the app. Finally, $69.99 gives you access to all 12 monthly skins, all the lifetime perks, and 2,000 coins and 2,000 carrots.
First, what are carrots for? Oh, I had a hell of a time figuring that out. You're supposed to feed them to your bunny to increase their happiness, but after messing around on the app all day, I still didn't know why I'd want to increase the bunny's happiness, nor how to obtain carrots without paying. Second, is paying worth it? Not really, given that I couldn't get any of the app's other features to work when I was testing them.
(For the record, I did eventually work out that when the bunny's happiness meter is full, you can earn coins. You fill it up by feeding them the mysterious carrots, drilling flashcards, listening to music, and completing study sessions.)
The features I struggled with
Beyond the productivity timer, the app has other features. Well, it has them but I couldn't use them. I could use the to-do list, but doing so did not net me any coins or any carrots, plus it was super basic—just a plain list of inputted items with a checkbox next to them—so it wasn't very useful. You are supposed to be able to make flashcards, which I attempted to do three times, but my flashcards wouldn't save no matter how hard I tried. I kept accidentally "reviewing" completely blank sets. You also have to create them manually, by typing prompts and answers on your phone, which is time-consuming. There is no spaced repetition or strategy, either. You just review the flashcards.
Frustratingly, I saw that you can earn three coins by listening to study music in the app, but I could not get any of the songs to play. I tried! I tapped on "Study Bunny Ambient Timer #3 Morning Library Ambience" and "Study Bunny Beats #3 Peaceful Piano." I double-tapped, triple-tapped, and long-held the screen. Nothing happened. I restarted my app. I tried to figure out if I had to pay for them somehow, but nothing indicated I did. I just couldn't make the music play.
A lot of issues could be solved with more straightforward explanations
I'm sure there's a way to make the music play, just as I'm sure there's a way to get flashcard inputs to save and to figure out why you'd want to feed carrots to the bunny to make them happier, let alone how you'd get ahold of some of those carrots. The problem is that the app doesn't make any of this very apparent. Just because it might work theoretically doesn't mean it's useful in a practical sense at all. With a little more explanation, this could work well.
As it stands, Study Bunny is just a little frustrating. I do like the bunny, which is adorable, and the kind of low-stakes gamification that motivates me to use a tool like this, but I found the other features lacking.
Do you need Study Bunny?
No, you don't need this app, though it's very cute and I have high hopes it could evolve into something better. Study timers are useful, in general, because using them signals to your brain that it's time to lock in. The motivational quotes and accountability check-ins from the wise old rabbit are novel and motivating, as is the push to dress your bunny up snazzily with outfits earned through completing study sessions (and, in a perfect world, listening to the music offerings). It's cute. It has potential. It's just not for me right now.
Lindsey Ellefson is Lifehacker’s Features Editor. She currently covers study and productivity hacks, as well as household and digital decluttering, and oversees the freelancers on the sex and relationships beat. She spent most of her pre-Lifehacker career covering media and politics for outlets like Us Weekly, CNN, The Daily Dot, Mashable, Glamour, and InStyle. In recent years, her freelancing has focused on drug use and the overdose crisis, with pieces appearing in Vanity Fair, WIRED, The New Republic, The Daily Beast, and more. Her story for BuzzFeed News won the 2022 American Journalism Online award for Best Debunking of Fake News.
In addition to her journalism, Lindsey recently graduated from the NYU School of Global Public Health with her Master of Public Health after conducting research on media bias in reporting on substance use with the Opioid Policy Institute’s Reporting on Addiction initiative. She is also a Schwinn-certified spin class teacher and won the 2023 Dunkin’ Donuts Butter PeContest that earned her a year of free coffee. Lindsey lives in New York, NY.
