Getting started
Onboarding takes a few minutes. Everything you answer stays on your phone, and a Talk to someone button in the header opens free crisis lines at any point.
1. Install
Download Silex from the App Store on an iPhone running iOS 17.0 or later. There is no account to create.
2. Onboarding
Silex asks a short set of questions and builds your plan from the answers. You can go back with the arrow at the top of each question.
- Your name (optional, Skip for now works).
- What you gamble on and how often.
- When you last gambled. Your gamble-free days count from that date.
- How much you put in per week. This drives the money-kept counter.
- The nine PGSI questions, the standard Problem Gambling Severity Index about the last 12 months.
- Whether you hide your gambling from people close to you. If you say yes, Silex turns on discreet notification wording automatically, and if you say most of it, it also hides money amounts.
- What gambling is mostly for (escape, the rush, or winning back losses), when urges hit hardest, and why you're quitting. Your reasons come back to you in the SOS flow.
Silex then shows what your weekly stake adds up to over one and five years, and your risk score out of 27. The score is a screening result, not a diagnosis. Tap See my plan, commit to it, and sign with a press and hold. The signature earns your first orb, The Vow.
If you leave onboarding half way, Silex picks up where you stopped next time you open it.
3. Subscribe
The program and the protection tools need a subscription. Before the paywall, Silex asks for permission to send notifications so it can remind you before a free trial ends. Plans and prices are on the paywall and in Subscriptions.
4. First-run setup
Right after you subscribe, three short steps run:
- Turn on your shield. Installs the system-wide DNS shield. You approve one iOS dialog and switch it on in Settings; details in Protection layers.
- Let Silex reach you. Allows notifications if you skipped them earlier.
- Start Day 1. The first lesson takes about four minutes and lights your second orb, First Light.
Each step has a Skip for now or Later option, and the Your first three days checklist on the Today tab keeps track of what's left.
The four tabs
- Today: days free, your current run, money kept, today's pledge, a quick urge log, your pattern this week, and I gambled — reset with me. The gear opens Settings.
- Program: the 90-day program, Storm to Clarity.
- Protect: your five protection layers and their status.
- Progress: money kept, your goal, your orbs, the 90-day timeline and your journal.
The SOS button floats over every tab.