App-check
A gambling blocker that only handles websites leaves the most direct route open: the operator's own app, already installed. App-check is the screen that finds those.
Free. Part of the core gambling protection.
Find it at Guard → App-check.
What it does#
App-check scans the apps on the phone that have a launcher entry and runs each one through the same classifier the live block uses. The list on screen and the block behaviour can therefore never disagree with each other.
For every flagged app it shows the app's name and icon, why it was flagged, and which rule matched.
How an app is judged#
Three signals, described in full under Blocking mechanisms:
| Reason | Meaning | Can the user release it? |
|---|---|---|
| Known operator | The package namespace belongs to a known gambling operator | No |
| Package match | The package name, read as a hostname, hit the blocklist or keyword layers | Yes |
| Label match | The app's display name hit the keyword or fuzzy layers | Yes |
A heuristic hit can be a false positive, so the user can release it — the app stays installed and stops being flagged, and the release can be undone later from the same screen.
A known-operator hit cannot be released. That would not be a correction, it would be an impulse door.
What the user can do with a flagged app#
- Leave it flagged. While protection and the accessibility service are both on, opening it lands on a calm wall instead of the app.
- Remove it. App-check hands the app to Android's own uninstall confirmation. Haven never uninstalls anything itself; the final tap is always the user's, in the system dialog.
- Release it (heuristic hits only), if Haven got it wrong.
Honesty about coverage#
Scanning and removing work on their own. Blocking on open needs two switches: protection, and the accessibility service.
If either is missing, App-check does not claim the app is being held back — it says which switch is missing and offers to go there. Protection is named first when both are off, because that is the switch the whole app is built around; sending someone to an accessibility setting while the protection they think they have is simply off would answer the smaller question.
This matters more than it looks. Someone who believes a gambling app is already blocked stops watching for it.
Privacy#
The scan runs entirely on the device. The list of installed apps, the flagged results and the released apps are never transmitted, and are not written to any log that leaves the phone. See Package visibility for the permission this needs and why.
After a blocklist update#
Verdicts are re-evaluated when the synced rule set changes. An operator added to the blocklist today is recognised on the phone today — no app update required.