# Operant: The Habit App Built on Operant Conditioning > Operant is a habit app for iPhone and Apple Watch that runs a real operant conditioning loop for each habit. Free to download and try; a subscription unlocks the full app. - Source: https://operantconditioning.com/app/ - Author: Ryan Martinson (https://operantconditioning.com/about/) - Publisher: Operant Conditioning Inc. - Published: 2026-09-12 · Updated: 2026-09-13 - App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/operant-behavior-change-app/id6802081776 - Platforms: iPhone (iOS 26 or later), Apple Watch (watchOS 26 or later) - Price: free to download; the free version is limited to three habits; a subscription unlocks the full app (current pricing on the App Store) - License: https://operantconditioning.com/terms/#copyright (quote with attribution and a link; free to reproduce for non-commercial teaching) --- *The app* Every page on this site explains how consequences shape behavior. Operant is the same science as software: for each habit you set an antecedent, a behavior, and a consequence, and the app runs the loop with you. For iPhone and Apple Watch; free to download and try, with a subscription for the full app. Download: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/operant-behavior-change-app/id6802081776 > **What is Operant?** > > **Operant** is a behavior-change app for iPhone and Apple Watch, made by the publisher of this site. It is built on Skinner's three-term contingency: every habit in the app is an **antecedent** (the cue), a **behavior** (the thing to do, scoped small), and a **consequence** (what happens immediately after you do it, or don't). The App Store lists it as *Operant™ Behavior Change App*. > > It is free to download. The free version is limited to three habits and does not expire; a subscription, which starts with a free trial, lifts that limit and unlocks the full app. Current pricing is on the App Store. **In brief** - One operant conditioning loop per habit: A, B, C, set up by you. - Designed around three things most habit apps get wrong: cues that don't cue, behaviors that are too big, and consequences that don't matter. - Free to download and try; a subscription unlocks the full app. iPhone and Apple Watch. ## What Operant does Most habit apps are lists with a checkbox and a streak. Operant treats a habit as a [contingency](https://operantconditioning.com/abc-model/) instead: a cue that reliably happens, a behavior small enough to do every time the cue appears, and a consequence that follows the behavior at once. You set up all three for each habit. That is the whole design, and it is why the app has the name it has. The three terms are the same ones this site uses on every page, and the app's habit loop is the one described in the [habit-building protocol](https://operantconditioning.com/habits/): attach the behavior to a cue that already occurs, shrink it until it is easy, and reinforce it immediately, every time at first. ## The loop, as the app runs it - **A. Antecedent.** The cue, trigger or prompt that signals it is time to do the behavior. In the app you choose it; the science says it should be a stable context you are already in every day, not a notification you have learned to ignore. - **B. Behavior.** The behavior whose frequency you want to increase, defined tightly: clear, small, and specific enough that "did I do it?" has a yes-or-no answer. - **C. Consequence.** The reinforcement or punishment that happens immediately after the behavior is completed, or not completed. Immediacy is the part that most tracking apps leave out. Two things about this design follow directly from the research on this site. First, the consequence has to be close in time to the behavior: contiguity is one of the strongest variables in operant learning, and a reward that arrives at the end of the week reinforces very little of any particular Tuesday. Second, the cue has to be a genuine discriminative stimulus, something in whose presence the behavior has actually been reinforced, rather than a signal you have stopped noticing. See [stimulus control](https://operantconditioning.com/stimulus-control/). ## Why another habit app The developer's case for building Operant, from its App Store description, is that existing habit apps fall short of the science of habit formation in three specific ways: 1. **Antecedents are not distinct enough.** Notifications are the cue most apps rely on. Most people turn them off, and those who leave them on have habituated to them, so the cue no longer grabs attention. A habit needs a more stable context than a buzz. 2. **Behaviors are not scoped right.** People set up habits that are too large and too vague to be reinforced reliably. Behaviors should be tinier, clearer, and closer to a measurable goal, which is also what [shaping](https://operantconditioning.com/shaping/) would prescribe. 3. **Consequences are not meaningful.** The consequences that existing apps provide are not strong enough or immediate enough to change anything. ## iPhone and Apple Watch Operant runs on iPhone (iOS 26 or later) and on Apple Watch (watchOS 26 or later). It is available in English on the App Store. The developer has said that more platforms are hoped for, but only iOS and watchOS are available today; there is no Android or web version. ## What is free and what is paid Operant is free to download. The free version includes up to three habits and does not expire. A subscription lifts the habit limit and unlocks the full app, and it starts with a free trial. Pricing, the trial terms, and exactly what the subscription includes are shown on the App Store listing, which is the authoritative source and may change with new versions. If you use it and it helps, the developer asks for one thing: a review on the App Store, so that he can improve the product. ## Privacy This website collects nothing about you; see the [privacy policy](https://operantconditioning.com/privacy/). The app is a separate product, and its privacy practices are declared on its App Store page under "App Privacy." At the time of writing the listing declares analytics data that is *not linked to your identity*: coarse location, a user ID, a device ID, and product-interaction data. No data linked to you is declared, and no data used to track you across other companies' apps. The App Store listing is authoritative and may change with new versions. ## The reading behind the app The App Store description lists the books that shaped the app's function and design. It is the developer's own list, and it mixes popular habit books with the behavioral science that underlies them: - *Good Habits, Bad Habits*, Wendy Wood - *Tiny Habits*, BJ Fogg - *Atomic Habits*, James Clear - *Don't Die*, Bryan Johnson - *Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst*, Robert M. Sapolsky - *Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will*, Robert M. Sapolsky - *Outlive*, Peter Attia - *The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People*, Stephen R. Covey - *Good Reasons for Bad Feelings*, Randolph M. Nesse - *The Power of Habit*, Charles Duhigg - *Getting Things Done*, David Allen - *Recent Issues in the Analysis of Behavior*, B. F. Skinner - *Beyond Freedom and Dignity*, B. F. Skinner - *Walden Two*, B. F. Skinner - *How to Change*, Katy Milkman - *Exercised*, Daniel E. Lieberman - *Effortless*, Greg McKeown - *Flow*, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - *Tools of Titans*, Tim Ferriss - *The Molecule of More*, Daniel Z. Lieberman and Michael E. Long - *Sapiens*, Yuval Noah Harari - *Thinking, Fast and Slow*, Daniel Kahneman - *The New Behaviorism: Foundations of Behavioral Science*, John Staddon The primary sources behind those books, from Thorndike's puzzle boxes to Morgan on trial and error and James on habit, are in this site's [library](https://operantconditioning.com/library/) in full text. ## Who makes it Operant is made by **Operant Conditioning Inc.**, the company that publishes this site, and is written by its founder, [Ryan Martinson](https://operantconditioning.com/about/). The company was previously called Habits Inc., and some App Store listings may still show that name. Building the app is what led to this site: getting the loop right required reading the primary literature closely, and the site is the reference that did not exist at the time. Support and questions: hello@operantconditioning.com ## Frequently asked questions **Is Operant free?** It is free to download, and the free version, which is limited to three habits, does not expire. A subscription lifts the habit limit and unlocks the full app, and it starts with a free trial. Current pricing is on the App Store. **Does it work on Apple Watch?** Yes. Operant is available for Apple Watch running watchOS 26 or later, alongside the iPhone app (iOS 26 or later). **Is there an Android or web version?** Not yet. Operant is available only on iOS and watchOS. The developer has said he hopes to bring it to more platforms. **What does "operant" mean?** An operant is a class of behavior that acts on the environment and is controlled by its consequences. B. F. Skinner coined the term in 1937 to distinguish this kind of behavior from reflexes. The app is named for it because each habit in it is treated as an operant: a behavior shaped by what follows it. **How is this different from a habit tracker?** A tracker records whether a behavior happened. Operant sets up the conditions for it to happen: a cue that is in place before the behavior, a behavior sized to be doable every time, and a consequence that follows it immediately. Tracking is only the middle term of the three. ## Related - [Build habits with operant conditioning](https://operantconditioning.com/habits/) - [The ABC model](https://operantconditioning.com/abc-model/) - [Schedules of reinforcement](https://operantconditioning.com/schedules-of-reinforcement/)