This is not a clickbait quiz. The 10 questions below are adapted from the Smartphone Addiction Scale (SAS-SV), a screening instrument validated in 2013 and used in hundreds of studies since. It won't diagnose you — nothing online can — but it will give you a structured, honest mirror.
Type 'phone addiction test' into a search engine and you'll get quizzes with arbitrary point systems, dramatic verdicts, and a share button. They're designed to be forwarded, not to inform. Meanwhile, researchers have spent a decade building and validating actual screening instruments for problematic smartphone use — they're just buried in journals instead of listicles.
The self-test below is adapted from the most widely used of those instruments, the Smartphone Addiction Scale short version (SAS-SV), published by Kwon and colleagues in PLoS ONE in 2013. To be clear about what it is and isn't: 'phone addiction' is not an official clinical diagnosis, and this page is an educational tool, not a medical one. What it can do is show you, question by question, whether your phone use looks like a tool you control or a compulsion that controls you.
Read each statement below and count how many are true for you most of the time. No sign-up, no score theater — the honesty is the instrument.
The items are adapted from the SAS-SV, a validated screening scale used in hundreds of published studies of problematic smartphone use across dozens of countries.
A test result changes nothing by itself. Unwire turns it into a plan: an AI coach that maps your specific patterns, learning modules that explain the pull, and habit tools to change the default.
For each statement, answer honestly: is this true for you most of the time — not on your worst day, and not on the vacation where you barely touched your phone?
0/10 answered
0/10
This is a simplified educational self-assessment adapted from the SAS-SV (Kwon et al., 2013), not the clinical scoring and not a medical diagnosis.
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The ten statements adapt the themes of the Smartphone Addiction Scale short version (SAS-SV), published by Kwon and colleagues in PLoS ONE in 2013 and used in hundreds of studies since. This simplified yes/no version is not the clinical scoring — the original uses a six-point scale per item with research cutoffs of 31 points for men and 33 for women out of 60. As a rough guide, five or more honest yeses means your phone use has likely crossed from tool into compulsion territory, especially if the yeses include missing obligations, continued use despite problems, or using far longer than intended — interference and loss of control matter far more than raw hours.
Whatever your number was: a score changes nothing on its own. The useful next step is understanding why your specific pattern exists — which moments trigger it, which need it serves — and building a deliberate replacement. That is exactly what Unwire is designed to walk you through, starting with an assessment that goes deeper than ten questions. And if your use is causing you significant distress, talk to a healthcare professional; a self-test is a mirror, not a diagnosis.
No. 'Phone addiction' does not appear in the DSM-5, and researchers actively debate whether the addiction framing fits — the scientific literature mostly uses the term 'problematic smartphone use'. That doesn't make the problem imaginary: compulsive use that damages sleep, focus, and relationships is extensively documented. It just means you should distrust anything online that claims to diagnose you.
The Smartphone Addiction Scale short version — a 10-item screening questionnaire published by Kwon and colleagues in the journal PLoS ONE in 2013. It's one of the most widely used instruments in smartphone research, translated and validated in dozens of languages. The self-test on this page adapts its ten themes into plain yes/no statements.
Hours alone don't define it. Someone can spend four intentional hours on their phone with no problem, while someone else's ninety compulsive minutes wreck their sleep and focus. What screening instruments actually measure is interference and control: missed obligations, failed attempts to cut back, distress without the phone, continued use despite consequences. That's why this test asks about those instead of your screen time number.
They overlap but point at different things. Problematic smartphone use describes compulsive over-engagement with the phone itself. Nomophobia — 'no-mobile-phone phobia' — is specifically the anxiety of being without your phone: dead battery, no signal, left it at home. Questions 4 and 5 in this test probe that anxiety; if those were your strongest yeses, the nomophobia research is worth reading.
Don't panic, and don't self-diagnose — a high count on a self-test means your use pattern deserves attention, not that you have a disorder. The evidence-backed path is: identify your trigger moments, reduce use deliberately rather than cold turkey, and build specific replacement habits for the moments you usually reach for the phone. Unwire walks you through exactly that. If your use is causing serious distress or you suspect underlying anxiety or depression, talk to a healthcare professional.
No. This page and the Unwire app are educational and wellness tools only — not medical devices, and not substitutes for professional advice. The test is adapted from a research screening instrument, and even the original instrument is a screening aid, not a diagnosis.
Yes — Unwire is free to download and use on iOS and Android, with no credit card required. An optional premium tier unlocks the full library of 75+ learning modules.
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