Today marks a major milestone: Focus Room 1.0.0 is officially here.
After months of beta testing, refinement, and feedback from hosts around the world, we're proud to announce that Focus Room is now generally available to all hosts—with a completely redesigned interface, powerful new Chrome extension features, and flexible pricing that keeps our core platform free forever.
This is more than just a version update. It's Focus Room transformed into the professional, production-ready tool you deserve.
What's New in Version 1.0.0
A Completely Redesigned User Interface
The first thing you'll notice: Focus Room looks better. A lot better.
We've rebuilt the entire interface from the ground up with a focus on clarity, professionalism, and ease of use.
What's improved:
- Modern, clean design that feels polished and professional
- Intuitive navigation that helps you find what you need instantly
- Better data visualization for violations, reports, and participant activity
- Responsive layouts that work beautifully on desktop, tablet, and mobile
- Improved accessibility for all users
The new UI doesn't just look good—it makes managing your virtual sessions faster and more enjoyable. Every button, every dashboard, every report has been refined to help you focus on facilitating, not figuring out the interface.
Smarter Chrome Extension: Two Game-Changing Updates
We listened to your feedback about participants finding workarounds, and we fixed them.
1. Automatic Tab Blocking When Participants Join
Previously, participants could open non-whitelisted websites before joining a room and keep those tabs open during the session. Not ideal.
Now, the moment a participant joins your room:
- All currently open tabs are checked against your whitelist
- Any non-whitelisted sites are automatically blocked
- Participants see a clear message explaining which tabs were blocked and why
- Your monitoring session starts with a clean slate
This closes the loophole where participants pre-loaded distracting sites before the session started. Now, joining your room means agreeing to your rules—immediately and automatically.
2. Smart URL Restoration When Sessions End
Here's the problem we solved: when a session ended, participants' blocked tabs would stay blocked, sometimes losing their place or work.
With v1.0.0, we've added smart restoration:
- When you end the session (or a participant leaves), all blocked tabs redirect back to their original URLs
- Participants don't lose their place in videos, articles, or research
- Respectful transition back to normal browsing
- No lingering restrictions after session time
This feature reflects our philosophy: we help you maintain focus during sessions, but we respect participant autonomy outside of focus time.
Pricing at the 1.0.0 launch
At the 1.0.0 launch in November 2025, Focus Room offered a free plan and a Premium tier. The details below describe those launch plans. See current plan details.
Free Plan (No Credit Card Required)
Perfect for individual hosts and small groups.
What you get:
- 1 active room every 24 hours
- Up to 25 participants per room
- 7 days of report retention
- Full whitelist management
- Real-time monitoring dashboard
- Violation tracking and reporting
- Chrome extension included
This isn't a limited trial. This is the full Focus Room experience, free forever, for hosts who need a reliable focus tool without worrying about budgets.
Premium Plans: Scale Without Limits
For hosts managing large groups, multiple sessions, or who need long-term report access.
Premium includes:
- Unlimited active rooms (run as many simultaneous sessions as you need)
- Unlimited participants per room (perfect for large sessions or organizations)
- Unlimited report retention (access all historical data indefinitely)
- Priority support
- All future features included
Premium is designed for power users and organizations that need Focus Room at scale.
Why These Updates Matter
For Hosts
You now have a tool that's:
- Professional enough to present to stakeholders
- Powerful enough to actually reduce participant distractions
- Affordable (or completely free) no matter your budget
- Reliable and production-tested
The new Chrome extension features mean participants can't game the system by pre-opening sites or losing their work when sessions end. Your rules apply consistently and fairly.
For Participants
The updates benefit participants too:
- Clear boundaries: Participants know exactly what's expected from the moment they join
- Fair enforcement: Everyone starts with a clean slate when entering a room
- Respectful design: When the session ends, browsing returns to normal automatically
- No surprises: Transparent rules and clear communication throughout
Getting Started with Focus Room 1.0.0
New Users: Start in 5 Minutes
Ready to try Focus Room?
- Sign up at Focus Room.pro (no credit card required)
- Create your first room and add whitelisted websites
- Share your room code with participants
- Participants install the Chrome extension from the Chrome Web Store
- Monitor in real-time as participants join and the session begins
That's it. You'll be up and running before your next session.
Existing Users: Automatic Update
If you're already using Focus Room:
- You're automatically upgraded to v1.0.0
- All new features are live in your account now
- Your existing rooms, participants, and reports are preserved
- The new UI and Chrome extension updates work immediately
Check your dashboard to explore the redesigned interface!
Past promotion: 50% off Premium plans
The Black Friday and Cyber Monday offer described here has ended. See current plan details.
Roadmap at the 1.0.0 launch
This list records plans announced in November 2025. Edge support has since launched; see the Microsoft Edge announcement. The remaining items below are the plans listed at that time.
Planned at launch:
- Additional browser support, including Firefox and Edge
- Advanced reporting and analytics
- Integration with popular productivity tools
- Team and organization-level management tools
- Mobile monitoring companion app
We're committed to building the best session focus tool in the world, and we're just getting started.
Thank You
Focus Room 1.0.0 exists because of you—the hosts who tested early versions, sent feedback, reported bugs, and believed in what we're building.
Your insights shaped every feature, every design decision, and every line of code in this release. Thank you for trusting us to support your sessions.
We're excited to see how you use Focus Room 1.0.0 to create focused, productive environments for your participants.
Welcome to Focus Room 1.0.0.
Ready to get started?
- Free plan: Sign up at Focus Room.pro
- Current plans: See plan details
- Questions? Email us at [email protected]
Let's build better sessions together.
— The Focus Room Team