There is a great scene in the movie Internship where Billy (Vince Vaughan) and Nick (Owen Wilson) are trying to work out an app that will wow their superiors. On a big night out Lyle (Josh Brener) sends a girl an inappropriate text, largely due to his alcohol induced diminished cognitive abilities. Bam! That delivers the idea that the interns are going to run with - an app that stops you from sending drunken text messages. Everyone who has ever sent a regrettable drunken message immediately wants that app after watching that scene. Nine years later and with a holiday season upon us, I am going to give you a few tips to help reduce the likelihood of you experiencing this feeling. I could say not drinking to excess is the best advice, but this is a technology column so I will focus on how you can use technology to help. Just like in the movie there are apps available, but I am going to focus on settings built in to your operating system. You might also like to read about: If you have a phone using iOS, the feature is called Downtime. Set the people and apps you want to be available during Downtime and then schedule when you want Downtime to operate. This means that if you forget about doing something when you are out, the pre-determined schedule is still going to kick in. Downtime is better than Do Not Disturb as it works in both directions. Do Not Disturb stops incoming communication but Downtime stops incoming and outgoing. Try a few tests with apps and contacts to make sure it gives you exactly what you want. You may choose to leave just a couple of close friends in the Contacts list - which means you can still drunk text them. You can turn Downtime off at any time but if you add a Screen Time passcode it takes a few extra cognitive steps, which might be just what you need at 1am at the pub. On an Android phone the similar setting is called Focus mode which, somewhat amusingly, is under parental controls. Again you can set apps that you want to pause and set a schedule so they turn on automatically. If you think using the controls already available is all a bit clumsy, just like in the movie, there are apps available. Drunk Locker allows you to schedule when to apply the drunk mode to block certain apps and, if you need to use those apps during the scheduled time out, there is a test required that would be difficult to pass while drunk. You can set the type of questions you will be asked - don't make them too difficult or you may still have trouble answering them when sober. Drunk Dial NO! is an app specifically focused on stopping calls from being made, but doesn't do anything to stop texts or access to social media sites. Might be handy if you are a drunk caller rather than a drunk texter. Bacco Drunk Mode requires a test to allow access to messaging and social media apps. Fail the questions and the phone is locked out for four hours - giving you time to think about exactly what you wanted to say. There are many more to choose from - AppBlock; Lock me out; Drunk Mode Keyboard; Drunk Text Saviour; Stupid Stopper Drunk Block and others. I don't drink enough to test all of these out, but please try a few and tell me if it saved you from embarrassing yourself over the holiday season at ask@techtalk.digital.