How to block distracting apps on iPhone

An app blocker locks the apps you choose, so they won’t open at the times you decided they shouldn’t. On iPhone, the blockers that hold up are built on Apple’s Screen Time frameworks, which means iOS itself enforces the block.

This page covers the ways to block apps that already come with your iPhone, where they fall short, and what an app blocker adds.

Block apps with App Limits

App Limits put a daily time budget on an app or a whole category, such as Social or Games. To set one, open Settings, tap Screen Time, then App Limits, and tap Add Limit. Pick the apps or categories, choose the time, and choose the days it applies to.

When the time is up, iOS covers the app with a screen saying you’ve reached your limit. If you have a Screen Time passcode and turn on Block at End of Limit, getting more time asks for that passcode.

Block apps on a schedule with Downtime

Downtime is a schedule when only the apps you allow will open, along with phone calls. Open Settings, tap Screen Time, then Downtime, turn on Scheduled and pick the hours. The apps that stay open are the ones under Always Allowed, also in Screen Time.

Lock or hide a single app

Since iOS 18, you can also put a single app behind Face ID: touch and hold its icon and choose Require Face ID. Hiding an app works the same way and moves it into a hidden folder in the App Library. Both are made for privacy, to keep other people out. Neither does much to stop you, because your own face opens the app in a second.

Where the built-in options fall short

The built-in tools are good at reminding you and weak at stopping you. The limit screen has an Ignore Limit button right on it, and the passcode meant to stop that is one you chose yourself. Apple built the passcode for parents managing a child’s phone, where someone else knows the code. When you’re limiting yourself, you can always get past it in a few seconds, usually at the moment you most wanted the limit to hold.

Our post on why Screen Time limits don’t work goes into more detail.

What an app blocker adds

A good app blocker for iPhone keeps what works about Screen Time and fixes the easy way out.

A block that iOS enforces

Apps built on Apple’s Screen Time frameworks (Family Controls, Managed Settings and Device Activity) have iOS lock the app, the same way the built-in limits do. An app that only sends you notifications or reminders is as easy to ignore as a limit you can tap past.

Rules that run on their own

Schedules and daily limits should lock and reset by themselves. Then you decide once, at a calm moment, instead of every time you reach for your phone.

Friction with a way out

Getting back in should take real effort without being impossible. If there’s no way in at all, you’ll delete the blocker the first time you urgently need something it locked. A short, deliberate step gives you a few seconds to change your mind.

Locks for groups of apps

Distraction rarely lives in one app. Locking a group together, or locking everything except the few apps you need, stops the scroll from moving from one feed to the next.

Privacy you can check

An app blocker knows which apps tempt you, so check what it collects. Good signs are no account, no ads, usage that stays on your phone, and analytics that stay off unless you turn them on.

How Screeny blocks apps

Screeny is an app blocker for iPhone built on Apple’s Screen Time frameworks. You pick the apps that distract you and decide when they lock:

• On a schedule, such as 10 PM to 7 AM on weekdays.
• With a daily limit, a budget of minutes that warns you at 80 percent and resets every morning.
• In folders, so a group of apps shares one set of rules. Only allow mode turns it around and locks everything except a few apps you choose.
• With a physical key: an NFC tag, a QR code you print or a barcode you already own. Scan it to lock a folder or to open it early.

To open a locked app without your key, you break the seal: press and hold while a short countdown runs, then pick 5 to 120 minutes. The app relocks by itself when the time is up. With hardcore mode on, deleting Screeny does not lift the block, and a full-unlock pass once a week covers real emergencies.

There are no accounts and no ads. Apple hands Screeny the apps you pick as opaque tokens, so Screeny never learns which apps they are, and usage statistics are sent only if you say yes.

Start with one block

Start with the time of day that bothers you most, often the hour before bed or the start of your workday, and block your most distracting apps for just that window. Add a daily limit for your most-used app once you know what a realistic number looks like. If late-night scrolling is the main problem, our guide on how to stop doomscrolling goes further, and our guide to choosing a screen time app for iPhone covers the rest of what to look for.