How to block apps on iPhone

Option 1: App Limits in Screen Time

An App Limit caps how long you can spend in an app each day. When the time is gone, iOS covers the app with a block screen.

1. 01Open Settings and tap Screen Time.
2. 02Tap App Limits, then Add Limit.
3. 03Choose a whole category such as Social, or tap the arrow to pick individual apps.
4. 04Set the amount of time per day. Use Customise Days if weekends should differ.
5. 05Tap Add.

Limits reset at midnight in your own time zone. A limit set on a category also covers apps you install later in that category, which is usually what you want.

Option 2: Downtime, for hours rather than minutes

Downtime blocks apps during a window on the clock instead of after a quota. It suits the problem most people actually have, which is not total usage but specific hours - the hour before bed, or the first hour of work.

1. 01Settings, then Screen Time, then Downtime.
2. 02Turn on Scheduled.
3. 03Set the start and end time, and whether it runs every day or per day.
4. 04Under Always Allowed, add anything that must stay reachable, such as Phone or Messages.

Option 3: Remove the app from Search and notifications

Not a block, but it removes most of the triggers. Press and hold an app icon, choose Remove App, then Remove from Home Screen. It stays installed and searchable but is no longer somewhere your thumb lands by habit.

Turning off that app's notifications does more for most people than any limit. An app you never think about does not need blocking.

Why it stops working

Apple's block screen has a button on it. Depending on your settings it reads Ignore Limit or Ask For More Time, and tapping it gives you fifteen more minutes, or the rest of the day.

That button is not a bug. It is there because Apple cannot know whether you are procrastinating or need the app for something that matters. But it means the block holds exactly as long as you want it to - and the moment you want it to stop holding is the moment it stops.

You can add a Screen Time passcode, which helps. It is a real improvement, and for many people it is enough. But you chose the passcode, so you know it. The lock and the key are in the same hand.

This is the honest ceiling of any tool you fully control. It is not a reason to skip Screen Time - it is the reason some people need something with friction in it.

What actually helps when Ignore Limit is the problem

Three things work, in rough order of how much effort they take.

1. 01Give the Screen Time passcode to someone else. Free, immediate, and the most effective option on this list. It is also the one almost nobody is willing to do.
2. 02Make the app physically harder to reach. Delete it and use the website, or log out every time so each visit costs a password.
3. 03Use a blocker where getting back in costs something, rather than one you can dismiss.

How Sero handles it

Sero is the app we make, so treat this section accordingly. It runs on the same Apple Screen Time framework as the built-in tools - that is the only way any iOS app can block another - so the difference is not in the blocking. It is in what happens when you want out.

1. 01Scheduled sessions: name a session, pick the apps, set a from and to time and which days it runs. You decide on a calm afternoon what your Friday evening looks like.
2. 02Focus sessions: start one from the app or by voice with Siri, and the countdown runs on your Lock Screen as a Live Activity. Ending one early means holding the button down, not tapping it.
3. 03Getting back in is rationed. An emergency unlock opens a blocked app straight away, but you get one a day on the free tier and three on Premium. When they are gone they are gone until tomorrow. Otherwise you play a short game first.

Sero has no servers and no account. Your schedules and history stay in Apple's Screen Time on your device.

Which one should you use

If you set an App Limit and you respect it, you are done. Keep Screen Time and ignore every article telling you to install something - including this one.

If you have set the same limit four times and tapped past it four times, the problem is not that your limit was wrong. The problem is that nothing stood between wanting the app and having it. That is the gap a blocker with real friction fills.

Frequently asked