How to Block Apps on iPhone

iOS gives you four different ways to do this and none of the menus explain how they differ. Here's each method, the exact steps, and — more usefully — the specific way each one fails.

1. Screen Time App Limits (block after X minutes)

The default answer, and the weakest one.

1. Settings → Screen Time
2. App Limits → Add Limit
3. Pick a category, or tap the arrow to select individual apps
4. Set the time, then Add

Where it fails: a limit is a budget, not a wall. You spend the whole thing in one sitting before 10am, hit the block screen, tap Ignore Limit, and get the rest of the day back. Without a Screen Time passcode set, that tap is completely free.

2. Downtime (block on a schedule)

Better than limits for most people, because it blocks by when rather than how much.

1. Settings → Screen Time → Downtime
2. Turn on Scheduled
3. Set the window — 10pm–7am, or your working hours
4. Under "Always Allowed", strip the list down to Phone and Messages

Where it fails: one schedule for the whole day. If you want social apps blocked 9–5 and after 10pm but not in between, Downtime alone can't express that. Same passcode caveat applies.

3. Focus modes (hide, don't block)

1. Settings → Focus → tap a Focus (or +)
2. Under Home Screen, choose which pages show while it's on
3. Set Schedule, or trigger it by location/app

Where it fails: Focus mostly silences notifications and hides icons. Spotlight search still opens the app instantly. It's excellent friction and zero enforcement — useful in combination with the methods above, useless alone if the pull is strong.

4. A third-party blocker (when the built-ins keep losing)

Since iOS 16, Apple lets third-party apps use the same Screen Time enforcement engine (the Family Controls / Managed Settings APIs). A well-built blocker doesn't hack around iOS — it drives the same machinery with a better interface, and adds the two things Apple's version lacks:

• Blocks that don't hand you an "ignore" button — a session you started has to finish.
• A streak. Screen Time reports a number you learn to ignore. A streak has state you don't want to break, which is why streak-based tools hold up over months where limits don't.

Which one should you use?

Goal	Use
Cut total daily use	App Limits + Screen Time passcode
Stop bedtime / morning scrolling	Downtime, 10pm–8am
Reduce pull without hard blocking	Focus mode + move apps off page one
You keep tapping "Ignore Limit"	Third-party blocker with real sessions

A note on privacy

Worth knowing before you install anything: Apple designed the Screen Time API so a blocker can restrict apps without being told which apps you use. The selection is made inside a system-provided picker your app never reads. So any blocker asking you to create an account, sign in, or upload usage "for insights" is choosing to collect that — the platform doesn't require it.