How to Block Apps on iPhone: Screen Time, Focus and Task Lock

Short answer: for a daily cap, set a Screen Time Time Allowance for a category such as Social (App Limits on iOS 26 and earlier). On iOS 27, these limits apply to whole categories, not single apps, and there is no Ignore Limit button when time runs out. To lock one specific app, use a blocker built on Apple's Screen Time API, where you pick individual apps. For hard evenings off, use a Screen Time Schedule (Downtime on older iOS) with a Screen Time passcode. To keep an app private, lock it with Face ID. And if what you really want is "no feeds until today's work is done", use an app blocker that unlocks when your to-do list is finished, such as Weeklane Task Lock.

The options at a glance

1. Screen Time Time Allowances

iOS 27 reorganised Screen Time for yourself. Daily limits are now Time Allowances: a time budget per app category, such as Entertainment, Games or Social Media, plus a daily total. Apple notes that the new Screen Time features need iOS 27 (or the matching iPadOS, macOS, watchOS or visionOS version) on all your Apple devices.

1. Open Settings → Screen Time → Time Allowances (turn on App & Website Activity if asked).
2. Drag the slider to set your daily total, then tap a category, such as Social Media, and set its own allowance.
3. Use Manage Categories to add a category or check how much time you spend in each one.
4. Set a passcode under Screen Time → Manage Screen Time → Lock Screen Time Settings so the allowance cannot simply be raised or switched off.

Two things to know on iOS 27. You cannot set an allowance for a single app: Time Allowances only work on categories, plus the daily total. And when an allowance runs out, there is no Ignore Limit or One More Minute option on the limit screen.

On iOS 26 or earlier, the same idea is Settings → Screen Time → App Limits → Add Limit: pick a category or single apps, set a daily time and turn on Block at End of Limit together with a passcode. There, the block screen offers "One More Minute" and "Ignore Limit" unless a passcode is set.

Without the Ignore Limit button, a Time Allowance on iOS 27 holds better than the old App Limits did. It is still a blunt rule, though: it covers a whole category, so capping Social to rein in one app also limits every other app in that category, and it ends on the clock whether or not anything got done. A limit you set for yourself can also be changed in Settings, and even a passcode you chose is one most people learn by heart within a week. If you need it to hold, let someone else enter the code (our guide to making Screen Time stricter covers the remaining loopholes).

2. A Screen Time Schedule for fixed hours

Settings → Screen Time → Screen Time Schedule → turn on Schedule, then Add Schedule and pick the days. Each schedule is split into time windows, for example Work, Dinner and Evening, and for each window you choose which Time Allowance categories are available. Apps and contacts under Screen Time → Always Allowed keep working in every window, so keep messages, maps and anything you might need in an emergency there.

On iOS 26 or earlier, the equivalent is Downtime (Settings → Screen Time → Downtime): schedule hours such as 22:00 to 07:00 when only Always Allowed apps work, and turn on Block at Downtime so it actually blocks. Either way, a schedule is the best built-in tool for protecting sleep, because the rule is about the clock and the clock is the point.

3. Lock or hide an app with Face ID

Since iOS 18 you can long-press an app icon and choose Require Face ID, or Hide and Require Face ID to move it into a hidden folder. This keeps an app private from someone holding your phone. It does nothing for focus: the app opens the moment you look at it.

4. Focus modes

A Focus (Settings → Focus) silences notifications from chosen apps and can show only certain Home Screen pages. That removes the pull of a red badge, which helps more than it sounds. But a Focus never blocks an app: if you open Instagram, it opens.

5. App blockers that use Screen Time

Third-party apps can use Apple's Screen Time API to apply real blocks that iOS enforces, even when the blocker app is closed. You choose apps in Apple's own picker, and iOS hands the app an opaque token instead of app names, so a well-built blocker cannot see which apps you picked. The difference between blockers is the rule that unlocks the apps: a schedule, a timer, a pause, or finished work.

Weeklane Task Lock, new in Weeklane 2.5, uses the last rule. You choose the apps and websites that steal your time (in Weeklane, tap Settings, the gear, then Task Lock); they stay locked while today still has open tasks in your Weeklane list and unlock automatically when the last one is checked off. A task with a time later today only locks from that time, so an evening errand does not block your morning, and an optional 15-minute break is there for the moment you genuinely need an app.

This guide is part of our complete guide to app blocking on iPhone, which compares every approach side by side. If Instagram is the main problem, see how to block Instagram until your to-do list is done; if you like tinkering, an iPhone Shortcut can bounce you out of an app, with honest limits.

Which one should you use?

• You want a daily cap on a whole category, such as Social. Time Allowances (App Limits on older iOS).
• You want your evenings and nights back. A Screen Time Schedule (Downtime on older iOS) with a passcode, or a scheduled blocker.
• You want to limit one specific app, not a whole category. A blocker built on Apple's Screen Time API, where you pick individual apps. On iOS 27, Time Allowances cannot do this.
• You want privacy for one app. Require Face ID.
• You keep overriding your own limits during work hours. A task-based blocker: the apps open when today's list is done, not when a timer runs out.

They also combine well. A common setup is a Screen Time Schedule for the night and Task Lock for the day: no feeds until today's tasks are checked off, and nothing but messages and maps after 22:00.

Keep it honest

Every iPhone block can be undone by the person who set it up. That is fine: the goal is to put a decision between you and the feed, not to build a prison. Keep messaging, maps, banking and anything you might need in an emergency off every block list, and write a to-do list you would actually be proud to finish.

Block the feed until today is done

Weeklane is a calm weekly to-do list with Task Lock on iPhone and iPad. Free to plan; Weeklane Pro has a 7-day free trial.

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