How to actually stop opening the apps you didn't mean to open.
Compared · iPhone
Screen Time, Opal, one sec, ScreenZen, Jomo, Freedom and Circuit, compared on price, how they block, and what each one is actually best at.
8 min read
What Opal does well, what it costs in 2026, and the apps worth a look if you want the same kind of block for less.
5 min read
one sec slows you down before an app opens. If you need the app to stay shut instead, here is what to use — and when one sec is still the right call.
ScreenZen is free and hard to beat on price. If you want a block that starts in one tap and can't be ended early, here is what to use — and when to stay with ScreenZen.
Brick locks your apps until you tap a $59 device again. What it does well, and how to get a block you can't talk your way out of with only the phone you have.
6 min read
Screen Time · iPhone
An App Limit can be ignored from the screen that tells you it's up. Here's why, the settings that make it stricter, and when an app blocker is the better fix.
Screen Time, ScreenZen and the free tiers of Opal, one sec and Freedom — what each gives you for nothing, where the free version stops, and where Circuit's free trial fits.
Guide · iPhone
Every way to block an app on iPhone — Screen Time's schedules and limits on iOS 27 and earlier, content restrictions, and app blockers — step by step, and which to use when.
How to block · iPhone
Screen Time's App Limit has a button that undoes it. Here's a block that doesn't.
4 min read
The For You page is built to erase your sense of how long you've been on it. Block the app instead of trying to out-scroll it.
3 min read
Checking "what's happening" is a habit, not a decision. Make the app unavailable during the hours it costs you the most.
Groups, Marketplace and notifications all lead back to the feed. One block covers all of it.
Block the YouTube app and youtube.com together, so closing one door doesn't just send you through the other.
One more thread is how an hour goes. Block the app and the site on a schedule, not on willpower.
Streaks are built to make a day off feel like a loss. How to block Snapchat without pretending that isn't true.
Block every game at once with Apple's Games category, including the ones you haven't installed yet.
Two ways to block a website on iPhone: Screen Time's content restrictions, and a block that runs on a schedule.
Lock vs block · iPhone
iOS can lock an app behind Face ID. That keeps other people out — here's what keeps you out.
Sleep · iPhone
A bedtime block that turns itself on, so the last hour before sleep isn't spent on the apps that keep you up.
TikTok's sleep reminder and Instagram's sleep mode remind you; they don't stop you. How to make both apps — and their websites — unavailable from bedtime to morning.
Study · iPhone
Block the apps that break your study sessions — on a timetable for regular study, or with one tap for the session in front of you.
Focus · iPhone
A timer counts the 25 minutes; it doesn't stop you. Pair it with an app block that lasts exactly as long as the round.
Focus quiets notifications but every app still opens. Where Focus stops, and how to pair it with a block.
Habits · iPhone
Doomscrolling isn't a willpower problem. Five changes that make the scroll harder to start and easier to stop.
A week-long plan that cuts phone time without deleting anything: one change a day, each one easy to keep.
