How to block apps on iPhone: the complete guide

Short answer: there are two real ways to block an app on iPhone. Screen Time is built in and free: on iOS 27 you set a Screen Time Schedule and Time Allowances, on iOS 26 and earlier Downtime and App Limits. An app blocker runs on the same system but decides when a block starts and whether you can end it early. Use Screen Time if someone else can hold the passcode; use a blocker if the person you're blocking is you.

First: which iOS are you on?

Apple reworked Screen Time in iOS 27. Check in Settings → General → About → iOS Version, then follow the matching section below. The app blocker steps are the same on every version.

Every method at a glance

Method 1: Screen Time on iOS 27

iOS 27 splits Screen Time into when (Schedules) and how long (Time Allowances). Apple notes both need iOS 27 or later on all your Apple devices.

Set when apps are available:

1. Open Settings → Screen Time → Screen Time Schedule, and turn on Schedule.
2. Tap Add Schedule and choose the days — for example, weekdays and weekends separately.
3. Tap a time window to name it (Work, Dinner, Evening), set its start and end time, and pick which Time Allowance categories are available during it.

Set how long you can use them:

1. Open Settings → Screen Time → Time Allowances.
2. Set a daily total, then a time for each category — Social Media, Entertainment, Games. Tap Manage Categories to add one.
3. Turn on Match Screen Time Schedule if the allowances should follow your time windows. If an app declares an associated website, the allowance applies to both.

Then check Settings → Screen Time → Always Allowed: anything listed there stays available whatever the schedule says, so keep it to what you'd need in an emergency.

Method 1: Screen Time on iOS 26 and earlier

Downtime — a daily block for set hours:

1. Open Settings → Screen Time, and turn on App & Website Activity if it's off.
2. Tap Downtime, then Scheduled, and set the days and the start and end times.
3. Set a Screen Time passcode, then turn on Block at Downtime. Without it, Downtime shows a reminder and lets you carry on.
4. In Always Allowed, choose the apps that stay open during Downtime.

App Limits — a daily time budget:

1. Open Settings → Screen Time → App Limits → Add Limit.
2. Choose a category, or tap it to pick individual apps. If you select several, the limit is shared between them.
3. Tap Next, set the time, and use Customize Days for different limits on different days.

Apple's own guide says it: by default, Screen Time limits can be ignored once they're reached. If you set the passcode yourself, you also know it. Why that happens, and how to make it stricter.

Method 2: block built-in apps and features

Some things aren't apps you can put on a schedule — AirDrop, the Camera, explicit content in Music or Books. Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions turns them off; for built-in apps and features, tap Other Features. For websites, see how to block websites in Safari.

Method 3: lock an app with Face ID (keeps others out, not you)

Touch and hold an app and choose Require Face ID. Good when someone borrows your phone; no help with your own habits, because the lock takes a glance. Locking versus blocking.

Method 4: an app blocker

App blockers use Apple's Screen Time framework, so iOS enforces the block exactly as it does Screen Time's own. What changes is how a block starts and how it ends. With Circuit:

1. Install Circuit and allow Screen Time access when it asks. Circuit has no account.
2. Pick what to block in Apple's own picker: individual apps, whole categories such as Games, and websites. Circuit receives opaque tokens, not the names of your apps.
3. For right now, hold the Breaker and choose 15, 30, 60 or 90 minutes or a whole day. It also works from Control Center, a widget and Siri, and the countdown sits on your Lock Screen.
4. For every day, create a schedule — "Work, weekdays 9–17", "Sleep, 22:30–07:00" — and it runs without you.
5. For no way out, turn on Strict Mode (Pro): the block runs to the end. Other blocks can be ended early only after a breath, a wait or a typed sentence.

Circuit is ours. Other good blockers take different approaches — a pause before opening (one sec, ScreenZen), or blocking across your laptop too (Freedom). They are compared in the best app blockers for iPhone in 2026.

Which method to use

1. Someone else can hold the passcode → Screen Time. It's free and already on your phone.
2. You'd switch it off yourself → an app blocker with a mode that can't be ended early.
3. The problem is one time of day → a schedule, in either. Bedtime is the most common: how to block apps at night.
4. You need a block right now → Circuit's Breaker, one hold from Control Center.

Get Circuit free — one schedule and blocks up to 30 minutes cost nothing.

Ready to trip the breaker?

Free includes one schedule and the Breaker up to 30 minutes.