There are two ways to block apps on an iPhone: the Screen Time controls Apple already ships with iOS, and a dedicated app blocker built on top of them. The built-in tools are free and take about two minutes to set up, so start there — then decide whether you need something stronger.

Method 1: Block apps with Screen Time

Screen Time is built into iOS and needs no download. There are two features worth knowing, and they do different jobs.

Set a daily time limit for an app

  1. Open Settings and tap Screen Time
  2. Tap App Limits, then Add Limit
  3. Pick a whole category (Social, Games, Entertainment) or tap the arrow to choose individual apps
  4. Set the amount of time you want to allow per day, then tap Add

When you hit the limit, the app greys out for the rest of the day and shows a time-up screen.

Block apps on a schedule with Downtime

App Limits cap how long you use something. Downtime blocks apps during specific hours — which is what you want for evenings, work blocks, or sleep.

  1. Go to Settings → Screen Time → Downtime
  2. Turn it on and choose Every Day or Customize Days
  3. Set your start and end time
  4. Use Always Allowed to whitelist anything that must stay reachable — Phone and Messages are the usual ones

Lock it behind a passcode

This step is the one most people skip, and it's the one that matters. Without it, every block is a suggestion.

Go to Settings → Screen Time → Lock Screen Time Settings and set a four-digit passcode that isn't your phone passcode. Use the option to add your Apple Account so you can recover it — if you forget this code, resetting it is genuinely painful.

Why Screen Time alone often doesn't hold

If you've tried Screen Time and drifted back to old habits, you're not unusual. A few specific things undermine it:

  • The Ignore Limit button. When a limit fires, iOS offers to ignore it — for fifteen minutes, or for the whole rest of the day. Without a passcode, that's a single tap. The block becomes a speed bump you clear without thinking.
  • Limits are daily, not situational. A one-hour daily cap doesn't care whether you're in a meeting or on the sofa at midnight. The hour gets spent early, usually on the thing you were trying to avoid.
  • Deleting and reinstalling. Limits attach to the app. Remove it and install it again and you can be back in within a minute.
  • It's easy to turn off. If you set it up yourself and never locked it, disabling the whole thing takes four taps on a bad day — and bad days are exactly when it needs to work.

None of this makes Screen Time useless. It makes it a reporting tool with soft limits attached, which is a different product from a blocker.

Method 2: Use a dedicated app blocker

Dedicated blockers use the same Apple frameworks underneath — the Screen Time APIs, which is why an app blocker asks for Screen Time permission when you install it — but they change how the blocking behaves.

What you get that the built-in settings don't offer:

  • Real schedules. Recurring blocks tied to times and days, not just one global Downtime window. Work hours can differ from evenings, and weekdays from weekends.
  • Category and group blocking. Block "Social" as a group rather than remembering to add every new app you install.
  • On-demand blocks. Start a two-hour block right now, for this one task, without editing your permanent settings.
  • More friction to unblock. The whole point is that stopping a block should take more effort than starting one.

How to set one up

  1. Install the blocker from the App Store
  2. Grant Screen Time access when prompted — this is what lets it apply blocks
  3. Choose the apps or categories to block
  4. Set a schedule, or start an immediate block

Which one should you use?

If you mostly need awareness and a gentle cap, Screen Time with a passcode is genuinely enough, and it's free. Set it up today.

If you've already tried that and found yourself tapping Ignore Limit on autopilot, the problem isn't that you need a stricter number — it's that the decision keeps getting handed back to you at the exact moment you're least able to make it well. That's the case for a blocker that removes the decision instead.

That's what Appblox is built to do: scheduled, category-level blocking on iPhone, using Apple's Screen Time frameworks, designed so the block holds when you'd rather it didn't.

Frequently asked questions

Can I block apps on iPhone for free? Yes. Screen Time is built into iOS at no cost and can limit apps daily or block them during Downtime.

Can I block apps only at certain times? Yes — that's Downtime in Screen Time, or a schedule in a dedicated blocker. A blocker generally handles multiple different recurring windows more comfortably.

Does blocking apps delete them or my data? No. Blocking hides or disables access to the app. Nothing inside it is removed.

Can someone get around a Screen Time block? Yes, if no passcode is set — the Ignore Limit option is one tap. Setting a Screen Time passcode is what turns a suggestion into a block.