How to block apps on iPhone — and make it stick

Updated 2026-09-24

Blocking an app on iPhone takes a minute. Keeping it blocked at 11 pm, when you want it back, is the hard part. This guide walks through every option iOS gives you, shows exactly where each one gives way, and explains what makes a lock hold when your willpower doesn’t.

The short answer

If you only need a gentle nudge, use App Limits in Screen Time. If you need the apps to stay closed even when you’d rather open them, you need something whose exit is slower than your impulse: a timer you can’t shorten, a physical key somewhere else in the house, and a slow emergency exit so you’re never actually trapped.

Option 1: App Limits in Screen Time

App Limits are built into every iPhone and cost nothing. To set one up:

1. Open Settings → Screen Time. If Screen Time is off, turn it on.
2. Tap App Limits → Add Limit.
3. Choose a category (for example Social) or open it and pick individual apps.
4. Set the daily time and, if you like, different amounts for different days.
5. Tap Add.

When your time runs out, the app opens to a grey screen with an hourglass. So far, so good.

Where it gives way. That screen has an Ignore Limit button. It offers one more minute, a reminder in 15 minutes, or ignoring the limit for the rest of the day. One tap and you’re back in. The limit is a reminder that asks for your permission, and at the end of a long day the answer is usually yes.

You can require a Screen Time passcode to ignore a limit (Settings → Screen Time → Use Screen Time Passcode). That helps when someone else sets the passcode — which is how it’s meant for children. On your own phone you know the code, so it adds four digits of friction and nothing more.

Option 2: Downtime

Downtime blocks everything except calls and the apps you allow, on a schedule. Find it at Settings → Screen Time → Downtime, choose the days and hours, and pick the apps that stay available under Always Allowed.

It’s a good way to make evenings or nights quieter as a whole. But the exit is the same: a blocked app offers to ignore the limit, and one tap opens it. Downtime also blocks everything at once, which is too blunt when the problem is two or three specific apps.

Option 3: Focus modes

Focus (Settings → Focus) filters notifications and can hide Home Screen pages. It’s great for fewer interruptions. It doesn’t block apps at all: you can still open anything from search or the App Library. Treat Focus as a way to quiet the phone, not to close it.

Option 4: App blocker apps

Since iOS 16, apps can use Apple’s Screen Time technology to block other apps on your own iPhone. The wall you see looks like Screen Time’s, and the privacy rules are Apple’s: the blocker gets anonymous tokens, not the names of the apps you pick. What changes is who decides when the lock ends. That one design decision separates a reminder from a lock.

What makes a lock hold

People rarely give up in the calm moment when they set a limit. They give up later, tired, one tap away from the thing they want. A lock holds when the tired version of you can’t end it in one tap. Three things do that:

• A timer you can’t shorten on impulse. Decide the length while you’re calm; the app keeps to it.
• A key that lives somewhere else. An NFC sticker on the fridge, a card in your bag, a QR code inside a cupboard. Ending early means getting up and walking — and most urges fade on the way.
• A slow, free emergency exit. Being locked out of your phone at night can be a real problem. A good blocker lets you out, just not instantly: you ask, you wait a few minutes, the lock opens.

How to choose an app blocker

1. How does a lock end early? If the answer is “tap End”, you’ve bought a reminder with extra steps. Look for a strict mode without a quick End button.
2. Can you delete the app to escape? Some blockers turn on Apple’s “no deleting apps” setting while a strict lock runs, so deleting and reinstalling isn’t a shortcut.
3. Is there a real way out? A free, slow emergency exit matters more than any feature. Paying to leave your own lock is a red flag.
4. What does it cost, and how often? Many blockers charge weekly. For a tool you may use every evening for years, a one-time purchase is simpler.
5. Is it honest about the limit? On iPhone, the owner can always switch off Screen Time access for any app in Settings, and every lock lifts. An app that claims otherwise isn’t telling the whole story.

A setup that works

Here is a simple routine that holds up in real evenings:

1. Pick the two or three apps that actually eat your time — not a whole category.
2. Decide when they lock: by hand when you sit down to work, on a schedule for evenings, or after a daily limit.
3. Put a key somewhere you have to walk to: the fridge, the hallway, another floor.
4. Use a strict lock for the times you know you’ll negotiate with yourself — late evenings, deep-work blocks.
5. Keep the emergency exit for emergencies. If you use it every night, the lock is too long; shorten it rather than fight it.

How Hasp does it

Hasp is a strict app blocker built on Apple’s Screen Time. It locks the apps you choose by hand, on a schedule, or after a daily limit. Commitment Mode removes the quick End button: a lock ends when its timer runs out, when you tap your NFC sticker or scan your QR key, or through the free emergency exit after a 10-minute wait. While a Commitment lock runs, apps can’t be deleted. Blocking is free for any number of apps; Hasp Lifetime is a one-time purchase that adds unlimited Commitment locks, several locks with their own keys, and your full history.