- You can lock apps on your iPhone from the Settings app with Screen Time.
- Locking apps prevents you from overusing them by implementing a passcode-protected time limit.
- Apple’s Screen Time feature lets you set a time limit on any app or website.
Whether you want to limit the time you spend on social media or you just need some quiet from work emails while on vacation, your iPhone’s Screen Time feature lets you set daily hour limits on any app.
Note: The Screen Time feature is only available on iOS 12 and up.
Here’s how to lock apps on your iPhone once you’ve reached the daily time limit.
How to lock apps on your iPhone
1. Open the Settings app and select Screen Time.
From the main Settings page, go to “Screen Time.”
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2. If the only thing you see on the next page is a button to Turn On Screen Time, tap it and hit Continue in the pop-up, then select either This is My iPhone or This is My Child’s iPhone.
If Screen Time is off, tap “Turn On Screen Time.”
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3. In the Screen Time menu, select App Limits. If you have a Screen Time passcode set, you’ll need to enter it to access the App Limits page.
Tap “App Limits” to set limits for certain apps.
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Quick tip: If you’d like to set a passcode for Screen Time that is different from your Lock Screen passcode, you can do so by selecting Use Screen Time Passcode at the bottom of the menu before continuing.
4. On the App Limits page, select Add Limit.
Select “Add Limit.”
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5. Here you can choose which apps you wish to limit by various groupings like Games or Social. Once you tap a category, all apps within that category will appear beneath it — tap the circle next to individual apps or tap the circle next to the category name to limit all apps within that category. If you want to limit all apps on your device, select All Apps & Categories at the top of the page.
Choose which apps you’d like to limit.
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Quick tip: You can also set time limits on certain websites. At the bottom of the Choose Apps page, tap Websites and enter the URL of the website you want to limit.
6. After you’ve selected which apps you’d like to limit, select Next in the top-right corner of the page. Under Time, choose a daily hour limit, or select Customize Days to choose which days to limit app time and customize the hourly limit by day.
Choose how many minutes or hours you want to limit your time to, and select “Customize Days” if you want each day to have different limits.
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7. When finished, tap Add in the upper-right corner.
How to access locked apps on your iPhone
1. If you’ve hit the time limit you’ve placed on an app but wish to continue to use the app, tap Ask For More Time under the icon of an hourglass pictured.
Tap “Ask For More Time” to continue on the locked app or website.
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2. Tap Enter Screen Time Passcode. If you haven’t created a Screen Time passcode, this will just be your lock screen passcode you use to unlock your iPhone. If you don’t have a passcode on your device, you won’t be required to enter anything.
3. Once you’ve entered your passcode, you can choose how much longer to allow use of the app — either 15 minutes, an hour, or all day.
Meira Gebel is a freelance reporter based in Portland, Oregon. She writes about business, culture, and technology for Insider. Her work has been featured in Digital Trends, Willamette Week, USA Today, and more. She is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and San Francisco State University.
Feel free to reach out to her on Twitter, where she can be found most of the time, @MeiraGebel
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