PicoThe short answer
iPhone has app blocking built in, free, under Settings › Screen Time. It works, with one significant catch: you can tap past it. For a lot of people that's enough. For everyone else, the question becomes what to do when "Ignore Limit" stops meaning anything.
This guide covers both.
Block apps with Screen Time, step by step
- Open Settings and tap Screen Time.
- If you've never used it, tap Turn On Screen Time and follow the prompts.
- Tap App Limits, then Add Limit.
- Pick a category (Social, Games, Entertainment) or tap the arrow to choose individual apps.
- Set the daily amount of time you want to allow.
- Tap Add.
The limit resets at midnight. When you hit it, the app shows an hourglass screen instead of opening.
Block an app completely
Set the limit to one minute. Screen Time's shortest limit is one minute, so that's as close to a full block as App Limits gets. For a true block, use Downtime instead and set it to cover the whole day, with the app left out of your allowed list.
Stop yourself tapping past it
Turn on Screen Time passcode (Settings › Screen Time › Lock Screen Time Settings) and use a code you don't know by heart. Some people have a partner set it. This is the single change that makes built-in blocking meaningfully harder to defeat.
If you set a Screen Time passcode and forget it, recovering it requires your Apple ID. Don't use a random code with no recovery path.
What Screen Time can't do
- It can't make the decision cost anything. One tap on "Ignore Limit" and you're through. There's no friction, no delay, nothing to weigh.
- Its limits are time-based, not effort-based. You get the same allowance whether you've had a good day or spent nine hours on the sofa.
- It's easy to disable in a weak moment. Without a passcode you control poorly, turning the whole thing off takes about fifteen seconds.
- Limits can feel arbitrary. A flat thirty minutes doesn't match how real days vary, so it gets overridden and then ignored.
None of this makes Screen Time bad. It's genuinely useful, and it's free, and for plenty of people it's all they need. But if you've set limits three times and bounced off them three times, the problem isn't that you picked the wrong number of minutes.
The alternative: make the apps cost something
Pico uses the same Apple Screen Time system underneath, so the blocking is just as real. The difference is what unlocks it. Instead of a timer you can dismiss, your apps open when you've earned them: one hundred steps buys one minute.
If you don't have time to walk, push-ups and sit-ups count too, counted with the camera on your own phone.
The effect is subtle but it matters. You're no longer arguing with yourself about whether to be disciplined. You're deciding whether this scroll is worth a walk, and often the answer is genuinely yes — which is fine, because you walked.
Common questions
Can I block apps on iPhone for free?
Yes. Screen Time is built into iOS at no cost and can block apps by category or individually, on a schedule or a daily time limit. No extra app is needed unless you want blocking that's harder to bypass.
How do I block apps without the Screen Time passcode?
You can set App Limits and Downtime without a passcode, but anything you set can be turned off just as easily. The passcode is what makes the block hold. Without it, treat the limits as reminders rather than blocks.
Why does my app limit not block anything?
The usual causes are the app being on the Always Allowed list, the limit applying to a category that doesn't include it, or Screen Time having been switched off. Our Screen Time troubleshooting guide works through all nine common faults.
Does blocking apps actually reduce screen time?
It reduces it most when the block is hard to bypass and there's something to do instead. Blocks you can dismiss in one tap tend to produce a brief dip and then a return to baseline.
Where to go next
- Screen Time not working? — nine faults and their fixes
- How to stop doomscrolling — the habit underneath the apps
- Walk to unlock your apps — how Pico does it differently
