How to block apps on iPhone and Android

Blocking an app is easy. Making the block hold is the hard part. Both systems have shipped limits for years, and global screen time still averages over 2 h 30 a day on social and video feeds (GWI, cited in DataReportal’s Digital 2026 Global Overview). This guide covers what each tool actually does, and what changes when unlocking has a price.

What your phone’s own settings do

On iPhone, Screen Time sets a daily limit per app or category. On Android, Digital Wellbeing does the same with app timers. In both cases, hitting the limit shows a screen — and that screen has a button.

• “Ignore limit” grants fifteen more minutes, or the rest of the day, in one tap. Without a Screen Time passcode, nothing stands in the way.
• An Android timer is removed in the same gesture, from the setting that created it.
• These limits only think in duration: they never ask for anything in return. They pit your evening self against your morning self, and the evening one wins.

A block that holds isn’t the one that forbids hardest. It’s the one whose exit costs something.

Making unlocking payable, in minutes of activity

That’s Tempo’s principle. You pick the apps that eat your days; they stay shut. Every real minute of activity — running, walking, the gym, cycling — credits screen minutes at the exchange rate you chose: 1 minute of activity for 1 minute of screen, or 1 for 2, or 1 for 3. While the balance is positive, all your apps open. Using them spends it. At zero, everything shuts again.

With no watch, your steps are the currency: a thousand steps are worth about ten minutes of walking, paid at your lane’s rate. And workouts entered by hand in Health or Health Connect are left out of the totals — a workout typed on a keyboard isn’t a workout.

On iPhone: iOS holds the lock

Tempo uses Apple’s Screen Time API (Family Controls, ManagedSettings, DeviceActivity). Your app selection is represented by opaque tokens: Tempo doesn’t even know the names of the apps you picked — iOS won’t tell it. The block itself is enforced by the system.

In practice: the lock holds with the app closed, and the countdown follows the real usage iOS measures. On a 44-minute session recorded on device, Tempo debited 43 minutes, and the re-lock followed the last threshold by five seconds. Nothing to reopen, nothing to restart, nothing to authorise again.

On Android: a service on watch, a screen on top

Android has no equivalent to Apple’s opaque tokens, and pretending the two systems are the same would be dishonest. There, Tempo uses the Usage access permission to know which app is in the foreground, and an overlay to place its blocking screen on top. A foreground service — the permanent notification — keeps the countdown alive.

So on Android Tempo does know the technical names of installed apps, which is not the case on iPhone. What it never reads is what happens inside the apps: no content, no messages, no pages visited. The permission-by-permission detail is on the privacy page.

How many apps, and what it costs

The number of blocked apps is not the paid part: the free version blocks as many apps and categories as you want, and lets you spend up to 60 screen minutes a day. Past that, what you earn waits for tomorrow. Tempo Pro sets that cap, fixes a rate per sport and adds strict mode, where loosening a setting waits 24 hours.

Frequently asked questions

How many apps can Tempo block?

As many as you want, whole categories included, free version included. The cap on the number of apps was removed: blocking is not the paid part. Most people pick three.

Does the block hold when Tempo is closed?

On iPhone, yes: iOS itself enforces the block and re-locks at zero, even with Tempo closed for hours. On Android, Tempo has to keep a service running — that is the permanent notification you see, and the reason the app asks to be exempt from battery optimisation.

Can the block be bypassed?

You can uninstall Tempo, and the block goes with it. Tempo is not parental control: it is chosen self-restriction. What it removes is not your ability to open TikTok — it is the reflex that makes opening it free.