iPhone guide

How to block apps on iPhone

Two ways to stop an app from eating your day: Apple’s free Screen Time limits, or RepTime, where the app stays locked until you move.

By Khai Huynh, founder of RepTime · Updated 28 October 2026

Quick answer

On iOS 26 and earlier, go to Settings › Screen Time › App Limits › Add Limit, pick the apps and set a daily time. On iOS 27, Screen Time uses Time Allowances instead. Either way, a limit you can ignore with one tap is easy to skip. RepTime keeps picked apps locked until you earn minutes with exercise.

Method 1 · Free

Set an App Limit with Screen Time

Built into iPhone, no download needed. On iOS 26 and earlier:

Open the Settings app and tap Screen Time.
Tap App & Website Activity and turn it on, if it isn’t already.
Tap App Limits, then Add Limit.
Select a category, or tap it to choose single apps.
Tap Next, set the time allowed per day, and add the limit.

On iOS 27, go to Settings › Screen Time › Time Allowances and set how long you can use each category, such as Social Media or Entertainment.

Apple’s steps: App Limits (iOS 26) · Time Allowances (iOS 27)

The problem

Why Screen Time limits are easy to skip

One tap gets you back in. By default, Apple lets you ignore a limit once you reach it.
You hold the passcode. A Screen Time passcode only helps if someone else keeps it.
Nothing changes your habit. A limit stops the scroll, but gives you nothing better to do.

The idea

From doomscrolling to rewardscrolling

RepTime makes scrolling a reward. You get the reward after you exercise.

In 1959, the psychologist David Premack proposed a rule: a preferred activity can be the reward for a less preferred activity [1].

Researchers tested this rule with screen time:

Children had to be active to get time on video games or movies. They were more active than children with free access [2].
In an 8-week home trial, children got TV time for pedometer counts. Their daily activity increased by 65%. In the control group, it increased by 16% [3].
In the same trial, TV time decreased by 116 minutes per day. In the control group, it increased by 14 minutes per day [3].
Children got a reward when they spent less time on a favourite sedentary activity. They became more active. They also liked that activity less [4].

RepTime uses the same reward loop: exercise first, then scroll.

Method 2 Recommended

The RepTime way: move to unlock

Pick the apps. Choose apps and websites in Apple’s Screen Time picker. They lock at 0 minutes.
Move. 1 squat, 1 push-up, 2 jumping jacks or 100 steps = 1 minute. The camera counts on your iPhone.
Scroll. Minutes are spent only while a picked app is open. At 0, it locks again.

Want it stricter? Hard Mode turns off the 5-min bypass, expires unspent minutes at midnight and caps your daily use, behind a PIN.

Everything you didn’t pick stays free. Deleting an app is a clean break too, but you can reinstall it in seconds.

Blocked at 0 min

Make addictive apps unavailable when you meant to do something else.

Set up once, then let RepTime handle the moment when habit takes over.

Download on theApp Store

About the author

Khai Huynh is the founder and developer of RepTime, an iPhone app that keeps distracting apps locked until you earn the minutes with exercise. Khai wrote this guide while building RepTime on Apple’s Screen Time tools. Questions or corrections: [email protected].

Sources

Premack, D. (1959). Toward empirical behavior laws: I. Positive reinforcement. Psychological Review, 66(4), 219–233. doi:10.1037/h0040891 · PubMed
Goldfield, G. S., Kalakanis, L. E., Ernst, M. M., & Epstein, L. H. (2000). Open-loop feedback to increase physical activity in obese children. International Journal of Obesity, 24(7), 888–892. doi:10.1038/sj.ijo.0801248 · PubMed
Goldfield, G. S., Mallory, R., Parker, T., et al. (2006). Effects of open-loop feedback on physical activity and television viewing in overweight and obese children: a randomized, controlled trial. Pediatrics, 118(1), e157–e166. doi:10.1542/peds.2005-3052 · PubMed
Epstein, L. H., Saelens, B. E., Myers, M. D., & Vito, D. (1997). Effects of decreasing sedentary behaviors on activity choice in obese children. Health Psychology, 16(2), 107–113. doi:10.1037/0278-6133.16.2.107 · PubMed