Short answer: open Settings → Screen Time → App & Website Activity → App Limits → Add Limit, pick the app, set the limit to one minute, and — this is the part most guides skip — turn on Block at End of Limit. Without that toggle, the block you just made is one tap (“Ignore Limit”) away from being gone.
Everything below is built into iOS. No third-party app is needed to get started, and it’s worth knowing exactly what each method does before you install anything.
Where these settings live depends on your iOS version. On iOS 26 everything to do with limits sits inside Screen Time → App & Website Activity, and you have to switch that on once before Downtime and App Limits exist at all. On iOS 18–25, Downtime and App Limits are listed directly under Screen Time and there is no App & Website Activity step. The screens themselves are the same once you’re in.
Block one app with an App Limit
App Limits are the closest thing iOS has to a per-app block.
- Settings → Screen Time → App & Website Activity. If it’s off, tap Turn On App & Website Activity — on iOS 18–25, skip this step and go straight to App Limits.
- Tap App Limits → Add Limit.
- Pick a whole category (Social, Entertainment, Games) or expand it and tick a single app. You can also search for the app by name.
- Tap Next, then set the time. 1 minute is the practical minimum — it means the app opens for a moment each day and is blocked the rest of it.
- Optionally tap Customize Days to use different limits on weekdays and weekends.
- Turn on Block at End of Limit, then tap Add.
Limits reset at midnight in your own time zone, so a one-minute limit gives you one short window a day rather than a permanent wall.
The toggle that decides whether it holds: Block at End of Limit
When Block at End of Limit is off, the block screen offers Ignore Limit — One More Minute, Remind Me in 15 Minutes, or Ignore Limit For Today. That’s a single tap, and it is the reason most people conclude that “Screen Time doesn’t work”. It works exactly as designed; the design just asks you to re-decide in the worst possible moment.
With the toggle on, the block screen asks for the Screen Time passcode instead. Set one under Settings → Screen Time → Lock Screen Time Settings and pick something that isn’t your unlock code.
Be honest with yourself about what that buys. You know your own passcode. A passcode makes a block deliberate — you have to leave the app, open Settings, and type it — but it doesn’t make it impossible. The genuinely strong version is asking a partner or a friend to set the passcode and not tell you, which some people love and others will never do.
Block everything for a window of time: Downtime
Downtime is for hours rather than apps: during the window, everything except your allowed list is blocked.
- Settings → Screen Time → App & Website Activity → Downtime (on iOS 18–25: Screen Time → Downtime).
- Turn on Scheduled, then choose Every Day or Customize Days.
- Set the start and end times — 22:00 to 07:00 is the common one.
- Turn on Block At Downtime so the window can’t be dismissed with a tap.
- Go back and open Always Allowed to keep Phone, Messages, Maps or anything else you need available while Downtime is on.
Downtime is the single highest-value setting on this page, because the hours you most regret are usually the same hours every day.
Stop an app coming back: Content & Privacy Restrictions
Deleting an app only helps if reinstalling it takes more than four seconds. To make that true:
- Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions, turn it on.
- App Installations & Purchases → set installing apps to Don’t Allow. (Before iOS 26 this row reads iTunes & App Store Purchases.)
For Apple’s own apps, the same screen has Allowed Apps & Features — Allowed Apps on iOS 18–25 — where Safari, Mail, FaceTime and others can be switched off entirely; they disappear from the Home Screen until you switch them back on.
Delete the app, block installing apps, and lock the settings behind a passcode: that’s the bluntest block iOS can give you, and for one specific app it’s very effective.
Focus is not a blocker — but it removes the trigger
A Focus (Settings → Focus) silences notifications from apps you don’t choose, and it can switch your Home Screen to a page you’ve set up. It does not stop an app from opening if you go looking for it. Use Focus to stop the phone interrupting you, and App Limits or Downtime to stop yourself opening things. They solve different halves of the problem.
Which method for which goal
| What you want | Use |
|---|---|
| One app gone for most of the day | App Limit, 1 minute, Block at End of Limit |
| Everything quiet between certain hours | Downtime + Block At Downtime |
| An app that stays deleted | Delete it + Don’t Allow installing apps |
| No notifications while you work | Focus |
| Nothing dismissible by you alone | Screen Time passcode set by someone else |
Why the blocks get ignored anyway
Three reasons, and none of them is willpower.
Everything gets treated the same. Screen Time’s strength is one setting. If it’s strict enough to keep you out of Instagram, it’s also strict enough to lock the app you need for work — so most people set it loose enough to be useless.
The escape hatch sits inside the moment of temptation. “Ignore Limit” appears exactly when your judgment is at its worst. A block that can be undone in the same second it fires isn’t friction; it is a suggestion.
Nothing is ever measured. iOS tells you how long you were in an app. It never tells you how many times you reached for one and stopped — which is the thing that actually changes first when you’re getting better at this.
If that’s the shape of your problem, the fix isn’t a stricter block. It’s a different block for each app: one you can turn off with a tap, one that costs you a small delay, one that costs you a twenty-minute wait. That’s the idea Daily Offline is built on.
Quick answers
Can I block an app completely on iPhone? As close as iOS allows: a one-minute App Limit with Block at End of Limit on, plus a Screen Time passcode. The app stays visible but won’t open past its first minute each day.
How do I stop myself tapping “Ignore Limit”? Turn on Block at End of Limit for that limit and set a Screen Time passcode. The Ignore options are replaced by a passcode prompt.
Can I block apps only at certain times? Yes — that’s Downtime, or an App Limit with Customize Days. Downtime is a schedule; App Limits are a daily budget.
Do these settings apply to my iPad too? If both devices use the same Apple Account and Share Across Devices is on in Screen Time, limits and Downtime apply to both.
Is there a way to lock a single app behind Face ID? Yes, and it’s a different feature with a different purpose — see How to lock apps on iPhone with Face ID. For the wider picture, how to reduce screen time on iPhone covers the settings around these.
Do I need a third-party blocker at all? Only once iOS runs out. If it has, this comparison of the main iPhone app blockers covers what each one is actually good at — and the weak spot they share.