Screen time
The best apps to limit your screen time
There are dozens of apps to cut your screen time. They don't all do the same thing: some block, some slow you down, some reward you. Here are the main ones, what they do well, and what makes people give them up.
What a good app should do
A useful screen time app does three things: it shows you your real numbers, it puts a limit on the apps that pull you in, and above all it's hard to get around without being a pain every day. That last point makes the difference: an app that frustrates ends up uninstalled.
Digital Wellbeing (Android) and Screen Time (iPhone)
Free and already installed, with precise numbers and a per-app timer. Their weakness: they switch off in a few taps, and change nothing about the home screen that invites you to open apps. How to use it: Digital Wellbeing on Android.
Blockers: Opal, AppBlock, ScreenZen
They block the apps you choose, at the times you choose, sometimes with a strict mode. Effective, but they sit on top of the phone without changing it, and get uninstalled quickly once you've had enough. Our detailed test: Opal review.
A pause before opening: one sec
A few seconds' wait before an app opens, with the option to give up. It's one of the few methods measured scientifically: a third of openings abandoned in a study published in PNAS (Grüning et al., 2023). But once you're in the app, nothing stops you.
Apps that reward you: Forest
You grow a tree by not touching your phone. Motivating at first, the effect often fades after a few weeks.
Changing the home screen: Livetime
Rather than adding one more app, Livetime replaces Android's home screen, the doorway to all the others. It brings together the methods that have proven themselves, in the one place you can't avoid:
- apps open by typing their name, no more icons tapped on reflex;
- a growing wait before compulsive apps, like email;
- a time decided before going into addictive apps, with a soft, flexible or rigid limit;
- Instagram without Reels and YouTube without Shorts;
- Focus, Sport and Sleep modes, with a difficulty from Easy to Hard.
Its limitation: it's Android only, since the iPhone doesn't let you change the home screen.
Which one to choose?
To start for free, Digital Wellbeing is enough to measure. If you only have one problem app, one sec or a blocker can do the job. If you've already tried everything and it all ends up bypassed, the problem is the home screen: that's where Livetime comes in. The full overview: every solution compared.
Everything in one place. Livetime brings the pause, the limit, the modes and Instagram without Reels into your Android home screen. See all the features.
Frequently asked questions
What's the best app to cut screen time?
The one you'll keep. Blockers work as long as you don't uninstall them; a pause before opening is proven to work; changing the home screen, as with Livetime, is the hardest to get around.
Is there a free app to limit screen time?
Yes: Digital Wellbeing on Android and Screen Time on iPhone are free and already installed.
Do these apps read my data?
It depends on the app. Livetime shows no ads, and its accessibility permission is only used for website blocking, if you turn it on: it only reads the address shown in the browser.
Sources
All the studies cited are summarized, with their link, on the Studies page.
Written by Emile Clement, a student and the creator of Livetime, after two years of testing almost every screen-time solution out there.
