HomeGuides
How to block distracting apps — and why most attempts fail.
Short answer: start with the blocking your phone already has, and only add a physical key once you have watched software friction stop working on you. Every guide below covers both platforms, names what each method genuinely enforces, and says plainly where it gives way — including for the methods we do not sell.
Start with what the phone already gives you
Both platforms, every built-in method, ranked by what each one actually enforces rather than by what it promises. Exhaust the free tools first — if Screen Time holds for you, you do not need anything else, and we would rather say that here than sell you a key you send back.
How to block apps on Android: every method, honestly ranked
Digital Wellbeing, Focus mode, second user profiles, launcher tricks and physical keys — what each enforces on Android, and where each one gives way.
Read the guide12 min readHow to block apps on iPhone: every method, honestly ranked
Seven ways to block apps on an iPhone, from Screen Time to Shortcuts to a physical key — what each enforces, and exactly how each is bypassed.
Read the guideWhy the last one stopped working
The structural reason a blocker survives a good week and dies on a bad Tuesday. Worth reading before you install the next one, because the failure is usually in the category of tool, not in you.
Getting specific hours back
The setups people actually run — evenings, study blocks, deep work — described as mechanisms rather than resolutions.
If a guide raised a different question
The alternatives, side by side
Screen Time, deleting the app, greyscale, rigid timers and willpower — what each one gets right, and how each one is eventually defeated.
See the comparisonResearchWhat the studies actually say
Published work on interruption cost, phone proximity and evening screen use, each linked back to the original paper rather than paraphrased.
Read the evidenceUse casesWhat people actually block
Deep work, studying, sleep, family time and training — the specific setups, including which apps stay unlocked and why.
Browse use casesMove the unlock off the phone.
Locking stays free, instant, and works with Bluetooth off. Unlocking is the part that needs the key in the room with you — a cost your tired self cannot pay from the sofa. The app is free; the key is the one-time buy.