Manage screen time on iPhone and iPad

Unnoticed, we often grab our phone or tablet. But how often is that actually? How much time do you spend on specific apps and how many notifications come in per day? Apple’s “Screen Time” feature knows it all and helps limit time spent, if you want to.

We discuss four options:

• Gain insight into your usage with screen time.
• Set not to use the device within a certain time frame.
• Set the maximum time you use certain (categories of) apps per day.
• Exclude apps that you really care about from the restriction you set.

View the activities on the device as follows:

• Tap on Institutions.
• Tap on screen time.
• Optionally tap Turn on screen time > Continue > This is my iPhone/iPad.
• At the top is the time that the device has been active on average per day. Tap on View all activity.
• In the overview you can see the relationship between different activities. For example, do you spend most of your time on social networking (social networking) or productivity?
• Under ‘Most used’ is the number of minutes per most used app. If necessary, tap an app to view even more data. Then tap the arrow at the top left to return to the previous overview.
• Under ‘Number of times picked up’ you will find, among other things, which app you often consult first after picking up the device.
• Under ‘Notifications’ you can see which app has shown the most notifications in a day. Optionally, tap an app to adjust notification settings.
• Go back to all settings via the arrow at the top left.

Set a period of time when you can’t access the device’s apps. Only phone calls and apps that you allow yourself are then possible. Do you have multiple devices with screen time? Then the setting also applies to those devices.

• Tap on Institutions.
• Tap on screen time.
• Tap on Device Free Time.
• Tap the slider behind “Scheduled” (iOS 15) or “Device Free Time” (iOS 13/14) to enable the feature.
• By default, the device free time is set from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. If necessary, tap the times to change them. Tap on Adjust days if you want to set the time per day.
• Go back to all settings via the arrow at the top left.

Are there any apps you always want to allow? Read more at ‘Always allow apps’.

Are you unnoticed half an hour further when you check a notification on Facebook or your email? Use the ‘App limit’ option to set how much time per day you can spend on a certain category of apps.

• Tap on Institutions.
• Tap on screen time.
• Tap on App Limits.
• In iOS 15, tap the slider behind ‘App Limits’ so that it turns green.
• Tap on Add limit.
• Make your choice. Tap the circle for one or more categories, or tap a category to select one or more child options.
• Tap on Next one.
• Select the maximum amount of time you want to spend per day on the chosen categories or apps. Optionally, set a limit per day of the week by tapping Adjust days.
• Tap on add.

Add different time limits for different categories in this way.

Set “Always Allowed” for the important apps you want unlimited access to.

• Tap on Institutions.
• Tap on screen time.
• Tap on Always allowed.
• ‘Contacts’ and ‘Phone’ are always available. The Messaging, FaceTime, and Maps apps are also selected by default, but you can remove them by tapping the red circle with white stripe > Delete.
• Under “Choose apps,” tap the apps you want to add to the exceptions list as well.