ScreenZen- Screen Time Control

This is helping me be much more mindful with my social media use. I love the pause and the prompts that it gives you before it unlocks the app, that is also super customizable and helpful! The prompts, urge you to be mindful and figure out what it is you are actually wanting. I have mine set to “what are you seeking?” it makes me stop and think about what it is I’m really hoping to get out of scrolling. And if I can’t answer, then I close the app. It helps me feel more In control. Its helping me take back the power. It’s so easy to use, super user friendly, and has sooo many great customizable functions to help you overcome your social media addiction. And the best part is, it’s absolutely free. I never ever ever leave reviews but I love seeing good companies who genuinely want to fix a real rampant problem and not just profit. This app is genuinely the best thing ever for my social media addiction. I can’t stress enough how MANY great customizable features this app comes with to make your experience more tailored to you. It’s also much easier to set up compared to other screen time apps that I have tried, and those even had paid subscriptions ! If you really want to take it a step further, in your settings, go to color filter, and change it to black and white. It will help make your phone less appealing to look at, therefore promoting you to use it less. That hack paired with this app = significantly less screen time. 10/10

I love this app! I have been using it for months now, and it has made a huge difference in how much time I spend on my phone (especially social media). My favorite feature is the checklist of activities you would rather be using your time for, I have ADD and it’s easy to get zoned out and then later feel crappy because I didn’t focus my energy on the important things I want to prioritize. This app doesn’t let me get lost in my phone and has helped me be so much more productive. Thanks for that! The only two things I would like to see are 1) the ability to add a specific website to a group rather than the entire access to the browser. Not sure if that’s possible but would help to keep me from doom scrolling while still being able to use the browser for the random needs. 2) to be able to retroactively check a task off the list. Sometimes (because I am not on my phone nearly as much anymore) I will complete one of my checklist items for the day but forget to check it off. Once the clock hits midnight the counters reset and you can only click it once per day. So even though I might do the activity 4/4 times that week, the app will only reflect 3/4. Would be nice to be able to just keep a running tally for that week whenever I get the chance to account for it, rather than having to be sure I check it off before midnight. Otherwise, this app is perfection.

You do NOT have to pay for any features on this app, unlike many others. Though, if developers read this, I'd like to say that I'd be willing to pay for the app if it was a one time fee of $5 or less (like the Forest app which I also recommend - yes I use both because I have bad ADD and also it's cute so can you blame me?) I tried Iphone's screentime feature, but I kept clicking it away without even thinking and it started to annoy me because i saw it just as a roadblock to my apps. With ScreenZen, it doesn't feel annoying because it makes you think. I feel like these apps get you addicted so quickly and ScreenZen gives you the opportunity to look past that and actually make the choice for yourself. I love that it gives you a second to pause because more than half the time, I don't actually even realize I'm clicking the app until I do (yes my addiction is that bad). Now I can actually be intentional about the time I spend on my social media & how much of my life I give to it. I still use social media, but I only use it when I have a purpose in going to it (or I REALLY don't have anything else to do). I recommend this app to everyone who is looking to spend less time on their phone / social media. Plus, so many cool customizing options (also free)!!

If you’re addicted to your phone and it’s sucking the happiness out of you I promise you need this app IMMEDIATELY. Literally SO GOOD AND EFFECTIVE!!!!! I wanted to cut down on screen time and my app addiction (im looking at you tiktok) and this has helped so much and the results were literally INSTANT. Something about the psychology of having a limited number of opens makes me want to cherish them and never open the app ever unless its dire, so day 1 my screen time was cut legit in half. This app also tops every other one it’s category. Besides the fact that there’s NO ADS OR PAYWALL it has more features than the others I’ve tried, such as restricting access only during certain time periods (for me bed time) which makes it so much less tempting to rage delete when I just want to open an app to find a picture or show someone a video in the middle of the day. It also has an immensely better UI and the way that it doesn’t require setting up a shortcut and awkwardly jumping between apps on your screen to run the popup is just 😙🤌 chefs kiss. AND screen time is integrated for the apps you choose to limit so you can actively SEE your progress is so neat! long story short, perfect, effective app that everyone needs

Its a super good app and is great at what it does with no lag. I tried one sec and it was much more expensive and was incredibly tedious to set up, and most of the work done isnt even in the app itself. Im very grateful for all that this app offers. I think something I’d love to have from this app though would be a quiz pause alternative where you can maybe upload a text or csv file with notes and flashcard information. It’d be great to force myself to answer and review what i need to study and remind myself to study in order to be allowed to use whatever app I want. For example, I’m learning Korean, so it’d be nice if I could upload the vocab list I’m learning and force myself to review 10 vocab words correctly before unlocking the app. Also, one thing I’d also like is if the cooldown was longer. 2 hours is a long time, but some apps I’d like to force myself to get away from for even longer, like 6, 10, or 12 hours. It’d motivate me to wake up earlier and fit more hours into my day so I could use the app 2 times a day, and also would help me get into the zone of other things since I wouldnt be able to touch my gaming app for half the day anyways. Also, the developers band is nice!! Give it a listen lol.

Apple’s built-in screen time controls are too easy to get around and don’t do anything to help prevent you from opening apps out of habit. This app lets you set a popup that happens when you open apps that makes you wait a set period of time (I chose 10 seconds) before opening, enough to help you reconsider if you actually want to open the app. 9/10 times I decide that no, I don’t really want to start scrolling social media. Since I started using it, I’ve cut down my screen time on addicting apps by like 60%. You can also set a soft limit on the app so that after X minutes the popup shows again and makes you wait a few seconds before being able to continue, which helps when I do want to go on social media for a bit but not let it turn into hours and hours of scrolling. There are a ton of other features there to help you customize exactly what limits you want for yourself and lots of mechanisms to help you stick to those limits. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone who struggles with phone addiction. Now I can keep social media on my phone and stay connected with people without wasting hours mindlessly scrolling.

Love this app! I have a very specific way of interpreting my phone use and this app allows me to track and block accordingly. I am specifically trying to track my behavior on apps that waste my time and attention, so I don’t consider the “messages” app to be part of my problem. I can subtract “messages” from my screen time total, meaning that my screen time calculation is much more accurate to what I want to know — as opposed to the iPhone screentime tracker, which just tracks everything with no filters. There are some mild bugs to this app which is why I gave four stars instead of five. The password lock feature uses both 0 and O characters which I find frustrating and sometimes requires me to quit and reopen the ScreenZen app to work, but it’s quick and consistently works to fix the problem so it doesn’t bother me so much. Occasionally there will be a day where it just doesn’t block at all but usually I find that when it resets at midnight, it’s all back to normal. Just normal bugs for a young app, and nothing incredibly frustrating or dire. Overall, I love how specific this app lets you get in tracking and blocking apps, much more so than the capabilities the iPhone gives you. It has changed my behavior for the better and I definitely recommend!

Honestly I can’t think of a better app out there for helping keeping you on track, off your phone, and focused. Not only that it’s free right now, and very accessible. There’s so many features to put it above and beyond what apples screen time does. Not only that it incorporates features that Apple phones already have. I’m not sure if it works on other brands but it’s amazing on Apple. Thank you so much for making this app, it’s helped me a lot with doomscrolling and wasting time to just looking at TikTok or instagram. I especially love the fact that you can tie focus modes to the period of focus, that is extremely helpful. I also love the feature where you can add an additional task you have to do before accessing the app, and the fact that there are limited unlocks. Truly thank you. This has helped me immensely. One thing that could be an additional thing to add would be a way to access your to-do list within the app when it isn’t being used to unlock an app, and an easier way to tie focus modes to the overall focus time, but those are just additional. I love the app and it’s cut down my screen time significantly. <3

I just started using this app and it’s already been very useful to me. I really like the pause feature and the kinds of activities that you can pick from to open the app to help you with your goals. I set it up so that my social media app I used most requires me to do a short breathing exercise every 45 minutes, as someone with pretty bad anxiety I think this is very helpful to helping me with controlling it even when I’m not entirely aware of it. I also made it ask me if it’s a good time to use an entertainment app and show me a To Do list so that I don’t forget about things I need to do. I could see how some of the other things like that would be useful, there’s a good variety and you can really customize things to fit your exact needs. I think if I could change something it’s that you have to exit out of the app you want to use in order to do one of these activities and then go back to the app, I feel like there’s gotta be a way to make it happen more automatically, but it’s also not that difficult to work with.

Thanks for the response! I tried to contact via support but get an error message when I try to send the email. This app has been incredibly helpful!! Highly recommend. One glitch/bug I have noticed for the past 2-3 months is that the to-do list pause alternative only works for apps within one category (social). For the other category (games), I only have one app yet regardless of whether or not I have it in the same group or a different one to social, the to-do list never appears, it just blocks for the number of seconds designated. That aside, this app has helped me to be more intentional with my time and strengthen my impulse control, which has increased my sense of self-efficacy, sense of accomplishment, and happiness. I especially love that it is COMPLETELY FREE, sans even ads (would be pretty ironic if it had ads of any kind, lol). As a struggling student whose skill set, values and passion are most aligned with undervalued field, I can’t afford extra expenses like subscriptions, so I am very grateful for quality free resources like this, especially given how so much of our world (esp apps on our phones) is designed to prey on our brain’s weaknesses.

to be fully honest, i had a PROBLEM. i was spending upwards of 4-5 hours on instagram a day, every day. this number does not include the hours i spent on other apps, like tiktok, etc. i'd find myself scrolling and wasting time when i could've been productive, and it was impossible to stop once i started. i've had this app for a week, and my screen time has already dropped SIGNIFICANTLY. as of today, my screen time average has dropped to around an hour a day, and my time on instagram only about 30 minutes, which is a HUGE change from 5 hours. unlike other apps (which aren't always affordable like this app is), the interface is super easy to use and is designed to stop you from wanting to ignore the block. i appreciate how it makes you stop and think before you use the app - this feature is very customizable and helpful. overall, i'd recommend this app to anyone like me, or anyone who just wants to find a reason to do something better than scroll. you won't regret it.

I’m 27 and grew up with smartphones since middle school. Over the years, my screen time has steadily crept up to the point that I know it’s reducing my enjoyment of my life. There is so much there to experience out in the real world instead of on a small screen. This app is one of the few tools that has actually helped me break digital addiction habits. Apple’s Screen Time is too easy to disable. Other apps that I won’t call out by name were easy for me to get around as well. This app, on the other hand, puts in a long enough delay as well as an opportunity to write about why I want to use an app for me to realize most times that I was going out of habit, not because it’s what I consciously wanted to do with my time. Give it a try. You’ll notice you don’t have to delete/quit social media cold turkey but instead will just use it less and less as your phone becomes more of a nuisance than an attention magnet. You won’t regret it.

I figured this would just be like any other basic screen time restriction gimmick, where ultimately it would be easy to bypass just like the terrible one Apple designed. I definitely did not expect it to be as effective as it has been. The settings, timers, and all of the ways it blocks the loopholes that you'd normally have with Apple Screentime is impressive. My phone usage screentime was averaging 10 hours a day consistently. Ever since setting up this app my average is now about 4 hours which is freaking amazing. My only gripe so far is that the bypass feature (where it allows you to bypass for a few minutes) does not seem to work in Safari. Which isn't a huge problem, but every once in a blue moon there's a site that I actually want to visit for a specific task but the bypass feature doesn't actually work when I press "unlock." Again, not the worst problem. It's better to have a slightly too-limiting screen app than to have one that is virtually useless due to its ease of bypassing (cough cough Apple).

i don't know why, but for some reason the app just hasn't been working now for the last few updates? like, the actual app itself. it still blocks stuff just fine. i had to reinstall it because it kept opening to a black screen and then crashing, even after updating. as well, when i'm creating/editing an app group, there's a decent chance (with the odds improved if i select more than a few apps) the pop-up screen will turn completely grey/blank. i can't save my settings when it does that and i have to completely restart what i was doing. also, i have my screen zoomed in because i am visually impaired, and due to this a bunch of the options in that previously mentioned pop-up screen for editing your app group settings are partially (or even almost entirely) cut off and very hard to read. and that's even after zooming out my text all the way. i really, really appreciate that the app is free and there's no dumb subscription plans, and i know the dev(s) work hard, but these bugs and lack of accessibility are REALLY rough

I want to start out by saying I usually don’t write reviews but I’m doing so because I really like this app. I have only tried another app “opal” (which didnt really work for me) and my friend recommended me this so I downloaded. I like this app because it lets you choose prompts to ask yourself before opening apps that you choose to block. For me I chose “check this later?” and I’m not sure how but with a tiny bit of willpower and that pause between opening the app with that question tricks my mind and I end up reducing my use of those apps. In addition, I really like that you can limit how many times you open and app and it’s always visible so before I open an app like instagram it makes me think “oh what if I really want to open it later instead” and it also reduces the amount of time I visits the app. Overall this is a great app and my only reason for not giving it a 5 star is because I’ve only used it for a few days but later on if the app works long term for me I will come and change it to 5 stars.

Unlike many of the other apps that offer the same blocking options, ScreenZen gives that and more at no monthly subscription. The philosophy that this app uses, which is creating a delay before you open the app, is a great way to get you to ask “why?” before you indulge your app-opening habits. ScreenZen also has a great blocking system when you reach the end of your opening goals, which prevents you from breaking your goals the same way you could with the “ignore limit” and “15 minutes more” options in screen time. I’ve been locking my settings page on ScreenZen to stop myself from impulsively changing my settings, and I’ve found that I have been truly sticking to my time goals for my phone and iPad. Really, this app gives way more than other app blocking apps and doesn’t lock important features, like unoverrideable blocks and scheduling your blocks, behind a paywall. If I could donate to this developer, I would.

I have been using ScreenZen for about 3 months now after I asked a friend of mine why they had stopped using instagram so much. They then showed me the app in action which made them wait 10 seconds to open the app for about 2 minutes. At first I thought that the whole thing was stupid and was probably super easy to get around. But after a while I realized how bad my doomscrolling was after spending 16 hours on instagram while in a depressive slump, it was during this time I saw Drew Goodens video of him trying some internet detox thing and he had recommended this app. So I finally caved and downloaded the app and I can say with full confidence I should have done this sooner. It’s a really solid app, it’s got a small learning curve but it’s worth it. This app has taken me from 20+ hours on instagram a week to less than 90 minutes on instagram a week! Somedays I don’t even open the app! It’s just a really good app, no bells and whistles, lots of different options for different types of people. It has so many features to stop you from messing around with the settings to get around the block from parental passcodes to a wait period to access the settings. I can’t recommend this enough, Ive recommended this everyone I know. It’s positively impacted me in so many aspects of my life from my grades to my social life. I can’t say enough good things about this app! Just try it out and see for yourself.

This is the best screen time app I have come across. I love that it’s free. I gave a $5 tip when I downloaded it to help it stay free but it is not necessary to give any money. All the features are free to use and there are a ton. TikTok has been sucking all my free time and making me feel worse, so with this app I can only open it 7 times a day for up to 15 minutes, have to wait 10 seconds before unlocking it to think about why I’m opening it, and type my reason out. There are many more things you can do including solving a math problem before you can open each app like Alarmy can do to wake you up. It’s worth trying simply because it’s free to use. I understand paying developers is difficult with a free app so I hope they are able to keep it free. If you are able to give a tip like I did I would recommend it, but if you are in a tough place financially do not feel pressured!

These app developers are doing the work of God (Source, Universe, mental health) here. This app is cognitive behavior therapy at its finest and most practical / accessible. I recently decided to spend awhile sober, and in the past 2 1/2 months without regular psychedellic/THC use (or any substance use for that matter), my old phone addictions have been trying to slither back in like a squirmy parasite and steal energy, time, and focus. I didn't push pause on substance use to abuse my phone instead. I'd 111% rather go back to being a stoner than have my eyes glued to this little screen all day. Thank you Screen Zen for renewing my faith in humanity and my ability to not fall into an endless, neurotic loop of pixellated dissociation every time I have a day off. If karma is real I'm pretty sure you've got 10,000 virgins awaiting you, or something like that. Now, away with me, I must go. I'm off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of NOT STARING AT THIS SCREEN. Thank you Screen Zen for kicking a**.

This is perfect for my use, which is dealing with a moderate phone addiction while still needing to use social media for photography purposes. I’ve tried various blockers in the past, but they tend to be either too lenient (letting you bypass too quickly and easily) or too strict (blocking apps completely with no bypass option). I’ve also tried ditching my smart phone completely, but that does disconnect me from social networks that I do want to be a part of. With ScreenZen, I can set a prompt like “Is this for business?” on relevant apps, and it’s been shocking to me the number of times I’ve mindlessly opened an app and been given the prompt without even realizing that I was just seeking a dopamine hit. Having a specific time delay, up to 30 seconds, before being able to access an app is also brilliant, as it prevents me from bypassing the prompt without truly being confronted with the consequences of my actions. Great app!

Between being unable to work due to a disability, the accompanying depression, and my already ADHD brain. Let me tell you the doom scrolling was taking over my life. ScreenZen brought my social media usage down from 4 + hours a day, to 30 minutes a day!! Even though my limit is an hour a day. Having it cut me off after 15 minutes and waiting 30 seconds to open has got me out of the addiction-like mindset of social media. I’m recommending it to everyone, can’t say enough about it. I looked for hours for a app time limiter that would work for me. I could not fined one! My daily schedule varies greatly between doctor apts and physical therapy and such, so a “block from 9-5” wouldn’t work for me. All the other apps that had an actual minute limit would just remind you to get off, but I would just ignore the reminder . ScreenZen is the only app I found that could put a hard per day time limit. And it’s exactly what I needed.

I like this app a lot and in the first week it has been very helpful and like how u are able to customize pretty much everything to ur abilities. I do have one problem with this app and it’s that it doesn’t let you receive notifications on the app u are trying to reduce your screen time, and since in this case my app is snapchat i get notifications from people texting me or trying to make plans on the app and it’s hard for me to know if they texted or not because i can’t see any notifications popping up so i don’t know whether to waste on one of my clicks or taps to get in the app (in this case snapchat) I have tried to go to the more section in your app and try the shortcut tutorial but this doesn’t work at all and all it does is just redirects u to screen zen which doesn’t do anything to be able to see the notifications. If u could help me to be able to see notifications that would be incredibly helpful and you would be my favorite app ever

I downloaded this app on a whim, thinking I'd try it out to maybe slow down my Instagram use. I didn't have the intention of stopping looking at Instagram and Facebook entirely (I follow some cool accounts!), but that's what ended up happening. The app is super customizable and easy to set up. I chose some settings for how I wanted ScreenZen to interrupt me when I opened certain apps and there's an impressive range: you can have it do anything from make you wait five seconds to solve a math problem. I chose the five seconds option and, to my surprise, that was all the inconvenience it took. I still open Instagram about every now and then to look up specific events, for example, and ScreenZen is great for that too. I set it to prompt me again after two minutes so I don't end up scrolling for fifteen minutes when I was just trying to spend 30 seconds looking up a specific profile.

I have been on the hunt for an app blocking / limiting app that’s as customizable as this. I finally found it, and it’s FREE! If you want to full on block certain apps during certain times you can. If you want to give yourself access to apps in 5 minute spurts you can. You can make it as strict or not strict as you want, and you can set a passcode if you want to use it for your kids. I like this because it doesn’t force a strict pomodoro schedule on you. You can set it up so you can use your limited apps whenever you want but you only get so many times to open them so you can “budget” your opens during the scheduled time. Nice for jobs / studying / chores etc where you want to take a little break here and there without shutting everything down. I’m telling all my friends and family about this app, this is LIFE CHANGING! I believe EVERYONE should use this app, it’s seriously THE BEST!

I cannot recommend this app highly enough. It is so much more effective than other apps or just adjusting your phone’s settings to try and limit your screen time. You can schedule your app limits ahead of time, and once your limit is set, you only have a certain number of times you can unlock the app before it’s blocked from usage. Since you only have a certain number of unlocks, you’re forced to consider if you truly want to use an app instead of just mindlessly staring at your phone. And if you’re tempted to go in and remove limits, it breaks your “streak”, which I think is a fun little way to motivate yourself not to mess with your app limits. You can also make yourself play a game or wait a few seconds before being able to unlock an app. And it’s free. No ads, no in-app purchases. I seriously cannot rate this app highly enough. 10/10!!

This app is one of the most frequent apps I use on my phone, however recently when I have 2 completely different app groups on at the same time with different apps enabled, the other app group combines with the other somehow. To explain it the best way, I have 1 app group set to allow me to unlock the app when necessary, and the other one is a strict app group, where I have it set so I can’t unlock any of the apps. Once I have both of those on at once, it applies the ability to unlock it on all app groups, no matter what settings I give the other one. Also, when I delete the app groups to try and reset them, it still applies the same settings of being able to unlock it, even when I turn on that it is a strict block. This is a very very annoying glitch/bug. Please fix it, and I will change my rating to 5 stars, as this app is extremely useful and I have talked about it with others in the past and I rely on it every single day.

I was looking for something to stop me from mindlessly opening my top used social media apps. I wanted to make a habit of enjoying some of my old hobbies instead of scrolling. This has really helped me limit my opens and get back to some of the things I love, along with elimating social media fatigue and the anxiety that can come with it. I do have one complaint - and the reason for the lost star. When I’m in social, I often read stories and open a new tab to look something up, or click on a link to an outside source. Unfortunately, that boots me out of my social app and then when I go back, it tracks against my open count. And it seems to happen immediately and give no time at all to switch back. It would be nice if it didn’t time out so quickly when you open a new window. Maybe I missed something in setup to prevent this from happening? I would appreciate a response from the developer in case I am mistaken.

Now before i start, this app is great. It WILL help you spend less time on your phone if you make an effort to set it up for you. There are strange bugs that make life just a little more tedious. but in the name of using my phone less, i guess thats a good problem? Regardless it is not perfect, for example, websites do not have time blocks, they just get fully restricted unless you have the app downloaded (which is what im avoiding). This happens even if they are in a group of apps n sites where they have a specific time limit until it blocks. i just have not found it to work. The breathing exercises are really unique tho, and sometimes thats all you need to realize you don't really wanna be on the app at all. I also like that you can customize the messages to say different stuff specific to your life. "dont you have homework?" or "check your to do list" really snatch me out of my doom scroll.

I usually don’t write reviews for apps, but as someone who has frequently thought about how much time I wasted on social media apps that I still need access to on my phone, this app is perfect. It’s very user friendly, is customizable in a variety of ways, and is helping me reduce the amount of time I waste on my phone. In the past when I’ve tried other screen time limiting apps it will just lock you out when you exceed your set time limits. I love how this one additionally allows you to limit time in intervals, it can be on certain days of the week, certain time frames, gives you an option to write yourself a pop up note, and more. So far it’s been about a week and my screen time has gone down drastically and I’ve been more productive in my home life! Exactly what I was hoping for :)

Pros: This app is exactly what I was looking for because I spend way too much time checking and rechecking social media and before I know it nothing in my house is getting done. It allows you to select each individual app you want to put a timer and message on the screen requiring you to really think, “ should I be doing something more productive” that’s what I have mine say. You can select the amount of time it makes you wait for it to unlock. And has a counter to show you how many times you’ve pressed unlock that day. It’s definitely helped me. Cons: There is one small glitch that needs to be fixed, that doesn’t work properly. The pause button under settings that says it lets you pause for 60 minutes, doesn’t pause for 60 minutes. It turns it off for the rest of the day allowing you to use your phone as normal. This doesn’t help. I have turned it off while I take a lunch break and after the 60 it just stays off and I get sucked back into sitting down on my phone. Just that bug needs to get fixed and maybe make it have a pause for 15, 30, 45 and 60 minutes since most people have lunch breaks for 30 to 60 minutes and gives them the ability to set it for how long their break is.

I’ll update this in a week to let you know how it went: I forgot about this, it’s definitely been more than a week haha. I love this app, my screen time has gone down so so much while still letting me use the apps in moderation. I can’t use the Apple screen limit thing because I’ll just click “ignore for today” and it’s done nothing. Also if I’m watching a video, it’ll mess it up but not ScreenZen, it will pause it for me so I can play it again when the timer is up, easy as that. The only complaint I would have is that it also blocks notifications, I’ve missed being tagged in instagram stories, being sent TikToks, getting messages on Facebook. I understand it is part of keeping you off the distracting app but I want to see if someone sent me something. Overall though, a great app that has helped my time management and mental health so much 👍

this app is everything i’ve ever wanted in a screentime app AND it’s not a ridiculous $70/yr subscription like most other apps. I donated to get the customizable screen because this app has been so great for me. only used it for a day so i’ll probably start getting annoyed by stuff being locked and start unlocking it more often but thankfully there’s a lot of things to help me from not doing this. I love apps that have an option to not let me uninstall it because i’m just that bad at self discipline lol. being able to have custom limits for different apps is amazing too. so many different features and customization options it’s wonderful this is the only app i’ve found that actually keeps me from opening apps and also doesn’t annoy me to the point of where i just delete it

Apple’s built-in screentime is flawed. What good does it do to have a screentime password if you can just type the password in whenever you want anyways? This app has way more than that. My favorite thing is the delay option. This makes it so you have to wait several seconds for the app to unlock once you press unlock. The immediate dopamine hit your brain is looking for isn’t there, so slowly you become less and less likely to reach for that app first. But, if you really do want to/have to use the app, you can just wait the set seconds and then the app unlocks no problem. It has reduced my unnecessary screen time by 70% (in apps such as TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest which I was addicted to a few weeks ago). Seeing this is free, I think it’s 100% worth downloading.

I’ve only had this app for a few days, but I really appreciate how customizable it is. I was able to create groups of apps with different limits, and I appreciate that there’s a buffer screen that allows you to pause and think on whether or not I want to open an app. Sometimes I absentmindedly click on apps, so the fact that those mistakes don’t count as an unlock is helpful. There is also a reasonable grace period between unlocking an app and when it locks again. So, if I get a text or need to multitask briefly, I don’t have to sit through the buffer screen again. It’s also great that it keeps a streak of how many days I’ve been able to stay within my time limit. It helps me track goals (for example 100 days within the time limit) Definitely recommend!

This app is amazing. I’ve been using it for over a year now. It is such a lifesaver and it has forever changed how I use and think about social media. And it’s free (although if you can afford it you should tip the devs). The app is full of great features and it’s super simple. My favorite feature is the timed app lock. If you’re worried you’ll try to access the app to temporarily disable your blocking you can set the app to not unlock for whatever length of time you choose, meaning you have to keep the app open and your phone on until the countdown ends. So much respect for the developers and I’m so excited for what’s to come! I can’t even think of anything that would improve the app but they keep adding more features and making it better somehow. Thank you screenzen!!!!

Thank you so much to whoever made this app. It’s a pretty simple concept but works so well especially compared to the inbuilt screen time on iPhone which I always just click through without second thought. It is also entirely free with no data collection which I could not appreciate enough, it is hugely refreshing and feels like the developer genuinely wants to just help people break the bad habit of phone time instead of getting us locked into an overpriced subscription for a service that doesn’t work half as well or stealing our data to sell. Please get this app and please leave a tip - the developers more than deserve it and the last thing I think anybody would want to see is the app being forced to resort to a subscription service in order to make money.

I used to have a horrible screen time addiction. I would spend 10+ hours (around school and 3 hour practices almost every day) on my phone every day. I managed to bring myself to delete them all except for Snapchat, since that’s where I talk to a lot of people and generally communicate with them. The problem with it was I would spend hours upon hours mindlessly scrolling. With the feature that limits how long I can have it open for I have finally been able to stop myself from doing this, and am working on bringing myself back together with reality and training. This is the best app I have ever used and the best part a out it is that it is free for everyone to use to help themselves. I love this app, and want to thank the creators of it with my whole heart.

This is a wonderful app whose developers understand what makes it difficult to manage time on your screens. It's very easy to waste time on social media and other sites when they're accessible with a click, but ScreenZen creates intentional boundaries around these apps. After using ScreenZen for a few months, I am much more aware of my interactions with my phone and feel like my relationship with my screens has become much healthier. A simple 10 second wait to open Instagram that prompts you to think, "Huh, why am I opening Instagram right now?" can be the difference between doomscrolling and putting down your phone to do something productive. I also love how customizable this app is; there are so many strategies and tools available (for FREE might I add) for different people's preferences. I think it all comes down to awareness of how we spend our time. It can be really difficult to feel in control of screen usage, but ScreenZen puts that control back in the hands of the people who use technology, not the technology itself. I'm really grateful to the developers for creating this resource, have recommended it to many of my friends, and will continue to do so.

Coming from a 22 year old guy, I can’t say enough good things about this app. ScreenZen has helped me use social media for its intended purpose. Instead of doom scrolling for an hour on Instagram reels or tik tok, I open the app, check out what my friends posted, see what my friends/group chats sent me, send a couple posts back, then it locks me out. It’s perfect. Plus the streak system makes it so I never want to break it, I haven’t gone over my limit in almost 200 days! This has greatly helped reduce my anxiety and increase my attention span which is something I’ve been trying to work on for months on end. It’s hard nowadays to completely get rid of social media, so ScreenZen allows me to use it in healthy doses. I’ve recommended the app to a few friends and they’re amazed by how often they open social media without thinking and it really makes you realize how much we use social media when we don’t have to. Not only is it okay to be bored, it’s healthy! PSA: Stay off your phone when you’re around friends and family, I promise you there’s nothing important you’re missing on social media. This should be a requirement for every social media app out there. 10/10!!!

I’ve been using ScreenZen for a few days now after realizing I’ve had a problem with constantly being on my phone. It’s been perfect for keeping me on track and not spending more time than necessary on my phone. There are so many features which make it so easy to tailor your experience; it can even make you pause at websites. It doesn’t block your whole phone (unless you want it to) so you can keep using work-related apps like Gmail (or keep you from using them, if you’re trying to get a better work-life balance). The best part is that it’s completely free. No subscriptions, no ads— the developers are really generous here. If you struggle with staying off your phone or doomscrolling, I can’t recommend this app enough.

This app has already been a tremendous help for me to stay off social media. Social media has been so detrimental to my productivity and mental health. With this app, i can limit how many opens I have and do brain activities or breathing (for ex.) which actually help me think about how it can be helpful before I go on. Having time limits on the use of the apps is amazing as well. There’s also levels of restriction with this app even to the point where I can block myself from using cortina apps. I’m excited to slow transition to not using social media at all during the week. I believe this app can help me slowly build towards my goals. Y’all should def check it out for some support with productivity and this 21st century phone addiction.

This is my favorite app that I’ve used to limit use of apps on my phone. It is very customizable for specific apps or groups of apps or even websites. You can adjust time limits per app, number of opens per day that are allowed, and times of day & days of the week these limits are set for. It calculates your streak and that is very helpful for me to see that and not want to break it. Going on almost a year of using this app to keep my FB use to only 30 minutes a day! I love that it’s free and accessible to everyone (and I would most likely pay for it if that ever changes). If you want to reduce screen time and you just need an extra step to break that cycle and take a pause before mindlessly scrolling - this is it!

I’ve tried a few and I came back to this one. I found the simplicity helpful by setting a certain number of opens per day for a specific amount of time. It kept me accountable. Sometimes I’d go over but less often than with other apps. But after I set it up initially, I haven’t been able to change those settings again. Like I set a time limit after it closes and have to wait ten minutes before I can open it again. Well, this turns out to be less than helpful when I’m in the middle of posting something for my business. How do I go in and turn that setting off? Otherwise really helpful. Update: I heard from the developer and found where the settings are. Really pleased with this app. Thanks

I never take the time to write app reviews, but I have been so impressed with ScreenZen and wanted to share. The way this integrates with your iPhone’s Screen Time features is flawless. This offers me so much more than what you can find in your Screen Time settings. The customizability is nearly endless. ScreenZen has helped me block myself from accessing content I know I shouldn’t, and has helped me lower my screen time in general. This app can truly break addictions if you use it right! I would suggest taking time when you first set it up to try all the features and see what they do. You will be surprised at how effective some simple things can be. Be more strict than you think you need to be. Thank you ScreenZen for an amazing app!

It’s a great concept and I like the simple interface as well as the ability to separate apps and websites into different timing block and/or time limits. The unlock feature is also well-thought out because you set the delay to unlock for 0 seconds or much longer and you can customize the messages that pop up such as “Do you really need to check social media right now?”. However, the unlock button does not work…it will not unlock the apps even though it is supposed to and as much as I would like to avoid over-using my phone, it’s annoying when I am intentionally trying to check something or I need to order something online and I can’t bypass the screen. I emailed their customer support on Jan. 3rd and haven’t heard back, it’s been 2.5 weeks so I’d love to re-download in the future if they can make it work as intended but until then, it’s just not helpful and I can’t get an answer or solution within a reasonable time period.

So I’m not the type of person who can use really any social media in a healthy way. I’d had only Snapchat for a couple years, and can’t delete my account because it has nearly a decade of memories saved on it. Way too much to save to the cloud. I tried a few app blocking apps, but Screen Zen is by the best. If you block an app, you have to go through several steps to unblock it, and even then it’ll prompt you on the screen when you’ve been on it for a while. No more doom scrolling on pointless videos that turn my mind to mush. No more hating myself because I’ve spent hours and hours on my phone with nothing to show for it. I don’t even think about it anymore, it breaks the mindlessness of it all! Thank you Screen Zen ❤️

This summer I’ve had a major problem with being on social media too much. I tried managing screen time using the settings on iPhone. But it was way too easy to ignore the notification. This app has completely changed that for me. I love having a streak so I avoid continuously going on particular apps. Forcing myself to do math to keep me busy while waiting also allows me to think; (and as someone who dislikes math) it also pushes me away from accessing the apps I’m trying to block. And the question that the app asks me before entering the app! “Is this important?” Really forces me to question myself about why I want to use the app to begin with! Would totally recommend to anyone wanting to get off social media!!!

ScreenZen has been very helpful to me in reducing my time on social media. It was so helpful, I convinced my friend to download the app! However, when I spoke to her about how she was liking it, it became clear that our apps have completely different UI and features. I have a “groups” tab which allows me to pick which set of apps is blocked at which time; she has a “pickups” tab which tracks how often she’s opened her blocked apps. The other two tabs, “settings” and “more”, are similar between our phones, but still have notable differences. We both have iPhones, from the same generation, and we have the same version of the app. So why the different experiences? This has left both of us feeling confused, and like we’re missing out on features the other enjoys. Hopefully the developer can resolve these discrepancies soon.

I was recommended this app by a friend and for a while it worked really well on managing my addictive doomscrolling on instagram. I got to a streak of a month and I felt really proud of myself, but then one day, I was feeling frustrated, I was stuck in an airport, and all I wanted to do was turn my brain off and scroll. It would be cool if the app implemented a feature that after x amount of days on a streak you earn like a cheat day, and you can choose to use that cheat day to go over your limit without losing your streak. Once I lost my streak I was so disappointed in myself that I gave up and completely deleted the app. Now I am redownloading it because my instagram usage has gotten out of control, and while I was using it before it really seemed to help.

Hi there, I’ve been an avid user of Screen Zen for about a year. At first, I was a little uneasy about restricting my beloved Instagram time. I was on edge, but I knew I wanted what was best for myself and my academic work. So, I decided to take the first plunge into what would be my journey into self-discovery and reconnection with my cultural and spiritual roots. After a couple weeks on ScreenZen, I began to understand why it was so captivating. It was my light in a sea of darkness, a reminder in a world filled with distractions. ScreenZen was what pulled me out of this perpetual cycle of scrolling and mindless brain rot. Thanks to ScreenZen, I was able to tear myself away from Instagram after about 125 minutes (give or take) every day. I know that sounds a lot, but it was absolutely a step up from my unconscious scrolling from before. Okay, now that brings me to my point: after about a year’s usage on ScreenZen, I accumulated an incredible streak of 95 days. I flaunted this streak, I told ALL my friends, and I admired my willpower every day. Yet, after a cruel accident, or possibly a higher power’s divine intervention, I lost my streak without opening my phone more than five times :(. Signing off, An annoyed superfan P.S. Current streak: 8 (+95!!!!!)