Note: You can also turn on downtime on demand for a family member, either directly on their device, or through Family Sharing on your device.

App Limits

You can set a time limit for a category of apps (for example, Games or Social Networking) and for individual apps.

• Go to Settings > Screen Time, then turn on Screen Time if it’s not already on.
• Click on App Limits, then click Add Limit.
• Choose your app categories.

If you want to set limits on individual apps, click the category name to view each the app in a particular category, then choose which apps you’d like to limit. If you choose multiple categories or multiple apps, then the time limit you set will apply to all of them.

• Click Next, then set the amount of time allowed.
• To choose a set amount of time for each day, click Customize Days, then choose what limits to set for any specific days.
• After you’ve set your app limits, click Add.
• If you want to turn off all app limits temporarily, click App Limits on the App Limits screen. If you want to turn off a time limit for a specific category temporarily, click the category, then turn off App Limit.
• If you want to remove a time limit for a specific category, click the intended category, then click Delete Limit.

Communication Limits

In Screen Time, you can choose to allow or block communication such as phone calls, FaceTime calls, and messages, from specific contacts in iCloud, during certain times or all the time.

• First turn on Contacts in iCloud, navigate to Settings > Your name at the top of settings > iCloud, then Contacts on.
• Then go to Settings > Screen Time, then Screen Time on if it isn’t already.
• Then click on Communication Limits > During Screen Time, then choose one of the following for communication at all times (other than downtime):
  • Contacts Only: To allow communication only with your contacts.
  • Contacts & Groups with at Least One Contact: To allow one-on-one conversations only with people in your contacts and group conversations that include at least one person in your contacts.
  • Everyone: To allow conversations with anyone, including unknown numbers.

• Click Back in the top left corner, then click on During Downtime.

  The option you selected for During Screen Time is already set here. You can change this setting to Specific Contacts, then choose one of the following:

  •  

  • Choose From My Contacts: To select contacts to allow communication with during Downtime.

  • Add New Contact: To add a person to your contacts and allow communication with that person during downtime.

If someone who’s currently blocked by your Communication Limit settings tries to call you or send you a message, their communication won’t go through.

If you try to call or send a message to someone who’s currently blocked by your Communication Limit settings, their name or number appears in red in your list of recent calls or messages, and your communication won’t go through. You can communicate with them when the communication limit is changed. If the limit applies only to downtime, you receive a Time Limit message. You can resume communication with them when downtime is over.

To resume communication with contacts who are blocked by your Communication Limit settings, change the settings by following the steps above.

Always Allowed

In Screen Time, you can specify apps that can be used, and contacts you can communicate with, at all times—even during downtime (for example, in the event of an emergency).

• Go to Settings > Screen Time > Always Allowed.

• Below Allowed Apps, Click on Add (+) or Remove (-) next to an app to add or remove it from your Allowed Apps list.

• Click on Contacts in order to choose which contacts you want to allow communication with.

  The option you chose in Communication Limits appear on this screen. You may change this setting to allow Specified Contacts, then select one of the options below:

  • Choose From My Contacts: To choose which contacts to allow communication with.

  • Add New Contact: To allow communication with a specific contact.

• Select Back in the top left to go back to the previous screen.

Content & Privacy Restrictions

If you’d like to block certain content that you deem inappropriate, you can set restrictions for iTunes Store and App Store purchases. To do this:

• Navigate to Settings > Screen Time.

• Then click on Content & Privacy Restrictions, and turn on Content & Privacy Restrictions.

  You also have the option to create a passcode that will be required for you to enter before any settings can be changed.

• From here you can set a variety of content allowances for app use, iTunes and App Store purchases, content ratings, and more.

  Note: If you want to restrict SharePlay in Facetime calls on your device (this is only available on iOS 15.1 and later), navigate to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Allowed Apps, then turn SharePlay off. If you want to enable SharePlay, simply turn it on.