screen time, explained
What is Screen Time? Apple's feature, explained
Screen time is the time you spend looking at a screen. On an iPhone, iPad or Mac, Screen Time is also the name of Apple's built-in feature that measures it: how long you use each app, how often you pick the phone up, and which apps send the most notifications. It can also set schedules, limits and content restrictions, and it keeps about four weeks of detail.
What Screen Time measures#
To start, open Settings → Screen Time → App & Website Activity and tap Turn on App & Website Activity. From then on the iPhone counts an app whenever the screen is on and that app is in front. Tap See All App & Website Activity for the report, switch between Week and Day, and swipe back through earlier weeks.
The report shows time per app and per category, Pickups for how often you picked the phone up, and Notifications for which apps sent the most. With Share Across Devices on, it also includes your iPad and Mac, and Devices lets you pick one.
What it can do besides count#
- Downtime: a schedule when most apps are unavailable.
- App Limits: a daily time limit for an app or a whole category.
- Always Allowed: apps and contacts that stay available during Downtime and after a limit.
- Communication Limits: who you can communicate with, at all times or during Downtime.
- Content & Privacy Restrictions: blocks for websites, app downloads, purchases and explicit content.
- Screen Distance: a shield when you hold a Face ID iPhone closer than 12 inches for too long.
By default you can tap Ignore Limit and carry on. A Screen Time passcode, with Block at Downtime and Block at End of Limit turned on, makes the limits hold.
On iOS 27, the names change once all your Apple devices run it. Screen Time then uses Screen Time Schedule and Time Allowances in place of Downtime and App Limits. Turning it off moves to Settings → Screen Time → Manage Screen Time → Turn Off App & Website Activity, and under the new system Share Across Devices needs iOS 27 on all your devices. If your devices aren't all on 27, they keep the iOS 26 names used on this page. Apple's guide has the details.
Where it falls short#
The memory is short. The iPhone keeps about four weeks of detail, then deletes it, and nothing in Settings shows you last spring.
Numbers can look wrong. Other devices fold into the total, today's figure shifts until the day settles, and now and then a day shows close to 24 hours. Each has an explanation.
There is no long view. The report has Week and Day, no month or year and no export button, so you can't see whether a habit changed over a season. Switching it off costs the history too. In our own test on iOS 26, turning Screen Time off and on again deleted the usage history, with no way back.
This is the part we build, so judge accordingly. finit is an iPhone app that keeps the daily numbers Screen Time already counts, every app, for years, on your iPhone and in your own private iCloud. A Shortcuts automation hands them over, and finit never blocks an app. How finit measures also lists what it can't do.
Every Screen Time question, answered#
See it
- How to check your Screen Time: the report, and paging back through weeks.
- Screen time by app: the per-app ranking, and how to read it.
- Pickups: what counts as one, and what's normal.
- The weekly report: where to find it, and why it can go missing.
- Widgets: today's number on the Home Screen.
- Average screen time: sourced numbers to hold yours against.
- iPad and Mac: the same feature on your other devices.
- Sharing your screen time: with family or friends.
Fix it
- Screen Time not working: start here, sorted by symptom.
- Numbers that look wrong: merged devices, unsettled days, the 24-hour glitch.
- Data that disappeared: the five usual causes.
- Share Across Devices not working: fixes in the order to try them.
- App Limits not working: usually one toggle or a missing passcode.
- A forgotten Screen Time passcode: Apple's reset route.
- The "iPhone May Be Too Close" shield: Screen Distance, and how to turn it off.
- Turning Screen Time off: what it deletes, before you tap.
Limit it
- Downtime: setting the schedule, and why some apps still open.
- Blocking websites: the Web Content settings, step by step.
- Locking or hiding apps: Face ID on a single app.
- Focus: fewer interruptions without blocking anything.
- Grayscale: a duller screen, and what the evidence says.
- Automations: Shortcuts that run on their own, including three for less phone time.
- Reducing screen time without blockers: habits that stick.
- Do app blockers work? The evidence, and the best ones for iPhone.
- Screen time apps compared, with reviews of Opal, one sec and ScreenZen.
- Breaking a phone addiction, digital detox, mindless scrolling and a 10-question test: for when it feels like more than a habit.
- Turning your iPhone into a dumbphone for two weeks, or buying a real one.
Keep it
- How far back Screen Time goes: the four-week window, and keeping more.
- Exporting Screen Time data: the Shortcuts route since iOS 26.
- Screen Time on a new iPhone: what transfers and what doesn't.
- Deleting Screen Time history: the opposite wish, done properly.
- Your life in weeks: the long view, one square per week.
The short answers#
What is Screen Time on iPhone?
Screen Time is Apple's built-in feature in Settings that measures how long you use each app, how often you pick up the phone and which apps send the most notifications. It can also set limits and schedules.
How do I turn on Screen Time?
Open Settings, tap Screen Time, tap App and Website Activity, then Turn on App and Website Activity. The report fills in from that moment on.
How long does Screen Time keep my data?
About four weeks of detail. Older days are deleted from the device, and no setting extends the window.
Is Screen Time only for parents?
No. The report, the limits and Screen Distance work for your own use. Parents can also manage a child's device through Family Sharing.
Screen Time covers this month. For the years after it, finit keeps the record.
