How to Block Apps During Work Hours on iPhone (2026)

If you open Instagram "for a second" and look up twenty minutes later, you're not lacking discipline: these apps are built to be hard to put down. The reliable fix is to take the decision out of the moment, so the apps are simply closed during the hours you've decided to work.

Here are three ways to do that on iPhone, from built-in to automatic.

On iOS 27, Apple renamed these: Downtime is now Screen Time Schedule and App Limits are Time Allowances, set per category, both under Settings → Screen Time. The steps and the catch below work the same way.

1. Downtime in Screen Time (built in)

Downtime blocks every app except the ones you allow, on a schedule.

Open Settings → Screen Time → Downtime.
Turn on Scheduled, choose Customize Days, and set your work hours on each weekday.
Go back to Screen Time → Always Allowed and add the apps you need for work: Mail, Slack, Calendar.

The catch: Downtime is all-or-nothing. It blocks everything you didn't allow, and when you tap a blocked app you get "Ignore Limit", one tap away. Unless someone else sets a Screen Time passcode, it's easy to switch off.

2. App Limits (built in)

App Limits give an app a daily allowance, like 15 minutes of Instagram.

Open Settings → Screen Time → App Limits → Add Limit.
Pick Social (or single apps), set a time, and tap Add.

Limits apply all day, not to work hours, and they also have "Ignore Limit". They're good for cutting total time, weak for protecting a specific block of work.

3. Blocked Hours in ARCO (automatic)

ARCO is a day planner and app blocker. Its Blocked Hours are recurring windows that block only the apps you choose, using Apple's Screen Time framework, without you starting anything.

Install ARCO and allow Screen Time access when it asks.
In Settings → Apps to block, pick Instagram, TikTok, YouTube or whole categories.
Open Control → Blocked Hours, add a window like Work, 9:00–17:00, Mon–Fri, and choose how strict it is and how many short breaks you get.

Everything else on your phone keeps working: calls, messages, maps, your work apps. When the window ends, the apps open again by themselves.

Which one should you use?

Want everything off except a few apps? Downtime.
Want less time overall? App Limits.
Want specific apps closed during specific hours, every day, without thinking about it? Blocked Hours in ARCO.

Whichever you pick, put your phone's distracting apps off the first Home Screen page too: out of sight helps more than people expect. For a longer stretch of deep work, see how to time block your day.

How to block apps during work hours on iPhone