App blocker for iPhone, built on Screen Time
Get your time back from the feed. Barrier locks the apps you can’t put down, opens them for a few minutes when you really need one, then locks them again by itself.
Step 1 of 4
Choose apps, whole categories or websites in Apple’s own picker. Barrier keeps them shut around the clock or on your schedule, and a blocked app opens to Barrier’s screen instead of the feed.
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FacebookIt runs on Apple’s Screen Time API, so the block is the system’s own. Every way to block apps on iPhone, compared
Step 3 of 4
Tap the lock in Barrier and wait out 30 seconds, or after your first four unlocks, watch a short ad. Your apps open for the time you set, 10 minutes to start, with the countdown on your Lock Screen.
At zero, everything locks again by itself, even with Barrier closed. Done early? Tap the ring to re-lock.
Step 4 of 4
Set a daily goal and Barrier marks every day you stay under it. String a few together, and the streak becomes the reason to keep going.
A sample month, for illustration. How to stop doomscrolling: a 14-day plan
Built on Apple’s own Screen Time API, so a blocked app is genuinely blocked, not a reminder you can swipe past.
Barrier holds distracting apps shut. Unlock when you genuinely need to, and everything locks itself again on its own.
The point is not a guilt notification at 11pm. It is the time that quietly stops disappearing into the feed, and a Screen Time report that shows it.
Work hours, sleep, or a block you define, overnight ones included. It arms without you remembering to.
Days under your daily goal build a streak worth not breaking.
Borrowed minutes tick away in a Live Activity on the Lock Screen, so you always know what you spent.
Pick apps one by one, whole categories or websites in Apple’s own picker. Nothing is blocked that you did not ask to be blocked.
There is nothing to buy and no paid tier on the blocking. Barrier pays for itself with a short video ad when you unlock, after your first four.
Every preview and screenshot, straight from the App Store listing.
Unedited, from the App Store.
“Gives me time to think twice and not mindlessly scroll my life away.”
Gen1509, CA
“It’s incredibly helpful when it comes to reducing our daily screentime”
Kal481ggzz, GB
“You should always put ads but only for 30 sec. We have to wait anyway!”
Flood4, CA
“Simple app to stop me from scrolling through social media, does its job!”
bluejeans115
“Cut my screen time in half and it was so much better than the last one I had”
Med7198
“this is helping me to stop scrolling calm down, and study,also do more activities!🫶”
Elundelang, CA
Free, with no subscription and no account to make. Built on Apple’s Screen Time API, so a blocked app is genuinely blocked.
Barrier
Screen Time blocking that holds
4.7 346 App Store ratings
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