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Third-party screen time blockers like Opal, Freedom, and Clearspace promise to help take back control of your Screen Time, but they don’t work, because they can easily be disabled in settings.
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Opening the Settings app and going to the Screen Time section, you’re presented with this view, where you can instantly turn off Screen Time API access to all of these apps, which will disable all of their functionality. They won’t be able to block apps or gather Screen Time statistics.
These apps, especially Opal, charge dramatically expensive subscriptions/one-time-payments—up to $100 per year or $400 for life—on the grounds that they don’t have “Ignore Limit” buttons—so that you don’t have to rely on willpower to stick to your screen usage goals, but their limits are just as easy to ignore with this workaround.
Want a better alternative? Try Shutout—it locks you out of Screen Time, and can’t be turned off like this.
How it works: It sets a screen time password for you—so you can't turn off or ignore your limits, then saves the password without showing you.
If you ever need it, you have to go through a tedious process like typing 600 random words.