How to Set Allowed Apps During Downtime Using Screen Time on iPhone & iPad
Do you want to allow or block certain apps usage to specific times for a child’s iPhone or iPad? Thanks to Screen Time, this is a fairly simple and straightforward procedure.
Screen Time allows iOS and iPadOS users to keep a check on their device usage as well as offers a lot of parental control tools to limit the features that children and other family members are able to access. Downtime is one of the handy tools that Screen Time has to offer. With this feature enabled, parents can have full control over what apps an iOS device is able to access during their children’s time away from the screen.
Are you keen on allowing some important apps that you think your child needs access to all times? Well, look no further, because in this article, we’ll be discussing exactly how you can set allowed apps during downtime using Screen Time on both the iPhone & iPad.
How to Set Allowed Apps During Downtime Using Screen Time
Screen Time is a feature that was introduced alongside the release of iOS 12 back in 2018. So, make sure your iPhone or iPad is running iOS 12 or later before you go ahead with the procedure. Let’s take a look at the steps:
- Open the “Settings” app from the home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
- In the Settings menu, scroll down and tap on “Screen Time”, as shown in the screenshot below.
- Here, tap on “Always Allowed” which is located right above Content & Privacy Restrictions.
- Now, in order to add an app to the list of “Always Allowed” apps, tap on the “+” icon located next to each app. Likewise, you can also remove apps from the list by tapping on the “-” icon.
And there you have it, now you have set allowed apps during downtime with Screen Time on both the iPhone and iPad.
As you can see here, this is a fairly simple and straightforward procedure. It’s worth noting that you can’t remove the Phone app from the list of always allowed apps. However, you can still choose contacts that the iOS device can communicate with at all times. These contacts could be family members or any other emergency contacts.
It goes without saying that many parents and caretakers may find this feature useful for children, so make sure you have Downtime schedule properly configured on the iPhone and iPad to take advantage of this feature.
When you’re setting this up on your kid’s iPhone or iPad with screen time, make sure you use a Screen Time passcode and keep updating it regularly to avoid unauthorized access to your Screen Time settings.
In addition to being able to provide access to certain apps during downtime, users can set time limits for accessing apps and even block inappropriate content using Content & Privacy Restrictions within Screen Time.
Did you manage to allow access to important apps at all times on your kid’s iPhone and iPad? How do you feel about Apple’s Screen Time functionality in general? Do let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments section down below.
