Screen time, with a little friction
Make scrolling a choice again.
Quietly is a screen time app for iPhone that blocks distracting apps during routines you choose, and gives you a limited number of passes for when you really want access.
iPhone, iOS 17 and later. Your apps stay on your phone.
Nothing is deleted. It comes back in the morning.
Noise
Your phone has an opinion about what you should look at next.
Pause
You reach for a blocked app. One slow breath arrives instead.
Choice
Spend a pass, do something else, or close the phone. All three are fine.
Quiet
Most of the time you put the phone down, because nothing was waiting.
The moment before
You weren't planning to spend 40 minutes there.
I only wanted to answer one message.
The reply took nine seconds. The rest was the feed.
Opening an app without remembering why.
Thumb, home screen, icon. No decision anywhere in there.
One more check before sleeping.
The room is dark and the screen is very bright.
A short break becoming half an hour.
You meant to sit down for five minutes.
How Quietly works
What happens when you reach for the app.
You choose the apps and the hours once. After that the same short sequence runs every time, and it ends with you deciding rather than the habit deciding.
Step 01
Pick the apps
Choose the apps that tend to pull you in. Everything else on your phone keeps working exactly as it does now.
Step 02
Set your routines
Name the hours you want protected. A firm night, a working day, anything you build yourself. Once a routine is on, it runs without you.
Step 03
One slow breath
Reach for a blocked app and this arrives first: ten seconds with nothing to do. Most of the time the urge that started the tap is gone by the end of the exhale.
1.4s rest · 4s in · 6s out
Step 04
Then you choose
Spend a pass and get your five minutes, close the phone, or take the alternative you picked for yourself. That last one never costs a pass.
Passes
Blocked doesn't have to mean impossible.
Most app blockers make the choice binary: locked, or uninstall the blocker. Quietly gives you a small number of passes instead. If opening the app genuinely matters, you can. It just isn't automatic any more.
In short
A pass opens one blocked app for 1, 5 or 15 minutes, then the block returns on its own. You get a set number each day, and running out is information, not a punishment.
Focus
When you want quiet on purpose
Start a Focus session and the blocks come on now rather than on a schedule. One screen, one number, and the time it ends. No stats, no charts, nothing to check while you're meant to be working.
In short
Focus is a routine you trigger by hand. Same blocks, same passes, for as long as you set.
Routines
Different hours want different amounts of friction.
Day
Keep them out of the way
While you work, study, or just live your day. Messages still reach you. The feeds wait.
09:00 to 17:00 · 4 apps
Night
Make late scrolling harder
A firmer routine for the hours when you're least likely to argue with yourself well.
22:30 to 07:00 · 6 apps
Custom
Build it around your week
Commutes, evenings with people, Sunday mornings. Any hours, any days, any apps.
Quietly Premium
Progress
Notice the days that felt different.
Quietly counts the days your routines held. That's it. No score, no rank, no streak to lose sleep over. A quiet record you can look at when you want to.
Why screen time totals are a poor measure→Compare
Why Quietly instead of Apple's Screen Time?
Apple's Screen Time is genuinely useful, and Quietly works alongside it rather than replacing it. The difference is what happens in the second you reach for an app.
Read the full comparison| Apple's Screen Time | Quietly | |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Reporting and limits | Friction in the moment you open an app |
| When a limit is hit | Ignore for 15 minutes, or for the rest of the day | A limited number of passes, 1, 5 or 15 minutes each |
| Scheduling | Downtime, one window | Named routines with their own apps and strictness |
| Before the app opens | Nothing | A friction step: a breath, a countdown, a typed reason |
| Tone | A system setting | A calmer layer that assumes you're an adult |
Screen Time Guides
A quieter relationship with your phone
Practical writing on screen time, app blocking and phone habits. Read one thing, or work through the whole topic.
Screen time · Hub
How to reduce screen time without deleting your apps
Six approaches that don't require going cold turkey, and how to tell which one fits the way you actually use your phone.
App blocking
How to block apps on iPhone
Every method iOS gives you, what each one is good at, and where each one breaks down.
Phone habits
Why you keep opening apps without thinking
The loop behind automatic opens, and why a two-second pause interrupts it.
Digital wellbeing
How to stop scrolling before bed
What makes the last hour of the day the hardest one to protect, and how to protect it anyway.
Comparisons
Quietly vs Apple's Screen Time
Two different answers to the same problem, side by side.
App blocking
Best screen time apps for iPhone
How the current options differ in approach: blockers, delays, trackers and limits.
Quick answers
Straight answers
Short, self-contained, and the same answers we would give you in an email.
The longer FAQ→What is Quietly?
How does Quietly reduce screen time?
Can Quietly block apps on iPhone?
What are Quietly passes?
How is Quietly different from Apple's Screen Time?
Does Quietly work on Android?
Does Quietly collect my data?
Your phone can still have everything on it. It just doesn't need your attention all the time.
Pick the apps that pull you in, set one routine, and see how many of your opens were never really decisions.
iPhone, iOS 17 and later.