How to block apps & ads

The Lost Agency BV

In-app purchases

About this app

Some apps are not a habit, they are a reflex. BlockApps puts a wall in front of the ones that eat your day, for you or for your child, and keeps it there.

DAILY SCREEN TIME, BASED ON REAL USE
• A daily limit for the whole phone, with separate weekday and weekend amounts
• A daily limit for any single app: "45 minutes of YouTube a day"
• Suggested limits from how much each app and the phone were actually used over the past week or so, set a little under the usual so they are realistic from day one
• A warning five minutes before the day's time runs out
• When time is up, apps are blocked until midnight. The phone, Settings, the keyboard and any app you mark "always allowed" stay open
• Limits are rechecked every 15 seconds, so time running out mid-game still stops the game

BLOCK APPS
• Popular time sinks ready to block, plus any other app on the phone
• Schedules by time and day, overnight included: school days, bedtime, evenings
• Launch limits: "five opens a day"
• Focus sessions that block everything, from 15 minutes up to 30 days
• A block screen that shows your own reminder

PARENT PIN AND UNINSTALL PROTECTION
• A PIN is needed to loosen anything: switch an app off, raise or remove a limit, end a session, or shorten a schedule. Tightening never asks
• Optional uninstall protection stops BlockApps being uninstalled or force-stopped without the PIN
• Honest limits: this makes BlockApps hard to remove, not impossible. For full supervision, use it alongside Google Family Link

BLOCK A WHOLE SERVICE - PREMIUM
Blocking the Instagram app does not close instagram.com in the browser. Premium's on-device filter closes the app, the website and embeds together, for sixteen services including Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit, Netflix and Discord.

BLOCK ADS AND TRACKERS - PREMIUM
The same filter refuses known ad and tracker domains in every app. No root needed. Ads served from the same domains as the content, such as YouTube pre-rolls, cannot be filtered by this or any similar filter.

PRIVACY
No account. No ads. No analytics. Your apps, limits, usage history and schedules stay on your phone. Only two things ever leave it: the public ad blocklist download, and crash reports (stack trace, device model, Android version - never your apps or usage), which you can switch off.

FREE AND PREMIUM
Free: daily limits for the phone and every app, suggested limits, the catalogue apps, three apps of your own, two schedules, focus sessions, the PIN and uninstall protection.
Premium, one-off or yearly: the ad and tracker filter, whole-service blocking, unlimited apps and schedules, and strict mode.

PERMISSIONS, AND WHY
• Usage access - sees which app is in front and reads daily usage for limits and suggestions
• Display over other apps - shows the block screen
• Accessibility (optional) - reacts the moment you switch apps. It reads only the app's package name, never screen content
• Device admin (optional) - uninstall protection only. It asks for no admin powers: it cannot lock, wipe or see anything
• VPN (optional, Premium) - the ad filter runs as a local VPN for name lookups only; nothing goes to any server of ours
• Notifications - the five-minute warning, and alerts if a permission is switched off
• Query all packages - lists your apps so you can choose
• Battery optimisation exemption (optional) - stops the phone killing the blocker

Requires Android 8.0 or newer.

What’s new

Under-the-hood update: the app now uses the latest Google Play billing library for purchases and restores, along with updated build tools and database components. Your apps, limits, schedules and settings carry over unchanged.

Also in recent updates: a fix for the app closing on launch when its settings file was damaged, the block screen showing why an app is blocked, and more languages.

About: 0.2.0 (build 1113).