How Is Screen Time Different Than Unglue

You only need to set up one. Unglue uses Apple's Family Controls and Managed Settings APIs under the hood, so the moment you install Unglue your old Screen Time setup keeps doing its job. The big difference is the unlock screen: Screen Time gives you the Ignore Limit button, Unglue gives you a real task.

No. It sits on top of Screen Time, using the same iOS APIs Apple opened up to third-party developers. Your Downtime schedule, your Always Allowed list, and your Screen Time passcode all keep working. Unglue just patches the one part Apple intentionally left soft — the Ignore Limit tap.

The extra step is the whole point. Screen Time's bypass is one tap, which is why most people end up tapping Ignore Limit by 9pm. Unglue's bypass costs you ninety seconds of doing something real — a photo task, a few hundred steps, or a focus session. By the time you're done, you usually don't want the app anymore. And when you do open it, it's on purpose.

It would be very weird for the company that ships YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok on its own App Store to make those apps actively hard to open. Apple chose the right defaults for an OS — measure, schedule, nudge — and left the harder, opinionated layer to apps like Unglue. The APIs Apple built (Family Controls, Managed Settings) are actually generous; they let third parties go where Apple itself can't.

No. App blocking happens through Apple's on-device APIs, so Unglue never sees which specific apps you have or how long you spent in each one. Your photo tasks are processed to confirm the action, then they're not kept around. Privacy is handled the same way Screen Time handles it: on-device first.

Screen Time is Apple's built-in usage tracker and limiter on iPhone and iPad. It shows how long you spend in each app and category, lets you set daily App Limits, schedule Downtime, restrict content, and manage what other devices in a Family group can access. It lives under Settings > Screen Time.

Open Settings > Screen Time. The top card shows today's total. Tap See All App & Website Activity for a detailed breakdown by day and week, sorted by app and by category. You can also pin the Screen Time widget to your Home Screen for a constant glance.