These Android and iPhone Wellness Settings Will Help Limit Your Screen Time

Whether it’s checking email while you wait for a morning coffee, chatting with friends during the day, or heading home after work, we spend a significant portion of each day staring at our phone screens. From social networks on your phonein your work inbox laptopit’s easy to spend all day switching between screens. However, this can easily lead to physical problems such as eye strain and neck pain, and leave you exhausted from everything going on in the world around you.

If you want to limit your screen time or stop doomscrolling, Apple and Google have digital well-being features to help you disconnect. New generations of software, iOS 26 and Android 16, have added even more features that can help put your phone down.

We’ll explain how to take advantage of digital wellness settings on Apple and Android devices, including how to set up app timers, downtime, and bedtime mode. To learn more, check out these essential parental controls for iPhone and iPad.

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Set up app timers on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

You can set app timers on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. By adding a timer to apps in your settings, you give yourself a time limit on each app. Once the time is up, Apple will stop your scrolling and notify you that it’s time to sign out.

Before we begin, it’s important that screen time notifications are allowed. Check this setting under Settings > Notifications > Screen Time and make sure you have enabled Allow notifications And Urgent notifications.

Here’s how to create time limits for your apps on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac:

1. Open Settings on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac and tap Screen time.
2. Faucet Application Limitations.
3. Faucet Add a limit.
4. Select the individual or categories of apps you want to set timers for.
5. Faucet Following in the upper right corner.
6. Scroll through and set how much time you want to give yourself on each app.
7. Faucet Customize days if you want to personalize the schedule of your limit.
8. Faucet Add in the upper right corner.

Once you approach the set time limit, Apple will send you a notification when you have 5 minutes left. Once you’ve reached your limit, the app stops whatever it’s doing and presents you with a new screen that prompts you to tap ALL RIGHT to exit the application. If you’re doing something particularly urgent, you can tap Ignore the limit below. Once you’ve reached your limit for the day, the app will appear grayed out on your home screen with an empty timer next to it.

Learn more: This App Blocks Your Social Media Until You (Literally) Touch Weed

Set up downtime on iPhone, iPad and Mac

Another way to limit your screen time on Apple devices is to schedule downtime. Downtime is exactly what it sounds like: time to put down your device and do something else. This setting will alert you once the chosen rest period begins.

Here’s how to configure downtime:

1. Open your iPhone, iPad or Mac Settings and press Screen time.
2. Faucet Downtime.
3. Enable the widget next to Program.
4. Set your downtime schedule.

Set up app timers on Android phones and computers

If you have a Google Pixel, Samsung Galaxy, or other Android smartphone, you can also set time limits for each app. These settings give you the same options as Apple for defining how much time you can spend on each app. Here’s how to configure them.

1. Open your Android Settings.
2. Faucet Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls.
3. Tap the screen time graph.
4. Find the app you want to set a limit for.
5. Faucet the hourglass icon next to the app you want to set a limit for.
6. Define how much time you want to spend on each app.
7. Faucet ALL RIGHT.

App timers on Android phones reset every day at midnight.

Learn more: Looking at your phone makes your neck nervous. Here’s How to Fix Tech Neck

Set up bedtime mode on Android phones, tablets, and Chromebooks

You can also limit screen time by establishing a bedtime routine for your Android. This will notify you when it’s time to put your device down for the night, depending on your schedule. Here’s how to do it.

1. Open your Android Settings.
2. Faucet Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls.
3. Faucet Bedtime mode.
4. Faucet Bedtime routine.
5. Choose whether you want to set a custom schedule or choose Turn on while chargingthen select the desired period.

For more on digital wellness, check out an expert’s reasons to consider a social media detox and CNET’s picks for the best apps to help manage your screen time.