You set a one-hour limit on Instagram. At 9:40 p.m. the limit screen appears, you tap Ignore Limit, and it’s 11:15 before you look up again. You set that limit yourself, and you know the passcode, so it never really stood a chance.
You’re in large company. In a 2026 Pew Research Center survey, 53% of US adults said they spend too much time on their smartphone, and 70% of 18- to 29-year-olds said so. Of the people who tried to cut back in the past year, only 25% said it went very or extremely well.
That isn’t a willpower problem. The way out is one tap long.
How Bricked works with Apple Screen Time
Bricked doesn’t hack iOS or route your traffic through anything. It uses Apple’s own Screen Time framework (Family Controls, ManagedSettings and DeviceActivity), the same system Screen Time itself runs on. Here is the loop.
1. Pick the apps that get you
Choose apps or whole categories (Social, Games, Entertainment) in Apple’s app picker. That’s Apple’s screen, not ours, and the list of what you picked stays on your iPhone.
2. Give them a daily limit
Set one shared budget, for example 60 minutes a day. That limit is yours, not ours. Start with what’s realistic, not what sounds virtuous.
3. Watch the brick fill
Every minute you spend in those apps fills a glass brick with clay on Bricked’s Home screen: “22 MIN LEFT.” “Just five more minutes” finally has a size you can see.
4. The apps turn to brick
When the brick is full, Apple’s shield covers those apps until midnight, when the daily limit resets. Everything else on the phone (calls, Messages, Maps, your banking app) works exactly as before, unless you chose to limit it.
Getting back in costs something
This is the part that’s different from Screen Time. There is no one-tap Ignore Limit, no “one more minute” and no “remind me in 15 minutes.”
- Every unlock is a 5-minute peek. Then the brick comes back on its own.
- Bricked+: you press and hold to unlock. The hold gets longer with each unlock that day: 3 seconds, then 5, 10, 15, 30, and finally 60.
- Free plan: you wait instead. The first unlock of the day has no wait, then 30 seconds, 1 minute, 3 minutes, then 5 minutes.
- Strict mode (Bricked+): a focus session you start with strict mode on can’t be ended early at all.
The point isn’t to trap you. It’s to put a few seconds of friction between the urge and the feed, at the moment when you’re least likely to choose well. More on the exact rules on the strict mode page.
More than one daily limit
- Schedules. Bedtime (say 11 PM to 7 AM), a phone-free morning, or deep work Monday to Friday. Inside the window the apps lock on their own, even if you have minutes left. See how bedtime schedules work.
- Slide to brick. One slide locks your distractions right now for 25 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours or until tonight. Built for studying and deep work.
- Per-app limits (Bricked+). Give the worst app its own tighter limit, for example Social 15 minutes and Games 30, on top of the shared budget.
- Lock Screen countdown. A Live Activity shows how long until your apps unlock, and there are Home Screen widgets too.
- Brick tiers and streaks. Scroll-free time earns tougher bricks, from Clay up to Diamond, and a weekly summary tells you how much time you won back.
Free vs Bricked+
The free plan is a real plan, not a trial. Bricked+ is for when you want more apps and stricter rules.
| Free | Bricked+ | |
|---|---|---|
| Apps or categories you can block | Up to 3 | Unlimited |
| Daily limit and the brick | Yes | Yes |
| Schedules | 1 | Multiple |
| Slide to brick focus sessions | Yes | Yes |
| Per-app limits | No | Yes |
| How you unlock | Escalating wait (none to 5 min) | Press and hold (3 to 60 s) |
| Strict mode | No | Yes |
| Stats | This week | Full history |
| Price in the US | $0 | $2.90/week, $39.90/year or $59.99 once |
The yearly plan includes a 7-day free trial for new subscribers. Prices shown are US App Store prices and vary by country. Full details are on the pricing page.
Private by design
Bricked has no account, no sign-up, no VPN, no browser extension, no ads and no third-party trackers. Your limits, schedules, streaks and stats stay on your iPhone. Apple handles payments, and our subscription service (RevenueCat) sees only a random anonymous ID. The plain-English version is on the privacy page.
Who Bricked is for
- Adults who set limits for themselves and keep tapping past them.
- People who lose 11 PM to 1 AM to the feed and want bedtime to lock on its own.
- Students and remote workers who need an hour without TikTok, Reddit or YouTube.
- Anyone who wants to cut back, not quit. The goal is to stop losing time you didn’t choose to spend.
Who it’s not for
- Parents managing a child’s phone. Bricked is for controlling your own use. Apple’s Family Sharing tools are built for that job.
- Android, iPad or Mac users. Bricked runs on iPhone only, iOS 17 or later.
- People who want to block Reels or Shorts but keep the rest of the app. Apple’s framework works at the app level, so Bricked limits Instagram or YouTube as a whole.
- People who want a lock no one can open. You can still raise your limit in Settings, and you can delete the app, which removes the blocks. Bricked is friction at the moment of weakness, not a prison. If you want to compare approaches, see Bricked vs Apple Screen Time or our guide to the best app blockers for iPhone.