How to block apps on your phone when your child uses it

If your child uses your phone rather than a phone of their own, most parental control advice does not apply to you. It is written for a second device with its own account. This is what blocking apps actually looks like on the one phone you both use.

What does 'blocking an app' actually mean here?

It means the app closes itself and returns to the home screen the moment it is opened while blocked. CrenelView does not uninstall anything, hide icons, or lock the whole phone. The apps you did not block keep working normally.

How do I choose which apps get blocked?

You tick them from a list of the apps already installed on your phone. There is nothing to download separately and nothing to configure per app beyond that tick. That list is the whole selection step.

Can I block some apps always and others only sometimes?

No. Blocking is one setting for your entire list, not a per app schedule. You choose either 'all the time' or 'at set times', for example 20:00 to 07:00, and that single choice applies to every app you have ticked.

What is the one step I have to do by hand?

After installing CrenelView and setting a parent PIN, you have to open your phone's own Settings app and switch on CrenelView's accessibility service yourself. This is required for blocking to work at all, and it is the only part of setup that happens outside the app.

What happens when my child needs an app for a few minutes?

Tapping 'Allow for a while' unlocks your whole blocked list for 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes. Everything on the list works again until the timer runs out, then it all blocks itself again automatically, with no second step from you.

One app, on the phone you already have, doing one job: keeping a fixed list of apps closed until you decide otherwise.