Who CrenelView Is Built For, and Who Should Look Elsewhere

CrenelView is built for one specific situation: a young child who doesn't have a phone of their own, using a parent's Android phone instead. That's a narrower job than most parental-control apps try to do, on purpose, and it means the app is a clear fit for some households and the wrong tool for others.

Is this the right tool if my child has a phone or tablet of their own?

No. CrenelView only runs on and protects the single phone it's installed on. There's no remote control from a second device, no syncing to a child's own phone or tablet, and no dashboard a parent checks from elsewhere. If a child already has their own device, what's needed is something built for exactly that, most likely Google's own Family Link, which assumes a child's device and account from the start. CrenelView assumes the opposite: no child device, no child account, one shared phone.

Can I set different time limits for different apps?

No. Blocking mode is one setting for the entire block list, not per app: every ticked app is either blocked all the time, or blocked only during hours a parent sets, like 20:00 to 07:00. There's no way to give a video app a shorter daily allowance than a game, or vice versa. That's a real limitation if what's wanted is a granular, per-app budget. It's also, for a lot of households, a reasonable trade: one rule to set and remember, instead of separate timers to track for every app.

Why does setup ask me to turn on an accessibility service?

Because that's the actual mechanism that makes closing a blocked app possible. Android doesn't allow an app to detect when another app opens and close it again without the accessibility service switched on explicitly, by the phone's owner, in Settings. It's a standard, documented Android capability, not a hidden or unusual permission, and it's a one-time step during setup, not something repeated. It's also the reason a self-check exists inside the app afterward: since this is a manual switch, it's worth being able to confirm it's still on rather than assuming it stayed that way through every phone update.

Does it work on iPhone?

No. CrenelView is an Android app, distributed through the Google Play Store. There's no iPhone or iOS version.

So who is it actually right for?

A parent whose young child doesn't have a phone of their own and uses the parent's phone instead, which is a common setup, not an edge case, especially for children too young to have their own device. For that specific situation, CrenelView's narrower scope is the point: one phone, one block list, one schedule, set up once and left alone rather than checked from anywhere else.

Why is there no account, cloud dashboard, or remote control?

Because none of that data ever leaves the phone. CrenelView has no INTERNET permission at all, which means it's not technically capable of sending anything off the device, no account, no server, no sync. That's the direct trade-off for being single-device-only: everything the app can see stays exactly where it is.

CrenelView isn't trying to cover every household's setup. It's built narrowly for one: a shared Android phone, one schedule, nothing leaving the device.