How does an app blocker for focus sessions work?

You pick the apps you want out of reach. When you start a focus session, those apps are blocked, and when the session ends or you reset it, the block lifts automatically. There is nothing to schedule and nothing to remember to turn off.

Does Focus Shield need Screen Time access?

Yes. iOS asks for Screen Time permission once, the first time you turn Focus Shield on. Nothing about your usage leaves the device; the block is enforced locally by iOS.

Focus Shield — An App Blocker That Runs With Your Timer

Block the exits, not the whole phone

Pick the specific apps you actually reach for when a task gets uncomfortable — the feed, the messenger, the game. Those are blocked while a session runs. Everything else stays available, because a phone you can't use at all is a phone you turn the blocker off for.

On with the timer, off when it ends

There is no schedule to set and no "focus mode" to remember to enable. The block turns on the instant you start a session and lifts the moment it finishes or you reset it. If you run a five-minute session, the apps are gone for five minutes.

The reflex that reaches for a feed has nowhere to land, so it passes — which is the whole point.

Enforced by iOS, private to your device

Focus Shield uses Apple's Screen Time framework. iOS asks for permission once, then enforces the block itself. Your app usage is never sent anywhere; Just 5min has no server holding your data.

Where it lives

Turn it on from the shield chip on the Timer tab, or in Settings → Focus Shield, and choose which apps it covers. More on getting distracted by your phone in how to stop procrastinating on your phone.

Focus Shield: an app blocker that runs with your timer

Block the exits, not the whole phone

On with the timer, off when it ends

Enforced by iOS, private to your device

Where it lives

Start the timer. The exits close.