Features / Apps & screen time
Apps & screen time
New apps wait for your yes.
Decide which apps your child can use, and when. The rules live on your child's phone, so they hold even when your phone is off or out of signal.
New apps
Nothing opens until you say yes.
- Your child can install an app, but its icon won't open until you decide in App Management, under Waiting for your approval.
- Approve it, or deny it and it's gone. If they install it again, you're asked again.
- Apps that came with the phone, and the essentials it needs, aren't held. Neither is an app installed while maintenance mode is open, or one with no icon of its own, such as a widget pack, which still shows in App Management.
Each app
Set the limit, set the hours, or just press pause.
- Daily limit: minutes of screen time a day, reset at midnight. Paired Parent keeps the count itself, so the usual ways round it don’t work.
- Allowed hours: one window for weekdays and one for weekends.
- Pause for 15 minutes, an hour, three hours, until tomorrow, or a time you choose.
- Block: the app stops and disappears from your child's home screen.
- An app can have both allowed hours and a daily limit, and both are honored.
Extra time
A little longer, just for today.
- Finished their homework? When an app's hours or daily limit stop it, add 15 minutes, 30 minutes or an hour from wherever you are.
- Extra time adds up if you tap more than once, and it can't be saved up for later. The rule itself doesn't change.
Everything at once
Dinner, homework, bedtime: one tap pauses everything.
- Pause all apps stops every app at once, until you resume them.
- App quiet time does the same on a schedule you set once: weekdays and weekends, or each day separately.
- The essentials keep working: phone, messages, contacts, keyboard, home screen, settings, the Play Store, clock, calendar, reminders and emergency calling.
What your child sees
Clear, when it's about time.
- A new app shows as a grayed icon until you decide. Then their phone tells them it's ready to use, or that it wasn't approved and has been removed.
- When allowed hours or a daily limit stop an app, their phone tells them when it's back.
- When you pause or block an app yourself, no notice is sent. A blocked app simply disappears.
Good to know
- While Pause all or quiet time is on, you can't keep a single app open.
- Quiet time can start a minute or two after the time you set. It ends on time.
- Allowed hours are one window for weekdays and one for weekends, not a different time for each day.
- Rules run on your child's phone, so they work even when your phone is off or out of signal.
Questions about apps
Can my child install apps?
They can, but a new app stays closed until you approve it. If you say no, you choose whether it's removed or blocked.
Can I set time limits?
Yes. Give any app a daily limit, allowed hours for weekdays and weekends, or a pause, or block it. When an app's time runs out you can add extra time. Your child's phone tells them when the app comes back.
Can I pause everything at once?
Yes. Pause all apps with one tap, or set an app quiet time that pauses them on a schedule. The essentials keep working: phone, messages, contacts, keyboard, home screen, settings, the Play Store, clock, calendar, reminders and emergency calling.
Can my child delete Paired Parent?
No. Setup makes Paired Parent part of how the phone is managed, not an app in the list your child can uninstall. It can't be force-stopped or have its data cleared either, and the phone can't be reset from Settings. More about this: Can my child delete Paired Parent?
Does it check WhatsApp, Snapchat or other messaging apps?
Screening covers the words in texts sent and received in Messages, your child's texting app. Photos themselves aren't checked, only their captions, and other messaging apps aren't screened. New apps wait for your yes, so you decide whether to allow them, and when. More about this: Does it check WhatsApp, Snapchat or other messaging apps?