A big new feature of iOS 12 is Screen Time.
This allows you to track where you're spending your time on your iPhone or iPad.
It also allows you to add restrictions.
So let's take a look at it.
You'll find it in the Settings app.
In the Settings app you've got Screen Time.
You go in here and the first thing you're going to see is an update at the top showing
you how you're using your time.
It's going to break things down basically by app category.
So you can see here, this is the beginning of the day, I've only spent a few minutes
on my iPhone and I've used some creativity apps, reading and references, and some other
apps here.
Now I can see more detail just by tapping there.
You can see a graph.
You can also switch between today and the last seven days where you get much more detailed
information since there's not much going on yet today.
I can see not only the categories there underneath that little chart but also I can see my most
used apps.
So I can switch between Categories and Apps.
I can tap on an app to see more about it.
Like what category it's in and things like that.
I can really get a good idea of my use.
Further down on that screen I can see things like Pickups.
The number of times I've picked up my phone.
This graph may grow in usefulness over time as I see like more or less during the day
how many times I pick things up.
Also the number of Notifications I'm getting and where those notifications are coming from.
I can tap on an App here and instantly change the Notification settings.
I don't have to leave Screen Time, go into the Notification settings and change that.
So if I see there's an app here that's notifying me a lot and I feel that I don't really need
notifications from that I can change it right here without leaving the Screen Time section.
So if I go back here you can see that there's all these other things that I can set.
I can set Downtime.
Downtime allows me to set a period of time where I can't access apps.
Now I'll show you in a second how to change, you know, which apps can bypass this.
But I can set some time where I really can't access anything except those apps that I've
set to bypass it.
I could also go to App Limits and Add a Limit here.
So I select a category.
I can say let's do Games.
Add.
Set a Limit, say only two hours a day.
I can go in here and Edit and change which apps and I can group a few together.
So I can group a few different types of them.
I can add a bunch of these.
So I can add a limit on games, a limit on creativity, all that sort of thing.
It's easy enough to go in and delete that limit as well.
Now here under Always Allowed this is where I set which apps ignore this.
So here, for instance, my phone is going to ignore that.
The phone app will still allow people to call me and I can call them.
Also, Messages, FaceTime, and Maps.
They are all going to ignore that.
But I could app other apps, ones that are critical.
So that whatever limits I set they're not going to go by those rules.
You can also set limits if you go in and look at your graph there and look at the top apps.
So I can go and say the News App.
I'm using too much.
I can actually add a limit for that specific app right there.
You can limit those apps that are just taking up too much of your time.
You can also set restrictions.
So on things like purchases and which apps are allowed at all.
Privacy settings.
All these different things you can set them up.
Basically it's like parenteral restrictions but it's now inside of Screen Time.
Once you've set that all up it's kind of like a honor system things.
Right, because you can get locked out of something but you can just go back in here and change
that.
So it's kind of, you know, you have to use some self control to actually use Screen Time.
But you can set a code.
This code could then be used if this device belongs to a minor this restricts their access
to actually make changes to Screen Time.
Now you can also share across devices.
If you have say an iPhone and an iPad and you want to setup Screen Time to limit your
time across both devices you can turn this on for both devices and it will share it because
you're using the same Apple ID.
You can also turn off Screen Time altogether down there with the button at the bottom.
It's just a convenient way to switch that stuff off.
So Screen Time is something where you can just ignore it or you can actually go through
it and set it and maybe try to help change your behavior or try to, you know, restrict
use of the device by a child in your household.