Block work apps after hours on iPhone.

Four ways to block apps at certain times

All of these are on your phone already, or one download away. The difference is what they stop: a notification, an app, or your whole phone.

Focus: quiet, not closed

Focus is what most people try first. It decides which notifications reach you, and when. Set one up for evenings and your lock screen stops lighting up with work.

1. Open SettingsFocus and pick a Focus, like Personal, or add a new one.
2. In its notification settings, choose Silence Notifications From and add Slack, Teams, Outlook and anything else from work.
3. Tap Add Schedule and set the hours, for example 6:00 PM to 8:00 AM on weekdays.

A Focus can also hide the Home Screen pages your work apps live on. Move them to one page, then in the Focus tap Customize Screens, tap the Home Screen preview and deselect that page. Out of sight helps, but the apps are still one search away.

Screen Time Downtime: a real block, for your whole phone

Downtime does lock apps. When it starts, everything except phone calls and the apps on your Always Allowed list is dimmed, with an hourglass on the icon.

1. Open SettingsScreen TimeDowntime. Turn on Scheduled, choose every day or customize the days, and set the hours.
2. Turn on Block at Downtime. Without it, you only get a reminder and can carry on.
3. Go to Always Allowed and add every app you still want in the evening: maps, music, camera, banking, the group chat.
4. Set a Screen Time passcode. Otherwise Ignore Limit is one tap away.

On iOS 27, Apple’s guide calls these controls Screen Time Schedule and Time Allowances, still under SettingsScreen Time. The idea is the same. Where to find each one is in Screen Time Downtime vs an app blocker.

App Limits: a budget, not a bedtime

App Limits give an app or a whole category a daily time budget. When it runs out, the app locks for the rest of the day.

1. Open SettingsScreen TimeApp Limits and tap Add Limit.
2. Pick the apps or a category, like Productivity & Finance.
3. Set the time, and turn on Block at End of Limit.

A work-app blocker: only work apps, only after work

Out of Office uses the same Apple Screen Time system that powers Downtime, aimed at the thing you actually want: only the apps you call work, only during the hours you’re off.

1. Pick your work apps from Apple’s app picker: Slack, Teams, Outlook, Gmail, Jira, whatever counts as work for you.
2. Choose when work ends. Every evening runs 6:00 PM to 8:00 AM on weekdays, Weekends runs Friday 6:00 PM to Monday 8:00 AM, or set custom days and times, or a one-off vacation range.
3. That’s it. During those hours, opening a work app shows a shield instead of the app. Its only button says “OK, fine”.

Need out right now? Flip the switch for an hour, until morning or all weekend. A heads-up notification arrives 15 minutes before a session starts and before it ends. Schedules are handed to iOS, so they run with the app closed.

Apple hands the app opaque tokens for the apps you pick, so it never learns which ones they are. There’s no account to make.

An evening setup that keeps personal apps usable

Suppose your working day ends at 6 PM and begins at 8 AM. You want Slack, Teams and a separate work email app out of reach, but still need Maps, music and family messages. Set up the two jobs separately: notification silence and app access.

1. List the apps that count as work. Check whether any also contain personal accounts before restricting the whole app.
2. Set a Personal Focus or each app’s notification schedule for your off hours. Allow the personal contacts you need.
3. Choose an access restriction: on versions with Downtime, review Block at Downtime and Always Allowed; otherwise follow your version’s Screen Time schedule options.
4. Review the start and end times for weekdays and weekends. A Friday-to-Monday break needs different coverage from a nightly schedule.
5. When the next scheduled window begins, check the work apps, a personal app and the notification behavior. Adjust the relevant setting if only one part works.

This is a setup example to check on your own phone. A Focus alone does not block app access, and an app shield alone does not silence notifications. For more detail, read Block at Downtime and app-blocker differences, Teams quiet hours and weekend app blocking.

The setup that holds

No single switch covers every angle, so stack the ones that do one job well:

• Block the apps: Out of Office on your work apps, on the Every evening and Weekends schedules.
• Quiet the lock screen: a Focus with the same hours, silencing the same apps.
• Tell your team: set your availability or status inside the apps too. Quiet hours alone do not tell colleagues you are away. Here’s how for Slack and for Microsoft Teams.
• Before a trip: an auto-reply and a vacation range. See how to turn off work email on vacation.