App Timer for Android That Actually Locks Your Apps

An app timer on Android usually means Digital Wellbeing's daily limit: use Instagram for 30 minutes, then its icon dims until midnight. If you want a timer that locks apps for a set time, starting now, use Beyond Alarm's Phone Block — pick a length, pick the apps, and they stay shut until zero.

The two sound alike and do very different jobs. One rations a day. The other protects the next hour.

The short version:

• Beyond Alarm's Phone Block is the app timer that actually locks: 5 minutes to 8 hours, your chosen apps or the whole phone, and in Strict mode no stop button until the countdown ends. Strict mode is free after one short ad.
• Digital Wellbeing app timers are daily allowances. They reset at midnight, and you can delete one in Settings whenever you like.
• Focus mode pauses apps for a while, but "Take a break" and "Turn off now" are one tap each.
• Use the built-in timer to ration a day; use a lock timer to get through a study session, a work block or an evening.

Android app timer vs a timer that locks

Here is how the options compare when the aim is "no Instagram for the next hour", not "less Instagram today".

The built-in tools come from Google's Digital Wellbeing help page, read at the time of writing. Exact menu names differ between Pixel, Samsung, Xiaomi and the rest, so search Settings for "App timers" if the path below doesn't match your phone.

How Android's built-in app timer works

Open Settings → Digital Wellbeing → App timers, tap Set timer next to an app, choose a length and tap OK. Google's page puts the result plainly: "When you run out of time, the app closes and its icon dims."

Two details decide whether it will work for you. First, "App timers reset at midnight", so the allowance is per day, not per session. Thirty minutes of YouTube can all go at 9 am, and the timer has nothing to say about your 7 pm revision.

Second, the way out is built in. Google's instructions for using the app again before midnight are to go back to App timers and delete the timer. That's a few taps you can take in a weak moment — the same pattern we cover in why Screen Time limits stop working.

Focus mode is closer to a lock timer: it pauses the apps you choose and can run on a schedule. But Google's own help page lists Take a break and Turn off now right there, so it holds only as long as you want it to.

The app timer that locks: Beyond Alarm's Phone Block

Beyond Alarm is an alarm app with wake-up missions that also has Phone Block, on Android and iPhone. Phone Block is a countdown, not an allowance: what you lock stays locked until the clock you set runs out.

1. Open Phone Block and tap Block now. The Focus session screen opens.
2. Pick a length. Presets are 15, 30 and 45 minutes, 1 hour, 1 hour 30 and 2 hours. Custom goes from 5 minutes to 8 hours.
3. Choose what to block. The whole phone, a saved list (Social, Video, Games and Shopping come ready-made from the apps you have installed), or a one-off pick of apps.
4. Choose how strict. Regular mode: you can leave early by watching an ad and holding a button for five seconds. Strict mode: watch one short ad to start, and there is no stop button until it ends. Paid Pro users skip the ads.
5. Tap Block for 1h (or whatever you set). The countdown starts.

While it runs you see the countdown and the clock time it unblocks. You can add time (+5, +15 or +30 minutes, or +1 hour), add more apps, or turn it into a whole-phone lock — but the app's own rule is that a block "can be made longer or wider, never shorter."

A whole-phone block covers the screen with the countdown and still lets you make calls. Strict mode never silences calls or notifications.

Beyond Alarm

Beyond Alarm does this part for you: the alarm will not switch off until you have actually moved, and the apps you pick stay locked afterwards.

Why a lock timer beats a daily allowance

An allowance asks you to spend wisely all day. A lock timer asks you one question, once, while you're thinking clearly: how long do you need?

It matches how distraction actually happens. You don't lose an evening because you spent your daily 30 minutes of TikTok. You lose it because you opened it "for a second" during the one hour that mattered. A countdown covers that hour, whatever happened earlier.

The exit costs something. In Regular mode, leaving early means an ad and a deliberate five-second hold — lift your finger early and it starts again. On Android you can instead unblock for 5 to 10 minutes, and the block picks back up on its own at the same end time. In Strict mode there is nothing to tap at all.

A restart doesn't reset it. Phone Block stores the clock time the block ends, not a running count, so switching the phone off and on doesn't buy anything. Optional Prevent power-off and Prevent app uninstall in Beyond Alarm's settings close those two routes on Android.

Which timer should you use?

Pick by the problem, not the feature list.

• "I want to get through this hour without my phone." Beyond Alarm, Strict mode, 60 minutes. If studying is the reason, our study timer app guide walks through the setup.
• "I want a focus timer for work, not just study." The focus timer app guide covers lengths and setup on Android and iPhone.
• "Games eat my evenings." Use the ready-made Games list as a game timer.
• "I just want less YouTube overall." A Digital Wellbeing app timer is a fine, free rationing tool — paired with Phone Block for the hours that count.

If you want the whole phone gone rather than a few apps, our guide to locking your phone for an hour compares every way to do it, and the best app blockers for Android covers the wider field.

A note on iPhone

On iPhone the built-in equivalent is Screen Time's App Limits — set up and loopholes covered in iPhone app time limits. Beyond Alarm's Phone Block works there too, through Apple's Screen Time: it shields the apps and whole categories you pick for the length you set. Locking the whole phone is an Android option.