How to block apps while studying on Android so it holds

To block apps while studying on Android, start a Beyond Alarm Phone Block: pick the apps that pull you away, set it for one study session, and choose Strict mode so there is no stop button until the timer ends.

The block that works is the one you cannot cancel in two taps — which is exactly what the built-in tools let you do.

The short version:

• Beyond Alarm's Phone Block is the study block that holds — and its Strict mode is free with one short ad.
• Block the apps, not the phone, unless the phone has no job in the session.
• Set one session at a time — 45 to 60 minutes — not the whole evening.
• Regular mode when you might genuinely need out; Strict mode when you have decided.
• Leave the phone out of reach as well. The block and the distance do different jobs.

Why "I'll just not check it" fails

The problem is not that you check your phone for a long time. It is that each check costs more than the check itself. When you switch away from a task and back, part of your attention stays on the thing you left — the effect Sophie Leroy named attention residue in 2009. Thirty seconds on Instagram in the middle of a proof is not thirty seconds lost.

Interruptions also change how you work afterwards. In Gloria Mark's study at UC Irvine, people who were interrupted finished tasks faster but reported more stress, frustration and time pressure than those who were not. The work still gets done, just more expensively.

And the phone does not have to light up to cost you. A 2017 study by Adrian Ward and colleagues found participants did better on attention tasks with their phone in another room than face-down on the desk. Later attempts to replicate that result have been mixed, so treat it as a reason to move the phone, not as a law.

The options, compared

Every option below stops you in the moment. What separates them is what happens at minute twenty, when you want out.

The built-in tools are built on the assumption that you will respect a gentle reminder, and the moment you most want to check is the moment that assumption is weakest — which is why Screen Time limits and Focus Mode stop working for a lot of people after the first week.

How long each block should be is its own question — 25, 50 or 90 minutes compares the session lengths, and the Pomodoro technique for studying covers the best-known one.

On iPhone too, or just want the free route? The free app blocker for studying sets up a session on both phones, and the free app blocker for Android compares what's free.

How to set up a study block

In Beyond Alarm this is Phone Block, and it does not need an alarm or a schedule — you start it when you sit down.

1. Open Phone Block and tap Block now.
2. Choose what goes away. Start from a ready-made list — social, video, games or shopping — or pick the apps yourself. Save the mix you use for studying as your own list, and next time it is two taps.
3. Pick the length. The presets run 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 and 120 minutes, and Custom covers anything else.
4. Choose Regular mode or Strict mode (below).
5. Start it, and put the phone somewhere you cannot see it.

While it runs, the block screen shows a live countdown and the exact time it unblocks. If you realise the list was too short, you can add apps, add time, or lock the whole phone without starting over. None of those make the block weaker.

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.

Regular mode or Strict mode

This is the one decision that matters.

Regular mode has a way out, and it is deliberately slow. To leave early you watch a short ad and then hold a button down. Or, if you only need an app for a moment, you can unblock for a few minutes and the block picks itself back up afterwards. The friction is the point: by the time you have done it, you have had long enough to decide whether you really wanted to.

Strict mode has no stop button at all. The apps stay shut until the timer runs out, and there is nothing to bargain with. One reviewer on Google Play put it plainly on 16 September 2026: "Under hard lock I can never break the block or to like go and use the app." For revision before an exam, that is the feature.

A useful rule: pick Strict mode only for a length you are sure you can finish. A 45-minute Strict mode block you complete does more for the habit than a three-hour one you spend resenting.

If you also study on a laptop, Freedom vs Cold Turkey covers the desktop side; Beyond Alarm keeps the phone, the biggest pull, shut.

Which apps to put on the list

Block the apps that pull, not the ones that help.

• Block: short video, social feeds, games, and anything you open "just to check".
• Usually keep: the timer, calculator, dictionary, your notes app, and messaging if your study group lives there.
• Watch for the substitute. When Instagram is blocked, some people drift to YouTube or the browser instead. If you catch yourself doing that, add it mid-session with More apps — the running block takes it on immediately.

If the same hours come round every day — a fixed evening revision slot, say — Beyond Alarm learns your usual start time and sends a daily reminder an hour before it, so the next session is one tap away. Scheduled app blocks on Android covers recurring blocks in more detail.

If a block ever stops working

A blocker that held for weeks and then lets everything through right after a phone update has had a setting reset underneath it. Beyond Alarm's reliability screen and guard check flag that for you. Here is how to find which one — it is a two-minute check, and worth doing before an exam week rather than during one.

If games are the problem during revision, the game timer app guide shows the ready-made Games list.