Best Apps to Manage Screen Time on Android: 7 Options Compared

Comparison at a glance

Three kinds of screen time apps

"Screen time app" covers tools that work in very different ways, and picking the wrong kind is the most common reason people give up on one.

• Trackers and timers measure where the time goes and stop an app after a daily budget. Digital Wellbeing, StayFree and ActionDash are mostly this.
• Blockers and friction lock apps on a schedule or put a pause in front of them. Opal and one sec work this way, and Focus mode in Digital Wellbeing does a simple version.
• Feed blockers leave the app usable and remove only the endless scroll inside it. Dam It! is one; our comparison of Shorts, Reels and TikTok blockers covers others.

Before you install anything, check what you actually use. Our guide on how to check screen time on Android shows where the numbers are on Pixel and Samsung phones. If one or two apps account for most of the total, a timer or feed blocker for those apps is usually enough.

1. Digital Wellbeing (built in, free)

Google's own tool, found in Settings under Digital Wellbeing (on some phones Digital Wellbeing and parental controls). According to Google's help page, it offers:

• An activity chart with screen time, times opened and notifications received, plus a widget with your top 3 apps of the day.
• App timers: when the daily time runs out, the app closes and its icon dims. Timers reset at midnight.
• Site timers for websites you visit in Chrome.
• Bedtime mode on a schedule or while charging, with options such as Do Not Disturb and grayscale.
• Focus mode: chosen apps are paused and send no notifications, now or on a schedule, with a Take a break option.

What it does well: it costs nothing, needs no extra permissions and covers the whole phone. Its weak spot is the one most people hit: an app timer can be deleted in a few taps, and Google's page says exactly that is how you use an app again before midnight. A timer also treats ten minutes of messages the same as ten minutes of the feed. Our Dam It! vs Digital Wellbeing comparison goes deeper. Best for: everyone, as the first step.

2. Google Family Link (for parents, free)

Family Link is Google's parental control app. Its help page says a parent can lock a child's Android device or Chromebook after a set amount of use each day, with different limits per day of the week, lock it when the child needs downtime, and lock or unlock it directly from the parent's app. App time limits are set separately and don't apply to system apps.

What it does well: the limits are set from another phone, so the child can't simply delete them. It's built for supervising a child, not for managing your own use. Best for: parents of younger children. Not for: adults trying to rein in their own habits.

3. StayFree

StayFree is a screen time tracker with blocking. Its site describes daily caps for apps, websites or whole categories, limits on how long each session lasts, blocks that start at set times, cross-device statistics and graphs, and the option to hide the most distracting parts of social media without blocking the whole app or site. Android Police, in an April 2025 roundup, also names reminders when you pass a daily limit and a Strict mode that stops you from getting around your own restrictions. Besides Android, its site offers a Windows download.

What it does well: the most detail of any app here, and it sees your computer too. If you just want a number to look at once a day, it may be more than you need. Best for: people who want to understand their usage across phone and computer.

4. ActionDash

ActionDash is an Android screen time app. Its site lists per-app usage breakdowns with notification counts and unlock frequency, daily time limits for any app with alerts as you get close, a Focus mode that blocks distracting apps on custom schedules for work, study or bedtime, and usage trends over days, weeks and months. It also includes an email manager for Gmail. The site doesn't say what's free and what's paid, so check the Play Store listing.

What it does well: a cleaner, more detailed view of the same kind of data Digital Wellbeing collects, with limits and schedules on top. Best for: Android users who outgrow the built-in chart but don't need desktop tracking.

5. Opal

Opal is a focus and app blocking app for iPhone, Mac and Android. Its pricing page lists a free plan, "Free, forever", with one rule (a schedule, time limit or open limit), basic timers, app blocking and a today-only Opal Score. Pro adds unlimited rules, Allow Only, score history and Hard Mode, which its site describes as "No way out. You can't turn Opal off."

What it does well: the strongest locks in this list, if you know you'll talk yourself out of softer limits. It blocks whole apps rather than parts of them. Best for: structured focus time and people who want a commitment they can't undo. Less good for: anyone who wants to keep using an app but lose only its feed.

6. one sec

one sec puts an interruption in front of an app or website, such as a deep breath or 4-7-8 breathing, so opening it becomes a decision instead of a reflex. Its site also describes blocking during focus sessions, a "Doomscroll emergency brake" that sets time limits on apps, and journaling and intention tracking. It runs on iOS and Android, with a browser extension for computers, and says the essentials are free.

What it does well: it works on the moment where most screen time starts, the unthinking tap. Once you're in and the feed has you, the pause is behind you. Best for: people who open apps on autopilot dozens of times a day.

7. Dam It!

Dam It! isn't a general screen time app; it handles one habit. It stops the swipe to the next video in YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok and TikTok Lite on Android 8.0 and newer, through Android's Accessibility Service, in the background. The apps keep working: videos you open from a link, a notification or a thumbnail still play, and messages and the rest of each app are untouched. You can pause protection by holding the dashboard button. There's no account, no strict or punishment mode, and the service reads no screen content and sends nothing off the device.

Where it doesn't fit: it has no usage chart, no daily timers, no other apps, no iPhone version and no free tier beyond the 7-day trial. If your screen time is spread over many apps, start with one of the tools above. If the chart shows most of it going into short video, it targets exactly that. Best for: Android users whose screen time is mostly doomscrolling short video.

How to pick the right one

• You've never looked at your numbers: open Digital Wellbeing first and watch a normal week before installing anything.
• You're setting limits for a child: Family Link.
• You want detailed stats, also on your computer: StayFree.
• You want detailed stats on Android only: ActionDash.
• You keep deleting your own timers: Opal with Hard Mode, or ask someone else to set a Digital Wellbeing PIN.
• You open apps without thinking: one sec.
• The time goes into one short-video feed: a feed blocker such as Dam It!, and keep the rest of the app.

Many people combine two: a free timer for the whole phone and one specialised tool for the habit that the timer doesn't hold. Features above come from each provider's own site, store listing or help page as of November 2026; we didn't test every app on every phone, and plans change often.