# ReelBlock — Instagram and TikTok, no Reels > Instagram and TikTok, no Reels (iPhone/iPad app by Elliot Reeve.) - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/reelblock/id6809204618 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`) - Developer: [Elliot Reeve](https://appshunter.io/developer/6809204620) - Category: Productivity, Utilities - Price: Free - Age rating: 4+ - Requires: iOS 17.0 · 1 MB - Languages: American English - Released: 2026-09-21 - Data updated: 2026-10-18 ## What is ReelBlock? Free. No account, no sign-up, no subscription, no server. You sign in to Instagram itself, inside Apple's own web view, exactly as you would in Safari. ReelBlock never sees your password. Your settings, your timer and your statistics are stored on this phone and are never uploaded anywhere, because there is nowhere to upload them to. Nothing is collected and nothing is sold. WHAT IT DOES ReelBlock opens Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Facebook with the endless bits removed. Your friends, your DMs and your stories stay. The Reels tab, the For You page, Explore and the suggested posts do not. FIVE WAYS TO USE IT Most people know the scroll is bad for them and enjoy it anyway, so ReelBlock is a dial, not a light switch. - Full block. No reels. None. Anywhere. - Friends only. Posts from people you follow, nothing the algorithm picked. - Friends and interests. Plus a few posts a day on things you chose. - Capped. Reels allowed up to a number you set, then they stop. - Aware. Reels stay, and a card tells you what you have spent. A TIME BUDGET THAT STOPS YOU Set a daily budget. You get a nudge partway through, and at the limit the screen goes dark and asks if you are done. Time is counted only while you are actually looking, never while the app sits in your pocket. Keep one budget for each app, or one shared between all of them. THE AWARENESS CARD Every so often, between scrolls, ReelBlock states the number. "Forty reels, twenty-eight minutes." No lecture, no shame. Carry on, or stop. THE LONG VIEW Two hours a day, from twenty-one to eighty, is nearly five years of your life. ReelBlock does that sum with your own numbers. STUDY MODE Set a date. ReelBlock locks itself until you pass it, with a countdown on the screen. No breaks, no toggles, no talking yourself round at 1am the night before an exam. A COMMITMENT LOCK Lock your settings for an hour, a day or a week. PARENT MODE A PIN over the parent controls, approved topics, and bedtime and school-hour windows. Set up on the device, stored on the device. Free, like everything else. ONE REEL, THAT'S THE DEAL When a friend sends you a reel, you watch it. Try to scroll past it and ReelBlock says no. ALSO IN SAFARI ReelBlock ships a Safari extension, so the same rules apply when you browse these sites in Safari. Turn it on in Settings, Apps, Safari, Extensions. WHAT STAYS Posts from people you follow. Stories, unless you turn them off. Direct messages, in full. Search, profiles, saved posts and notifications. EVERY FEATURE IS FREE There is no paid tier. Hiding the home feed, hiding suggested posts, parent mode, study mode and the time budget are all included, because a focus tool that holds your focus to ransom is not a focus tool. ReelBlock is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Instagram, Meta, TikTok, YouTube or Google. ## Is ReelBlock safe? Not enough ratings yet to assess ReelBlock. ## Is ReelBlock legit? ReelBlock has limited verification signals. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for ReelBlock is 58 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data. ## Version history (last 2 releases) ### 1.1 — 2026-09-22 The blocking actually blocks. Ads, suggested posts and suggested accounts were getting through on Instagram. The rule that finds the post an ad sits inside only worked on pages built a particular way, and on the mobile site it quietly found nothing at all, so every one of those rules stopped without any sign that anything was wrong. It now recognises a post whatever the page is built from, and refuses to hide anything big enough to be the feed itself. Changing your mode now takes effect. Settings were captured once when the app opened and never refreshed, so switching to Full block did nothing until you quit and reopened. Reels reshared into someone's story are covered. Previously they played in full, in every mode, because a story looks the same in the address bar whether it holds a photo or a reel. The counter was nonsense. It counted every element it hid rather than every thing it spared you, and a feed that constantly rebuilds itself turned a few dozen posts into thousands of "blocks" and a claim of 65 hours saved in an afternoon. It now counts things, not elements, and it cannot report more than a day's worth in a day. The milestone celebration stops firing every few seconds too. The page fits the screen. Instagram's own search bar sat underneath ReelBlock's buttons and could not be tapped. The page is now laid out in the space the app's own controls leave free. The "take a 5 minute break" button sat directly under the tab bar, where one mis-tap turned everything off. It has moved, and now asks twice. Sign-in is sturdier, there is a Sign out for each site, the daily budget can be shared across apps rather than one each, and Facebook has joined Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Still free. Still no account, no sign-up and no server. ### 1.0 — 2026-09-14 No release notes. ## Apps similar to ReelBlock | App | Rating | Price | Category | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | [minulo: Block Reels & Shorts](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/minulo-block-reels-and-shorts/id6809352229) | — | Free | Productivity | | [Nope: Block Instagram Reels](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/nope-block-instagram-reels/id6768192042) | 2.0 (2) | Free | Productivity | | [Zensi - AI Screen Time Control](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/zensi-ai-screen-time-control/id6756569023) | 4.7 (16) | Free | Productivity | | [Spool: Screen Time Control](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/spool-screen-time-control/id6749428484) | 4.4 (172) | Free | Productivity | | [MTN FibreX Connect](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mtn-fibrex-connect/id6752539527) | 5.0 (4) | Free | Productivity | | [Lifetime: Life Progress](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/lifetime-life-progress/id6736953848) | 5.0 (5) | Free | Productivity | ## Related topics [feynman2scroll](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/feynman2scroll) · [loomweb](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/loomweb) --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-10-18.*