# Unpluq: Reduce Screen Time — user reviews > 96 indexed App Store user reviews of Unpluq by Unplug Technology B.V., rated 4.80/5 from 919 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/unpluq-reduce-screen-time/id1673743726/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/unpluq-reduce-screen-time/id1673743726.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 812 · 4★ 62 · 3★ 19 · 2★ 8 · 1★ 18 ## What do users think of Unpluq? Overall sentiment: mixed **Pros** - 👍 Effective at reducing screen time - 🚀 Helps with productivity and focus - 💡 Innovative use of physical tag to unlock apps **Cons** - 🐛 Frequent bugs and glitches - 🔒 Issues with app/schedule reliability - 💰 Expensive subscription model **Commonly reported bugs** - Apps not properly blocked or unblocked - Schedules not working as expected - UI freezes and crashes during app management **Most requested features** - Ability to lock apps to specific QR codes - More flexible scheduling options - Improved website blocking beyond just Safari ## Newest reviews (13 of 96) ### 4/5 — Frustrated *2025-11-25* I have used Unpluq for a few years now and I really like it but for the past few months I have tried to edit my schedules and it’s almost impossible to add apps past the first few categories or search for them. Every time I try to scroll down to view more apps so I can add them to my schedule to block them, it freezes, says they can’t be loaded and to try searching them. If I try to search them the same thing happens. I get the same error for months now that Unpluq has been working with Apple to resolve the issue… and my schedules are still not what I want them to be. I click on the troubleshooting link and it also does nothing. So basically I am paying for a service that I can’t use properly. ### 3/5 — it’s a start *2025-06-17* I really wanted something that would turn my iPhone into a brick that only runs music, podcasts and good old fashioned phone stuff. maybe a weather alert here & there. this isn’t it. there’s a limit on this of 49 apps/websites/whatever. if I click to select everything on my phone, it says there are 600-something apps I’m trying to block. first, I cannot even imagine what 600 things this app thinks it can see on my phone. second - 49 would seem like enough but you have to block fb AND the website, insta AND the website. google AND all the little things that go with it. etc. it’s just not worth it. I’m cancelling at the end of my year and finding an alternate solution. ### 2/5 — Can’t add apps to my list *2025-05-12, version 1.2.13* When I try to add apps to my blocked list, the app crashes. It’s basically making the app unusable so I cancelled my trial. Hoping this gets fixed asap. ### 2/5 — Good when it works. *2025-05-05* Good when it works but it’s increasingly become more and more unusable (they’ll claim that it’s actually Apple’s API) since I got it 2 years ago. Either doesn’t work and keeps apps unblocked, or works too well and won’t let you access them. ### 4/5 — Nearly there *2025-02-18, version 1.2.13* Not just the best app, but the best thing I've tried to manage my screen time. Effective, painless, and unintrusive. One star is docked because the app does not work on browsers besides Safari - this is too big of a gap in the product to ignore. ### 2/5 — Got buggy since iOS 18 *2024-11-19, version 1.2.12* This was a great app until iOS 18. It often doesn’t block my apps. Sometimes while they are blocked, I go in to the app and the unlock doesn’t work. Often the app is a blank black screen upon opening. Please improve! And also, stop trying to get me to invest in your company while your app is so broken. ### 5/5 — 5 stars *2024-11-14, version 1.2.12* This is such an amazing app, I’ve tried other ones but they aren’t quit right! I went from 7 hours on my phone to 1 maybe 2 ### 3/5 — Good idea but often doesn’t work *2024-10-31* I bought the Unpluq tag which sometimes works well but will then randomly stop working for hours and will only start working when I open up the app again. **Developer response:** Hi Ben, co-founder Caroline here-- Unpluq not working "in the background" is actually because of a bug in iOS's screentime infrastructure; it doesn't impact everyone, but is fairly common, and there are workarounds. I'm happy to support more via email or go ahead and see unpluq.com/pages/troubleshooting for the workarounds. I'm sorry it impacted you, but hope you'll take a moment to try the fixes because it does impact every app that blocks apps on iOS. Otherwise, I'm at support@unpluq.com Thanks! ### 5/5 — Very effective - custom QR codes would be nice *2024-10-25, version 1.2.12* I've really enjoyed how much this has helped reduce my social media use. One feature is wish for is the ability to customize unblocking to only accept specific QR codes. For example, creating a QR code for "wake up" would be assigned to my morning schedule. That way I'd have to scan the "wake up" QR code at my kitchen table to successfully unblock my morning schedule. This would be a force multiplier on the effectiveness of the blocking and aid in new habit formation The reason this is important is currently one can scan any QR code to unblock, preventing the possibility of unique location unblocking. ### 3/5 — Re: Today’s update is a disaster *2024-10-15* Fix it right away please I’m updating to three stars because we’re working on it via email. I hope you get this fixed even though it’s “iOS infrastructure”. What matters to me is that I paid for the app, not that the problems aren’t yours. Looking forward to speedy resolution. **Developer response:** Hi Matt, Thanks for letting us know you're having trouble from the most recent update, but I think we're in touch by email and have shared that this has more to do with iOS's infrastructure than with our app. We have some workarounds for this and I'd love to help you find one that works best on your device. Could you reach out to us if I am mistaken and we aren't already in touch? alex.faber@unpluq.com thank you! ### 2/5 — Holy glitches, Batman *2024-10-13* I am a lifetime subscriber. I signed up for the lifetime option because, in the beginning, everything seemed to be exactly what I needed. However, it has been glitching terribly over the last few months. I use the tag and walk away to take care of my kids, the dogs, whatever, and discover that the apps are not unblocked even though I have minutes of unblocked time counting down. Temp disable a schedule? Nope. Sorry. You’re stuck. **Developer response:** Hi Jaxon, I didn't find any support tickets from you, but I emailed you since I had your contact info from your order. This issue actually stems from bugs in Apple's Screen Time infrastructure and is out of our control, but I did share some workarounds with you that you can use right away. Happy to help you further via email where we can communicate more easily! ### 3/5 — A Bit Glitchy in Certain Situations *2024-10-11* I like the idea of this app and even bought the tag to help me further break some bad habits. I’m continuing to use the app and tag but have noticed several bugs or defects while I’ve used it. On occasions when I have temporarily disabled a couple of my schedules but not all of them, the schedules that I have disabled continue to run, restricting access to my apps. For example, I have a schedule that restricts apps from 8 AM - 5PM, M-F and another that blocks shopping apps 24/7 while I was on an no-spending challenge. I disabled the 8-5/M-F schedule because I was on vacation but wanted to keep the shopping apps blocked and the app continued to block my other apps that were in the 8-5/M-F schedule. I ended up having to also disable my shopping 24/7 schedule to get access to the apps in my 8-5/M-F schedule. Today at 7:15 AM, I needed to disable my 8-5/M-F just for today so clicked on the prompt “Disable for Today” when I was asked and all of the apps listed in that schedule became blocked. First off, I just disabled it and second off, it wasn’t even 8 AM so even if it wasn’t disabled they shouldn’t have been blocked. These inconsistencies, bugs/defects are annoying and frustrating especially because I have the tag and can’t just unblock my apps without either scanning it (which is annoying because I but the tag in the garage on a high shelf to add friction) or use emergency mode. I’d like to eventually shut off emergency mode so I can’t use that loophole but can’t do that with the issues that I’m having. Again, love the idea and if you don’t have to make changes to your set schedules then it’s awesome. I’ve found that I’m more present and focused at work and during time with my family but those glitches are pretty annoying. Had I not bought the tag, I’d probably be deleting and trying a different app but I’m going to stick with this one for a while longer in hopes of improvement. **Developer response:** Hi there! Thanks for taking the time to write such a thorough review. These glitches are actually because of bugs in Apple's Screen Time infrastructure. We've filed 18 bug reports with them and you'll find other developers in their forums asking about how to navigate the same problems of inconsistent blocking/unblocking. Every app that blocks apps on iOS has these issues. We do have a few workarounds for them, and some people do seem to be more effected than others, but I'd be happy to help you navigate this and figure out what works best for your device. Can you drop me a mail at alex.faber@unpluq.com please, so we can communicate? Would love to get this working as best as iPhone will allow :) ### 5/5 — A great app! *2024-10-08* Installation was super easy, and in a couple of days only I felt an impact as I blocked all social media apps and other distractions thanks to the tag Other simple blocking apps never worked for me, but finally a solution to reduce my screen time! ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Inutile car très facilement contournable et abandonné par le développeur *2026-05-02* Une application qui est abandonné par le développeur, ça a fait un an qu’il n’y a pas eu de mises à jours. Aucun suivi, rien. Seul le service client réponds encore mais on se demande pendant combien de temps encore. La vice présidente de l’entreprise s’est barré. C’est souvent là que ça sent un peu le roussi. Pour les petites dépendances aux écrans, ça peut aider et encore… les blocages sont très facilement contournables. Pour les plus grosses dépendances aux écrans, c’est juste une passoire. En un clic, on peut désactiver les emplois du temps de blocage d’applications même en utilisant l’appli raccourcis d’IOS pour éviter les modifications, on peut quand même les modifier. Je ne pense pas que ça vaille le coup, de payer pour avoir le Unplug tag car de toute façon, si vous l’avez sur vous… ou que vous le mettiez dans une autre pièce, si vous avez vraiment une dépendance, votre cerveau vous fera lever pour aller débloquer l’emploi du temps qui bloque l’application et si vous n’avez pas envie de vous levez, vous pouvez de toute façon le faire via l’application en un clic. Ça serait bien juste de coder une page avec un code dessus et si il est pas entré, on peut rien modifier dans l’application sans ça, c’est une application qui sert à rien. Pire application de contrôle de temps, je ne recommande absolument pas. ### 1/5 — Kickstarted then bait and switched! *2025-10-17, version 1.2.13* I backed the kickstarter for this product a few years ago, only for them to run a subscription model AFTER funding — if that was part of the original plan, I definitely didn’t see it on their campaign. Now in 2025 you have “Brick” and “Bloom” both which work better and don’t have subscriptions. — I guess I’m thankful this industry of app blocking has grown, but Unpluq falls sadly behind. ### 1/5 — Disappointed *2025-07-12* I donated on kickstarter to get the tag. And now I can’t even block at least 2 apps without paying. That’s hell of a mess . Was a great app. Thanks but I quit ### 1/5 — Do Not Buy - Scam *2024-12-24* Don’t put your money into this. It’s a poor product. Obviously this sort of app is only as effective as you are disciplined, but the point of having it is to develop discipline. You can’t do that if it suddenly stops working. I have to manually go in and reactivate it because the restrictions just stop. This has been happening for awhile and you just don’t care anymore and just go back to your old habits. I have the schedule set up and tailored as well as I can with it’s limited options but the app is just broken. Sad to see my money went down the drain. I’ll be trying other free ones. I needed the paid subscription because I have a lot of apps I use, but it just wasn’t worth it **Developer response:** Hi Fred, we're sorry to hear you had this experience! We can assure you this is not the normal behavior. If you're willing, we'd love to help solve this for you; could you reach out to support@unpluq.com? ### 1/5 — Not worth it *2024-11-13, version 1.2.12* The biggest problem is that the apps I block don’t unblock unless I go in the app and disable it. I have 2 apps I block from 9-5. But at 6:30 they are still blocked. Also when I go to disable it I go to instagram and my videos won’t load or buffer. Also have never had an issue until I downloaded this app. 0/10 wouldn’t recommend. ### 1/5 — It was working, but right now it isn’t *2024-09-28, version 1.2.9* I updated my iOS and now this app is unable to block any of apps. Please resolve this or I would like a refund. How can I make it block the apps again? ### 1/5 — Glitchy and Expensive *2024-09-26* Update responding to developer: there are a number of scenarios that have caused the app to become unresponsive. When clicking unblock, after scanning the physical tag, the app often freezes on me. I then have to hard quit and restart the app. Then, often times the apps are not actually unblocked. On a number of occasions the apps have not been blocked when they were supposed to be and I’ve had to hard restart my phone. Small things, but this is the only thing the app is supposed to do and when you get consistent emails about investing, it’s hard to square the lack of the basic functionality it’s supposed to provide. I understand what sets you apart from Apple Screen Time is that there is a physical dongle, but the price of the subscription makes it feel like I’m renting said dongle at an exorbitant price. Original: Wildly expensive subscription for one step above what is offered by Apple through screen time. The app itself is glitchy and they keep asking me to invest 🙄. **Developer response:** Hi there, thanks for updating your review with more information. Regarding glitches, if you could please reach out to us at alex.faber@unpluq.com I'd really like to look at this further re: logs, which version of iOS you're on, etc. While some glitches are normal and are a reflection of the Apple Screen Time infrastructure (check developer forums here about it, plenty to be said), others might be actionable and fixable quickly. Regarding pricing, all I can say is that we're a two person team working full time on this, and when it's working, it's life changing. 13 cents a day to gain an hour and a half a day more offline on average is well worth it to me and to thousands of customers. I'd love to try to help you here and make sure Unpluq is working as it should be for your device, so you can fully experience it. ### 1/5 — Stops working *2024-09-12, version 1.2.9* Twice in one week, it has simply stopped working. I paid for the yearly subscription, for that amount, I’d expect more. ### 1/5 — I don’t like it. *2024-08-12, version 1.2.6* Once the subscription trial ends it set my apps to 2 which is dumb because it doesn’t help anything at all. I feel like it should be set way higher than 2 like- make premium like 100 and normal like 20 AT LEAST DO THAT or something bc I want to fix my schedule for school ### 1/5 — Idk if it’s just me but… *2024-06-05* I set a screen time starting at 8:00 am (and I checked to make sure that it was right before I wrote this review) and ending at 11:00 am (again I double checked) and after eleven like at 2 for example it was still blocked. If u want an app that works try ClearSpace while worked for me (NOT PAID I JUST LIKE THE APP CLEARSPACE). Thank you so much for reading and Unbloq creators if you have any tips to fix this I would like to hear it because it is a good idea. **Developer response:** Hi there, thanks for taking the time to review here--this was fixed some versions ago. Glad you found something that works for you--most apps that block apps had a little glitch when iOS 17.5.1 came out (it had a bug) but most of us have resolved it now. If you want to give us another go, this issue is resolved. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Insta Zeit so krass runter *2025-11-04* Einfach danke! ### 5/5 — Super app qui aide vraiment à reprendre le contrôle de son temps *2025-08-21* Après avoir essayé beaucoup de méthodes pour réduire mon temps perdu à scroller, Unpluq et le tag ont été la première vraiment efficace pour retrouver l'intentionnalité d'utilisation tout en laissant assez de flexibilité. Seule chose qui manque pour moi, la possibilité d'avoir une durée de déblocage différente selon les programmes. ### 5/5 — Works *2025-04-20, version 1.2.13* Great app. I use the time limits so that I cannot be distracted by email and social media when I should be present with my family after work and on weekends. It requires a QR code to allow the apps to work. So unless I have a computer (or my wife’s cell phone, ie permission) to get QR code I cannot be distracted. It’s awesome. ### 5/5 — Apps don't normally change my life, but this one did. *2025-04-11* I keep my apps locked at all times. The first few days I was so bored, but I feel like I have my life back now. I enjoy working more, I go to the gym, I have more time for hobbies, my side hustle has taken off, and I even bet a fantastic girl because I have been going out more. Everyone needs this app. ### 5/5 — Works like a charm! *2025-02-10, version 1.2.13* Saves me from rotting away on the daily. Highly recommend, 10/10. ### 5/5 — 😀 SO GREAT *2025-01-04, version 1.2.12* Super awesome it keep me from all of the bad addictive things on my phone I feel sooooooo much better about being on my phone it blocks all the bad stuff and works great❤️THANK U UNPLUQ!!!!!!!! ### 5/5 — Best blocking app *2025-01-04* Clean user interface, great distractions, and neat keyring (tag). Would highly recommend to cut down on screen time. ### 5/5 — Helps you put your phone down *2025-01-03, version 1.2.12* when I unlock my phone I usually immediately go to instagram without thinking, but now I see Instagram is greyed out and can’t be opened (without opening unpluq to unlock it). I set the time to lock instagram 10.30am-7pm. When I see it locked I am reminded that I should not waste my time there. Then I immediately put my phone down. For someone who has a phone addiction this is extremely helpful. I appreciate how I can use this feature for free. ### 5/5 — Finally! *2024-12-19* I’m really happy with this app! It keeps me mindful of my screen time without making me frustrated like some other apps I’ve tried before.. I’ve cut down scrolling mindlessly so much I’ve been getting back into a good routine. ### 5/5 — Anti Procrastination *2024-12-04* This app, though restricted if you don’t have the premium version, is amazing. The system makes it so that you have to make a conscious decision to open a distracting app. It closes it automatically on a timer which helps me not to loose track of time. Overall very good for maximizing work flow as advertised. --- *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 2026-08-25.*