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Many people want to spend less time on their iPhones, whether that be for productivity, socializing more, or something else. Screen time tools prove useful here, providing users with an idea of how much time they’re spending on their iPhones. For many people, though, they end up being too lenient to be effective.
With ‘oh my hours’ – the app flips the script, and instead makes you aware of how many hours you’ve wasted in an undesired app, rather than simply telling you you’ve hit your screen time limit.
The idea is rather simple. You install the app, give it access to your screen time data, then tell it what apps you don’t want to use. Then, it gives you a 24 hour grid – where each hour will fill with whether or not you got distracted. Said grid can be added to your home screen or lock screen with a widget.
If you open up a distracting app, the block for the hour will fill – representing that you got distracted. You can make the app aggressive, filling the block in after just one second, or give yourself a little more slack. Generally though, the concept is that if you open an app, you could’ve wasted an hour.
By changing the main metric from “how long should I allow myself to use this app” to “how long can I go avoiding this app”, the mental model changes entirely – making it much easier to do a digital detox. Plus, it relies entirely on self accountability. It won’t do the normal screen time popup where it allows you to bypass a block.
Then, if you have multiple hours lost (2 by default), the app counts your day as lost.
For the core version, oh my hours is available for free on the App Store for iPhone and iPad models running iOS 26.2 and later. If you want the full experience, including additional widget options, hand-drawn icons for the grid, and the ability to customize your hour/day limits – you can purchase the full version for $9.99/year or $19.99 lifetime.
All in all, I’d say this is a rather nifty concept worth taking a look at if you care about managing your screen time but haven’t found that any of the existing tools resonate with you.
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Michael is 9to5Mac’s Weekend Editor, keeping up with all of the latest Apple news on Saturday and Sunday. He got started in the world of Apple news during the pandemic, and it became a growing hobby. He’s also an indie iOS developer in his free time, and has published numerous apps over the years.
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