App blockers where someone else holds the key

Four iOS app blockers let another person hold the key: Impulse, LockPact, AppBlock and Indistractable. A fifth, BlockerX, lists an accountability partner on its iOS plans without saying what the partner can do. None of the four invented the idea, and we're not going to pretend we did. This page goes through how each one works, what each costs where we could check, and where the real differences are. They're narrower than any of the four would like.

Why a person at all

Every iOS blocker runs on Apple's Screen Time API. It lets an app shield other apps and lift the shield. It doesn't let an app survive being deleted, or stop you switching off its permission in Settings, and no blocker can change that. So every one of them is advisory, and the useful question is how you break them.

If you break them on impulse, an object is enough. The walk to the QR code or NFC tag outlasts the urge. If you break them on purpose, the walk is nothing, and the only thing that gets in the way of a decision is another person knowing about it. Nor can they stop you deleting the app. What changes is what breaking the block means: asking someone, hearing no, and going round them. That's the whole case for this category, and it's a good one. It's also why the category is small. It needs a willing person on the other end, and not everyone has one.

"Partner approval" hides three practical differences, and the rest of this page turns on them. First, what your partner needs. With LockPact they install the app on an iPhone and pair with you. With AppBlock and Indistractable they just need an email address. Second, whether there's a physical alternative to the person. Impulse and Indistractable have one. We couldn't find one for LockPact or AppBlock. Third, whether the person and the object can be required together in one session, which only Indistractable's Hardcore mode does. Everything else, including the emergency escape hatches every one of these apps needs, is detail.

Impulse

Impulse is the closest thing to Indistractable out there, and it deserves a careful description. Each blocking profile has one of four strictness levels for ending a session: type a phrase, wait out a countdown, enter a partner code that an accountability buddy holds, or tap its physical Disc or an NFC tag. So it has both halves, a person and an object.

The difference from Indistractable is that they're alternatives. For each profile you choose the partner code or the physical tap, not both, and the session ends when whichever you chose is satisfied. Indistractable's Hardcore mode needs the person's yes first and a physical unlock after it, in the same session. That's the whole difference, and it's one product decision away from disappearing. If you want to choose, per profile, between a person and an object, Impulse already does that well. The core app is free. The page we checked showed no Pro price, so see their site for that.

LockPact

LockPact does exactly one thing: partner approval. You share a 6-digit code with your partner to pair, and after that only your partner can approve an unlock. It also tells them if you bypass it. Pairing, locking, bypass detection and unlock requests are free, and there's one optional $9.99 one-off purchase. You both need an iPhone with the app installed, because it runs on the same Screen Time API as everything else here. There's no physical unlock, no QR code and no NFC tag.

If partner approval is all you want, LockPact is free and it's the obvious choice. That's not a hedge. A lot of people who land on this page want a person and nothing else, and paying a subscription for physical unlocks they'll never use makes no sense. Use LockPact.

AppBlock

AppBlock has Approval Access, which is partner approval by email. Your nominated contact gets a message and approves with a click. That's the same mechanism as ours. It's part of AppBlock Premium and works on both iOS and Android, which matters if you're on Android or live with someone who is.

There are two differences. First, we couldn't find a QR or NFC unlock for AppBlock on either platform. Its Strict Mode on iOS is unlocked by a PIN, plugging in a charger, a timer, a cooldown, a schedule, or the approval contact. Second, its approval is a single gate. Once your partner says yes, the block lifts. Indistractable's Hardcore mode makes your partner's yes the first of two keys you need. We couldn't verify AppBlock's Premium price, so check their site before deciding.

BlockerX

BlockerX lists an accountability partner on its iOS plans. Its site doesn't say whether that partner approves unlocks or just gets reports on what you've been doing, and we haven't tested it, so we're not going to claim anything more. If the feature matters to you, ask them before you subscribe.

Indistractable

Indistractable runs on the same Apple API as the others. You nominate someone, and they don't need the app or an iPhone. When you want to end a session early, you email them a request. They open it on their own phone and approve it, and your session ends. Alongside that you have the physical unlocks, a printed QR code or an NFC tag, and two emergency unlocks a month that skip everything, for the day something genuinely goes wrong.

The three strictness levels decide what you need. Normal: end a session whenever you like. Strict: any one unlock will do, whether that's the code, the tag, your person or an emergency. Hardcore: your person has to say yes first, and then the session still needs a physical unlock. That last combination is the one thing here that none of the other four offer, as far as we've found. It costs $4.99 a month or $19.99 a year, with a 7-day free trial, and needs iOS 18.

Its limits are the same as everyone's. Your partner can't stop you deleting the app, and the emergency unlocks exist precisely so you always have a way out.

Side by side

"Not that we could find" means we looked on the vendor's own site and couldn't find it. It doesn't mean they don't have it. Prices are in US dollars as shown by each vendor. one sec's is from the UK App Store.

Choosing the person

All four apps depend on the same thing, the person on the other end, so choose well. The best partner is someone whose no you'll accept and whose yes you'd be a bit embarrassed to ask for. A partner who approves everything is just a slower ignore button. A partner who refuses everything gets an emergency unlock spent on them and then gets removed. The useful middle is someone who'll ask why. Agree in advance what counts as a good reason, so it isn't a negotiation every time, and tell them what to expect. With LockPact they install the app and pair with you. With AppBlock and Indistractable they get an email.

The paid blockers without a social layer

Two apps come up in these searches that don't have partner approval at all, and they deserve an honest place here.

Opal

Opal is better than any app on this page at analytics, with a screen-time score, reports and coaching built on top of the blocking. There's no partner approval. Opal did have a social feature once, Opal Buddies. It launched in April 2022 and was gone by September 2022, and even while it existed it only sent notifications to a buddy. It never had approve or deny. The free tier is limited to one rule. Pro is $19.99 a month, $99.99 a year or $399 for life, with a Teams tier priced on request, which makes it the most expensive app on this page.

one sec

one sec is a different kind of app. Its main idea is friction before an app opens: a breathing pause that turns a reflex back into a decision. It also does hard blocking during sessions, so it's not friction-only. There's peer-reviewed research behind it (Grüning et al. 2023 in PNAS, linked to the Max Planck Institute) reporting 57% fewer app openings. If your problem is opening apps without meaning to, rather than deliberately breaking a block you set, one sec is probably the better tool, and you should go and use it. The essentials are free, and Pro is £19.99 a year on the UK App Store. Its site doesn't publish a price, so check the App Store for your region.

Which one

If you want partner approval and no physical unlock, LockPact is free and does that. If you want to choose, per profile, between a partner and a physical key, Impulse does both. If you want a session that can't end without both at once, that's the thing only Indistractable does. And if you're not sure a person is what you need at all, the wider field is on iPhone app blockers compared.

More comparisons

• iPhone app blockers comparedNine blockers side by side: physical unlock, partner approval, both at once, and price.
• Indistractable vs FoqosFree, open source, and just as good at QR and NFC. When to use which.
• Brick alternatives for iPhoneWhat each option actually stops, and what two years costs.