Screen Time asks. Then you tap Ignore.
Screen Time is Apple's, it is free, and CoPact does its blocking with the very same frameworks. The difference is what happens at the moment you want to break your own limit.
iPhone, iOS 26.5 or later.
What Screen Time already does well.
If a reminder is all you need, stop reading and go and turn it on. It costs nothing and it is two taps away in Settings.
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It is free, and it is already there
Screen Time ships with iOS. Nothing to install, nothing to pay, nothing to sign in to.
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It tells you the truth about your week
Daily and weekly reports, by app and by category, with usage, pickups and notifications all counted for you.
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App Limits and Downtime work
A daily budget per app or category, and a window where only what you allow stays open. For a reminder, that is enough.
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Always Allowed is Apple’s idea
CoPact keeps its own list, so you name the apps that stay open under every pact. The system apps iOS never lets anything block, Phone among them, keep working either way.
Where it stops.
Three things you can check on your own phone in the next two minutes.
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The limit comes with a way past it
When an App Limit lands, the screen offers to ignore it. Set a Screen Time passcode and it asks for the passcode instead, and you are the one who chose the passcode.
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It is one person’s settings
Screen Time governs your devices. Outside the parent and child setup in Family Sharing, there is no way to put several adults under the same limit at the same moment.
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You can change it the second it is inconvenient
A limit you set for yourself can be edited or deleted at will. Nothing fixes the terms before you need them.
What CoPact puts on top.
Not a different way of blocking. The same Apple machinery, under terms you agreed before the moment you would have talked yourself out of them.
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Terms you fix in advance
Strict has no breaks, no edits and no early end: it runs until its timer does. Flexible gives you a break of up to 20 minutes that asks what you need, then relocks itself.
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A crew of up to ten, under one pact
Anyone in the crew can start a pact, and everyone who joins has their apps blocked for the same window. Anyone can still join while it runs.
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An ending nobody owns alone
A Strict crew pact ends when its timer does. Before that it ends only if more than half of the people still in it vote to end it.
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One honest door
The Emergency Pass opens everything for an hour, under Strict and Flexible alike, and the next one is seven days away. Every pact is standing again when the hour ends.
Screen Time and CoPact, side by side
Checked against iOS 26.5 and the shipping build of CoPact, September 2026.
| Screen Time | CoPact | |
|---|---|---|
| What does the blocking | Apple’s Screen Time frameworks | The same Apple frameworks |
| When you want past it | Ignore the limit, or enter the passcode you chose | Flexible relocks itself. Strict has nothing until the timer ends |
| Editing it while it runs | Any time | Your own Flexible pact any time. Strict and every crew pact, not at all |
| Who it covers | Your own devices | You, or a crew of up to ten at once |
| Ending it early, together | Nothing shared to end | On the timer, or by a majority vote |
| When you truly need an app | Always Allowed | Always Allowed, plus one hour once a week |
| Price | Free with iOS | 7 days free, then $1.99 a week · $4.99 a month · $29.99 a year |
The frameworks in the first row are FamilyControls, ManagedSettings and DeviceActivity. Both sides of the table run on all three, which is why neither one needs a VPN or a configuration profile.
Questions.
How is this different from Screen Time and the other blockers?
Screen Time asks, and you tap Ignore. CoPact fixes the terms before you start, puts every phone in the crew under them at once, and lets a Strict pact end only on its timer or by a vote.
Can one person end it for everyone?
Under Strict, no: it ends on its timer, or when more than half of the people still in it vote to end it. A Flexible crew pact can be ended by whoever started it.
Does it keep blocking when CoPact is closed?
Yes. Enforcement runs inside Apple's Screen Time frameworks, so it holds with the app closed, after a force quit and through a restart.
Is this a VPN?
No. CoPact blocks through Apple's FamilyControls, ManagedSettings and DeviceActivity, so nothing routes your traffic anywhere.
Better kept together.
Screen Time is the reminder. CoPact is the agreement, held by the same iOS underneath.