iPhone, how to turn your phone into a dumb phone
iPhone (iOS 18) / OS version iOS 18 / Checked on 2026-09-15
Everything worth trying before you buy a flip phone. Calls and texts stay as they are.
This app cannot block other apps. What it can do is show you the shortest way to turn the phone you already own into a dumb phone, using settings it already has.
Taken from the maker's own support documents. We have not held these handsets ourselves, so if a menu name differs, search for the word below.
1. Turn on Screen Time
Settings > Screen Time
Everything below lives here, and it works on your own phone without Family Sharing.
Type this into the Settings search box: Screen Time
Checked on 2026-09-15 / OS version iOS 18 / Source Apple, Apple Support, use Screen Time on your iPhone (from the official document)
2. Set an app limit for everything you reach for
Screen Time > App Limits > Add Limit > pick everything you reach for by category or app > set a time
When the time is spent an hourglass screen takes over. No deleting, no logging out.
Type this into the Settings search box: App Limits
Checked on 2026-09-15 / OS version iOS 18 / Source Apple, Apple Support, use Screen Time on your iPhone (from the official document)
3. Schedule Downtime
Screen Time > Downtime > turn on Scheduled and set start and end times
In that window only allowed apps open. Set the night once and it repeats itself.
Type this into the Settings search box: Downtime
Checked on 2026-09-15 / OS version iOS 18 / Source Apple, Apple Support, use Screen Time on your iPhone (from the official document)
4. Trim the Always Allowed list
Screen Time > Always Allowed > keep Phone and Messages, remove the rest
Apps on this list keep opening during Downtime, so skipping it undoes the rest.
Type this into the Settings search box: Always Allowed
Checked on 2026-09-15 / OS version iOS 18 / Source Apple, Apple Support, use Screen Time on your iPhone (from the official document)
5. Make the screen black and white
Settings > Accessibility > Display and Text Size > turn on Colour Filters and choose Greyscale
Without colour, thumbnails stop pulling at your eye. Switch it off while you look at photos.
Type this into the Settings search box: Colour Filters
Checked on 2026-09-15 / OS version iOS 18 / Source Apple, Apple, iPhone User Guide (from the official document)
6. Add Colour Filters to the accessibility shortcut
Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut > tick Colour Filters. Triple click the side button to toggle
Greyscale becomes three clicks, so you never dig through Settings again and it tends to stick.
Type this into the Settings search box: Accessibility Shortcut
Checked on 2026-09-15 / OS version iOS 18 / Source Apple, Apple, iPhone User Guide (from the official document)
7. Turn on the Sleep Focus
Settings > Focus > Sleep, then choose who and what may get through
Notifications go quiet and the lock screen dims. Paired with Downtime the whole night goes quiet.
Type this into the Settings search box: Focus
Checked on 2026-09-15 / OS version iOS 18 / Source Apple, Apple, iPhone User Guide (from the official document)
8. Take the app off the home screen
Press and hold the icon, Remove App, then Remove from Home Screen. It stays in the App Library
It empties the spot your thumb remembers. Opening it needs a swipe and a search, and that pause is the point.
Type this into the Settings search box: Home Screen
Checked on 2026-09-15 / OS version iOS 18 / Source Apple, Apple, iPhone User Guide (from the official document)
Every change here can be undone in the same place. That means it is not enforcement, and we are not hiding that.
Other troubles on this phone
If the settings are not enough, the next step is a different handset. Here is what each one costs you.