Screen Time for supported iPhone use — the best reviews

The more I look at (remote) Screen Time the more impressed I am by the power and complexity of this project. Today, for example, I realized there is an option to include or exclude “Website Data”. I also discovered that after you’ve set an app limit time, a magic “Customize Days” option appears! I can’t “unsee” “Customize Days” now, but for weeks I didn’t notice that it suddenly appears once you set a time value.

It’s not perfect by any means. Screen Time reports don’t always update promptly.  I have a device that refuses to enroll in Screen Time. The need to change an Explorers Apple ID age to be under 18 is more than frustrating — this should be an Accessibility setting. We need Apple to offer an API that devs can build solutions around, so the burden of making this work doesn’t fall only on parents. Note least — we need better documentation!

I’ve been trying to write that documentation and I now understand why it doesn’t exist. This is really complicated. I’ve rewritten my chapter work several times, and now I’m stepping back to collect the best documentation I can find by searching on some keyword phrases:

  • Screen Time
  • Family Sharing
  • Include Website Data
  • Customize Days

As of 1/5/2019 if I ask for all of these I get one result! Relaxing the search a bit here are the best docs I’ve found (most of ‘em don’t get the difference between remote and local Screen Time controls):

And from Apple support (there’s not much in the iOS 12 User Guide):

That’s the current set. Next step is to finish my own take, then go through each of the above and add in what I’ve missed.

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