Apple Screen Time vs. Emetli: what each one does
Updated
Apple’s Screen Time is built into iPhone and iPad: it sets fixed daily time limits for apps, a schedule of downtime, and content restrictions. Emetli builds on Screen Time to do something different: it keeps the apps you choose locked until your child has done some learning, and turns learning minutes into play minutes.
You can use both together, with one setting to change. Here is what each one does.
What Apple’s Screen Time does
Screen Time comes with every iPhone, iPad and Mac, and costs nothing. With Family Sharing, you can manage your child’s device from your own.
- App Limits: a daily time limit for an app or a whole category, like Games.
- Downtime: a schedule, such as bedtime, when only the apps you allow can be used.
- Content & Privacy Restrictions: limits on explicit content, websites, purchases and app ratings.
- More time: when a limit is reached, your child can ask for more, and you approve it on your own device.
What Emetli does
Emetli is an app for iPhone and iPad that uses Apple’s Screen Time to lock the apps or categories you pick. Instead of a fixed amount of time, your child earns play time by learning in Emetli: reading books and STEM articles, playing math games or watching language videos. The time only runs down while a locked app is in use, and the apps lock again when it runs out.
Side by side
| Apple Screen Time | Emetli | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free, built in | Free, with no ads or in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad and Mac | iPhone and iPad, iOS and iPadOS 17.4 or later |
| How limits work | A fixed time limit per app or category | Apps stay locked until learning is done; learning minutes become play minutes |
| Learning | None of its own | Books, STEM articles, fifteen math games and language videos |
| Daily routine | Downtime on a schedule | A daily minimum for each activity, reset at midnight |
| Content filters | Websites, explicit content, purchases and app ratings | None: keep using Screen Time for these |
| Asking for more time | Your child asks, and you approve on your device | Your child asks from the locked app, and you answer with your parent PIN |
| Where you set it up | Settings, on your child’s device or on yours with Family Sharing | Emetli’s parent area on your child’s device, behind a 4-digit PIN |
Using them together
Emetli doesn’t replace Screen Time - it runs on it. Keep using Downtime and Content & Privacy Restrictions as you do today. One thing to change: if an app Emetli locks also has an Apple App Limit, your child sees Apple’s limit screen instead of Emetli’s. Turn off App Limits for the apps Emetli manages, and let Emetli handle those.
Use a child account in your Family Sharing group if you can. Then Screen Time access is protected, and Emetli can’t be deleted without your approval. On other devices, your child could delete Emetli or switch off its Screen Time access in Settings; from iOS and iPadOS 26.4, a Screen Time passcode guards that switch.
Which one is right for you?
If you want a simple cap on how long apps can be used, Apple’s Screen Time does that well, and it’s already on your child’s device. If the arguments are about what comes before play, or you would like play time to be earned, Emetli adds that on top. Many families can use Screen Time for bedtime and content filters, and Emetli for the daily “learn first, then play” routine.
How Emetli helps
Emetli keeps the apps you pick locked until today’s learning is done, then turns learning minutes into play minutes. It uses Apple’s Screen Time to do the locking, and the list of locked apps never leaves the device.
- Setup takes a parent about two minutes, and the settings sit behind a 4-digit parent PIN.
- Your child learns with books, STEM articles, fifteen math games and language videos.
- Emetli speaks English, Spanish, Portuguese or Hebrew - you pick your child’s language.
- Free, with no ads, no in-app purchases and no accounts for kids.
