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An iPhone or iPad running iOS 17.6 or later. Precursor is built on Apple's Screen Time technology, so it asks for Screen Time permission the first time you set a limit. An Android version is in testing and coming soon to Google Play.

About five minutes per hour is the reliable floor. iOS measures usage in coarse samples, so allowances below roughly five minutes behave inconsistently and can block right at the hour boundary. Five minutes and up is dependable.

They set how strict a group feels, and you pick one per group. Easy blocks the app at your limit and still lets you wave the block screen away. Normal blocks it, lets you ask for more time from inside Precursor, and allows five limit stops or edits in a 24 hour window. Hard blocks it, offers no extra time, and allows one stop in a 24 hour window. All three are free, and you can change modes at any time.

On Normal limits, open Precursor and tap More time. It asks you to write a real reason, then to hold a button until the minutes come back. The hold gets longer every time you ask inside the same day, so the tenth ask costs a lot more than the first. That is the whole design: there is always a way through, and it always asks you to mean it. There is no unblock button on the block screen itself, on purpose, because that is the moment the decision is hardest to make well.

Yes. Each group has its own schedule. Picking the days a group runs is free, so weekdays can be stricter than weekends. Picking the hours of the day is part of Precursor+: set a group to run from 9am to 6pm and those apps are free to use outside that window. Groups do not have to share a schedule.

Usage is measured by iOS, not by Precursor, and for some apps that includes audio or video that keeps playing in the background or in picture in picture. If a music or video app keeps running after you leave it, iOS still counts that as usage. There is no setting to change this, so we would rather tell you plainly than have it look like a glitch.

The passcode is optional. It protects your limit settings from an impulsive change in the moment, not your ability to leave. If you forget it, there is a built in reset you can start and confirm 24 hours later, while your limits keep running. With Parent Mode on, that wait is replaced by the security question you chose when you set it up. Deleting the app removes every limit immediately. One honest caveat: Precursor has no accounts, so there is no way for us to reset a passcode for you. If the passcode and the answer are both lost, so is that way back in.

Both live in Settings, under Advanced, and both are for a parent helping someone practice moderation on that person's own phone. Parent Mode makes the passcode required and replaces the 24 hour reset wait with a security question you choose, so you can get back in quickly and an impulse cannot. Uninstall protection hides Delete App from the home screen, so limits cannot be dodged by deleting and reinstalling. Two things worth knowing before you turn that one on: it hides Delete App for every app on the device, not only for Precursor, and turning it back off takes your Precursor passcode. Precursor is not a monitoring product. It never reports anywhere, and it cannot watch another device.

All of its limits come off your device right away, and your limits, history, Insights and the reasons you wrote go with the app; they only ever lived on your device. If you had turned on shared usage analytics or sent a bug report, those few items follow the privacy policy instead: delete usage analytics from Settings before removing the app, or email us and we will clear them. Bug reports age off our systems within 90 days regardless.

No, on either platform. On iPhone and iPad, when you pick apps, iOS hands us anonymous tokens, never names or identities; we could not tell you which apps you limit even if you asked. On Android, the app does read the names of the apps you pick, because that is the only way Precursor can track your usage, but it reads them on your phone and no app related information is sent to our servers. Either way, your choices, limits, and usage stay on your phone.

The core app is free, with a full experience at no cost: three app groups, hourly resets, allowances up to 15 minutes an hour, all three limit modes, day of the week scheduling, the passcode, Parent Mode, and the on-device journal. An optional upgrade, Precursor+, adds more groups (up to eight), a 30 minute reset window, allowances up to 30 minutes, and hour of the day scheduling. It is available as a subscription or as a one-time Lifetime purchase. Current prices, trials and any offers are shown in the app and on the App Store or Google Play before you buy. All purchases are handled by Apple or Google Play.

Lifetime means Lifetime. You pay once and Precursor+ stays unlocked for as long as we offer the app. There is no renewal, and we will not move a feature you already paid for behind a second charge. It includes updates to the app, new features included. If we add something to Precursor+ later, Lifetime holders get it at no extra cost.

Here is the scope, plainly. Lifetime is for the one store account that bought it. It covers this app, Precursor: Hourly Screen Time, on the store you bought it from. It does not cover other things Precursor Labs may make later, and because Precursor has no accounts, a Lifetime purchase on the App Store does not unlock the Android app, and a purchase on Google Play does not unlock the iPhone app. If you want it on both, you would need to buy it on both. We would rather say that here than let you find out after paying.

After redownloading Precursor, tap Restore purchases and it comes back. Precursor has no accounts, so a fresh install starts out not knowing what you own; your purchase is held by Apple or Google Play against the same account you bought it with, and Restore is what asks them. You will find Restore purchases in Settings and on the upgrade screen.

One thing worth knowing: this works because the store remembers the purchase. Use the same Apple ID or the same Google account you bought with. If you were a beta tester who received Precursor+ free rather than buying it, that grant lives on the phone you tested on, so write to us if you change phones and we will sort it out.

That second screen is your iPhone's own Screen Time App Limit, not Precursor. If you set an App Limit in Settings on the same app you gave Precursor, iOS shows its own block, and that one can be tapped away with the “Ask For More Time” button. Precursor cannot see or change Apple's screen. The simplest fix is to turn off Apple's App Limits altogether and let Precursor do the limiting: open Settings, then Screen Time, then App Limits, and switch App Limits off (or at least remove the limit on any app you also gave Precursor). While you are there, tap Lock Screen Time Settings and set a passcode so limits cannot be switched off on impulse.