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An iPhone running iOS 18 or later, and two permissions:

• Screen Time access, which is how any app on iPhone is allowed to block other apps.
• Location set to Always, so your zones keep working while Slowcation is closed.

You can check both in the app under More → Settings.

1. On the Map tab, tap New Zone, search for a place, or touch and hold the map.
2. Name it, set its size, and choose a rule: Block Here or Only Here.
3. Tap Add Apps, choose the apps, then tap Add.

You can have up to 20 zones, from 50 metres to 50 kilometres across.

Block Here closes the zone's apps while you are inside it. Only Here does the opposite: the apps open inside the zone and are blocked everywhere else.

If two zones overlap and disagree about an app, the block wins. If your iPhone doesn't know where you are, Only Here apps stay blocked.

Yes. When you tap Add Apps and then Find Apps and Websites, Apple's picker lets you choose individual apps, whole categories such as Social, and websites. A category also covers its websites and any apps you install later. Adding a website means a blocked app isn't just a Safari tab away.

If notifications are on, the block screen has a second button: Pause Blocking, or Ask a Buddy when that block is locked to a buddy. Tapping it sends you a notification; tap that and Slowcation opens at the right place. iOS doesn't let a block screen open another app directly, which is why it works this way. Your cooldown still applies.

iPhone decides when to tell apps that you've crossed a boundary, and it can take a minute or more, especially if you haven't moved far. A few things help:

• Open More → Settings → Check Setup. It lists anything that's stopping your zones from working, with a button to fix each one.
• Make sure location is set to Always: Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Slowcation, and keep Precise Location on.
• Use zones of 100 metres or more. Smaller zones are slower to notice arrivals and departures.
• Open Slowcation. It re-checks where you are as soon as it opens.

Zones have to work when the app is closed, and iOS only reports boundary crossings in the background to apps with Always access. iOS does the watching. Slowcation has no server, so your location is never sent to us. See the privacy policy.

Yes. Edit the zone and turn on its schedule, then pick the hours and days. Outside those times the zone's rule doesn't apply.

Use More → Blanket Ban. Apps in the ban are blocked wherever you are. Lifting a ban waits for your cooldown first.

Yes. It can notify you when a pause starts and when blocking comes back, and when arriving at a zone, leaving one, or a zone's hours open or lock your apps. You'll be asked the first time you start a pause, and the switches are in More → Settings → Notifications.

They're made on your iPhone and use no extra battery. A zone notification arrives when iPhone notices you've crossed the boundary, which can take a minute or more.

Go to More → Pause Blocking. The pause starts after your cooldown, which you can set from one minute to an hour in Settings, so there's time to change your mind. Zones you've locked to a buddy are not lifted by a pause.

A buddy is a friend whose code can unlock your apps. To add one:

1. Ask them to open Buddies → My Buddy ID in Slowcation and send it to you.
2. Copy their whole message, open Buddies, and tap Paste. If you're together, tap Scan and scan their QR code instead.
3. Check the name and tap Add.

Nothing is sent to your buddy when you add them, and they don't need to add you back.

1. Open Buddies → Ask for Time, choose how long, and tap Send Request.
2. Your buddy copies your message, opens Buddies in their Slowcation, taps Paste, then Send.
3. Copy their reply and tap Paste in your Buddies tab. Your apps open straight away.

The app tells you why. The usual reasons:

• It has expired. Codes must be entered within 30 minutes of being made.
• It has been used. Each code works once.
• It was made for someone else, or by someone who isn't one of your buddies.
• Part of the message is missing. Copy the whole message, including the long line at the end.

If it says the code isn't valid yet, one of the two phones has the wrong time. Set both to automatic in Settings → General → Date & Time.

That's deliberate. Anything locked to a buddy can only be changed while one of their codes has your apps unlocked, so you can't undo your own rules in a weak moment. Ask your buddy for a code, then make the change while it's active.

It stays on your iPhone. Slowcation has no accounts, no servers and no analytics. The privacy policy explains exactly what the app uses and why.

Delete your zones and lift any ban, or remove Slowcation's access in Settings → Screen Time → Apps With Screen Time Access. Deleting the app also removes its blocks. Slowcation is a commitment tool for yourself, not a parental control, so you always keep the final say.