How to block apps on Android so you can't just uninstall the blocker

A blocker is only as strong as its easiest exit. There are two to close.

The first is the snooze. Timer-based limits, such as the Digital Wellbeing app timers on phones that include Digital Wellbeing, can be changed in Settings at any time. The decision to stop goes back to the person who just decided to keep going, at the moment it is hardest to say no.

The second is the uninstall. Even a blocker without a snooze button can be long-pressed off the home screen in a few seconds, and an uninstalled blocker blocks nothing. That one exit defeats every other feature at once.

To be straight about it: on stock Android, no app can stop the phone's owner from changing settings. What an app can do is make quitting slower and more deliberate than the urge that started it.

Strict mode puts MassBlocker's settings, and ending a session, behind a PIN. With it on, opening your unlock code, blocked apps, Unlock policy, schedules, profiles or Gentle Nudge settings asks for the PIN.

If your key is a QR code, the app's own code and its 3-word code are switched off. Your PIN, or a QR you enrolled yourself, still gets you back in. An NFC tag or charger key works as usual. For a profile that only the PIN can open, choose Hard block (PIN only).

The PIN is a key too: it opens a lock you started, straight away. If you set it and remember it, you carry the key in your head. For a firmer lock, give the PIN to a flatmate, a partner or a friend, and the lock stops being a negotiation with yourself at 1 am.

What the PIN does not cover is Android's own Settings. The accessibility service and the device admin are switched off there, outside MassBlocker.

When you tap Lock now, a minimum lock time starts (the app calls it the cooldown). Until it is over, a QR scan or 3-word code won't open anything, and the lock screen has no button to skip it. In the app's own words: “No early way in. That's the point.”

When the ring turns green, you've earned it: go and find your code.

• On Free, choose from presets up to an hour. With Pro, set any length from 1 to 600 minutes. Pro
• Charging unlocks (Pro) never wait: plug in, then tap Unlock. An NFC tag (Pro) skips the wait for the first unlock. With auto-relock on, each re-lock waits again.

If you've set a PIN (Pro), the lock screen also shows “Use PIN”, and whoever knows it can open your apps early. That's why we suggest someone else keeps it.

The pieces work together. The minimum lock time covers the first urge, the key you hid adds distance, and strict mode and uninstall protection slow down the ways around both.