Roots: Screen Time Control

I never write app reviews, but roots is that good. I’ve tried countless methods and one other app to get myself to lower my screen time, but I just always find a way around it and it makes no difference. Roots is the first thing I’ve tried where, except for deleting the app, there is no workaround that I’ve found. It’s amazing and it has effectively reduced my time on bad apps a great deal in only a week or so. And I only use the free version - even with these limitations it works great. If you’re willing to pay for the pro, I’m sure it works even better, but it’s definitely ok to settle with free! Amazing app.

They gave me a premium trial for 1 yr and all I can say is that I am impressed. Opal could never.

Thank you so much for the student discount. This app is serving me so well

Love the graphs that let you look at averages of screen time over the weeks and months. One feature I’d love even more is an actual tracker - one goal for 2025 is to be under 1000 hours for the year, and to see actual data for the screen time for the weeks and months vs just averages would be huge.

When this app works, it’s great. But it has so many performance issues, and it can be very stressful to set it up. The app frequently needs to be reloaded. It often forgets that I paid for annual premium and I have to go through a process to sync my subscription. When selecting apps to block, the app freezes and has to reload, losing all progress made on setting up downtime or app limits. I’ve followed several of the workarounds for these known issues but some are really ridiculous workarounds. For instance, one is to copy each app name you need to block into Notes and then paste it into Roots. Imagine you want to block 70 apps. That’s a wild process. Also the app sometimes becomes completely non-responsive, so I delete the app and when I re-install, it loses all data so I have to completely set up my systems again. Their customer support is responsive and helpful and I have hopes this app will be awesome one day.

I really suggest to use this app specially in premium version, it really helps you to be more focused and detoxify all of the fake dopamine you receive from social media. This is the best application I used ever! Highly recommended!😍👌🏻

I have been using this app for the past couple months to see if it would help me reduce my social media usage. And it has! Because it physically keeps me from doom scrolling by blocking the app entirely, I’ve been spending a lot less time on my phone and more time with my family, friends, and my studies. It’s been such a game changer for me to get my work done and put down my phone to do other tasks I need to do.

The app only works approximately half of the time, even with a paid subscription. The theory of it is solid, but it’s not worth the frustration.

Got Roots recently based on reviews. The app is significantly better compared to other screen time apps as other apps I’ve seen have many glitches with the screen time as well as the cost. Though, things I recommend to add is a widget that shows how much the screen time is. Although there is an iPhone widget, I think Roots should have a widget. Also, I think the customizable custom screen when time is reached should have more options, such as making a customizable screen yourself and putting your own quotes.

The team helped me get a discounted sub when I asked for one since I’m a student. Definitely one of the more premium app blocker options out there.