To block apps on a Mac without installing anything, use Screen Time. Open System Settings, go to Screen Time, then App Limits, add a limit for the app, and turn on Block at End of Limit. That option only shows up once you've set a Screen Time passcode. If you set the limit to one minute, the app is effectively blocked for the rest of the day.
That works well for parents. It works less well when you're blocking apps on your own Mac, because you know the passcode. We build a Mac app blocker, and that gap is the one we think about most. The built-in route comes first, then where it leaks and what we'd use instead.
How to block apps on Mac with Screen Time
Apple's Mac Help guide lays out the steps, and they're the same on recent versions of macOS: - Open System Settings and click Screen Time in the sidebar (you may need to scroll). - If you haven't already, set a Screen Time passcode. Without one, the blocking option never appears. - Click App Limits, then Add Limit. - Pick the app (Slack, Discord, Steam, Messages, whatever is eating your day) and set the time to one minute. - Turn on Block at End of Limit and click Done.
If you don't see App Limits at all, Screen Time is switched off for that user. Turn it on first. Older guides call the app System Preferences, so if a tutorial's menu names don't match yours, that's usually why.
The passcode problem when you block apps for yourself
When the limit runs out, macOS shows a block screen with an option to ask for more time. Apple's own guide says entering the passcode approves the app. So the lock is exactly as strong as your ability to forget a four-digit number you chose yourself.
Some people hand the passcode to a partner or a roommate. That does work, and it's a real commitment device. It also means asking someone for permission to open Discord on a Saturday, which most adults give up on within a week.
The other weakness is that Screen Time thinks in daily budgets. Ten minutes of Slack per day is a different rule from no Slack between 9 and 12, and the second one is usually what you want when you're trying to get a morning of real work done.
Does Focus mode block apps on Mac?
No. A Focus mode (Do Not Disturb, Work, and the rest) filters notifications. Every app still opens when you click it. Focus filters can change what some apps show while a Focus is on, but nothing stops you from launching a chat app or a game in the middle of a work session.
We still think Focus is worth turning on. Notifications are the most common way a distraction reaches you, and silencing them removes half the problem. The other half is you, opening the app on your own, and Focus does nothing about that.
Downtime: blocking everything except an allowlist
Screen Time has a second tool, Downtime, which inverts the logic. During a scheduled window, only the apps you've marked as always allowed will open. Everything else is blocked.
On paper this is the strictest built-in option. In practice it's hard to live with for work, because the list of apps you need on a given day keeps changing. You hit Downtime, find out you forgot to allow the PDF reader a client document needs, and type the passcode. After the third time, you stop scheduling Downtime. It is better suited to bedtime than to a workday.
How to block apps on Mac during work hours
What most people want is a short blocklist on a schedule: Slack, Discord, and games blocked from 9 to 12 every weekday, open at lunch, everything else untouched. Kyte for Mac is built for exactly that. You pick the apps, set a recurring daily schedule, and blocking starts and stops on its own. You don't have to remember to turn it on, and you don't need a daily budget. Kyte blocks whole apps system-wide, so it covers anything you have installed, not only the apps that happen to have a browser version.
You can also start an on-demand session from the menu bar when the schedule doesn't fit the day. It runs on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, needs no account, and your blocklist and schedules stay on your Mac. It's a one-time purchase of ${MAC_DISPLAY_PRICE}, with no subscription.
One thing to be clear about, because we'd rather you hear it from us. The Mac app blocks apps. It does not yet block websites system-wide; that's on our roadmap. Locked sessions that you can't end early are a feature of the Chrome extension, not the Mac app. So the Mac app's strength is the schedule. Pick hours you'll actually keep and the schedule does the remembering for you.
Pick the apps by where the time goes
Open Screen Time's App and Website Activity for the past week before you block anything. The answer is rarely the app you'd guess. People expect a game and find Messages, or Mail, or the Slack channel they reopen every six minutes to see if anyone replied.
Block the top two or three and stop there. A blocklist of fifteen apps feels disciplined on Monday and gets dismantled by Wednesday, because one of those fifteen turns out to be something you needed. A short list survives.
Don't forget the browser
Block the Slack app and the web version of Slack is one tab away. Block a game launcher and YouTube is still there. App blocking handles half of the distraction on a Mac, and the browser is the other half.
For that half we'd use Kyte's Chrome extension. It's free, and it blocks at the URL level, so you can block youtube.com and still allow the one tutorial video you need, or block Reddit and allow the single thread with the answer. Core features need no account and timed sessions are free. If you want a session you can't end early, Locked In Mode is a separate one-time purchase. Run it next to the Mac app and both doors are covered.
If you're setting limits for a child, Screen Time with a passcode they don't know is the right tool. If you're setting them for yourself, the passcode is the weak point, and a schedule you set once beats a limit you can override. Pick two apps, give them a blocked window every weekday morning, and see what that morning feels like.
Block distracting apps on a schedule. Get Kyte for Mac, $19 one-time.
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