Best iPhone Screen Accountability Apps for Adults
IPhone accountability apps are a critical part of an adult's journey quitting internet pornography. Even if you are thoroughly blocking adult content on an iPhone, adding an accountability app is highly recommended. There are numerous apps that claim to be difficult to bypass and provide comprehensive monitoring of web and app activity. But in our research, we've discovered that there are numerous monitoring gaps in some of the most popular iPhone accountability apps.
There are many competitors for the ultimate accountability app, so I've compared multiple apps hands-on with a particular focus on adults and self-management. Each app has a different approach and unique features that we liked, but this needs to be compared against the weaknesses that are difficult to avoid.
Key Features to Look for in an Accountability App
Before comparing apps, it's important to consider what features are actually useful if you're looking for a solid accountability setup. There are numerous accountability apps that claim to provide full device transparency, but actually fail to capture most activity that is important for maintaining accountability.
Activity Screenshots or Screen Recording
Some accountability apps might capture web traffic or browsing history logs, but screenshots or screen recordings provide the most accurate view into how an iPhone is being used.
Finding a good app that captures screenshots is very difficult, though. Apple tends to remove apps from the App Store that capture this kind of activity, even if users clearly understand the privacy implications. As a result, very few accountability apps capture full device screenshots or screen recordings.
Capturing Activity on any Browser
Some accountability apps might only work if you use a specific web browser, like Safari or even require the use of a custom web browser. For many users, it's a good idea to find an accountability app that supports multiple browsers (or all browsers if possible).
Capturing Activity on Any App
Another important feature is the ability to capture activity for any app used on the device. For example, if you are using TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube, it would be essential that your accountability app captures the activity on those apps.
Surprisingly, many accountability apps don't capture activity for apps like social media apps. This results in some adults installing apps that aren't monitored in order to bypass the accountability app without drawing suspicion.
Self-Enforcement
The most effective apps have measures in place that prevent them from being uninstalled from your iPhone or disabled. Some apps have built-in methods, but in some cases, you can do this manually by preventing apps from being deleted .
Some apps also have permissions that need to stay enabled to prevent bypass.
Compatibility with other Adult Content Blocking Solutions
If you need a particularly comprehensive blocking system, it might be difficult to find a single app or platform that has all of the features you're looking for.
For example, many accountability apps have some kind of website blocking layer, but it ends up not being very good. We prefer that an accountability app only focuses on the monitoring aspect rather than trying to do too much (and not doing anything well).
An example of two features that can work together would be if you find an app that captures screenshots and another one that specializes in blocking adult content.
What Are the Best Accountability Apps For iPhone?
With all of these features in mind, we can now compare common parental control apps so you can make the right decision. The Team at Tech Lockdown has tested each of these apps with the adults in mind.
Apple Screen Time
Screen Time by Apple can be used to add some accountability to an adult's iPhone use. After setting up Screen Time restrictions, a trusted accountability partner can set your Screen Time passcode. Then, you would work with your accountability partner to unlock Screen Time to get access in the future.
Common use-cases for accountability with this approach:
- Turning off the iPhone's App Store to prevent new apps from being downloaded without getting your accountability partner to enter their pin.
- Protect iPhone apps from being deleted (useful for enforcing a content filtering app).
Where screen time can fall short:
- Accountability partner must have physical access to your iPhone to enter the screen time pin.
- It's possible to recover the Screen Time pin even without the accountability partner being involved.
- There's no transparency into web browsing or app activity.
If you have a trusted accountability partner, who is dedicated to your success and that you meet with in-person regularly, screen time can be helpful. We recommend combining Screen Time with other apps for more effective accountability.
Managed Screen Time with Apple Family
If you are working with a trusted family member for accountability, managed screen time through Apple family can provide a more convenient accountability system where your accountability partner can make changes to your screen time settings from their iPhone remotely. Managed Screen Time is primarily designed for children, however, so you'd need to use some tricks to make it work for an adult. For example, you could change the age of your Apple account to make your iPhone think you're a child to use some restrictions.
For more information on how to get started with Apple Family (including a full walkthrough), see our guide on enabling parental controls on iPhone .
Paid Accountability Apps
If you want to go further than what's possible with Apple's screen time solution, you'll need to consider paid accountability apps.
Qustodio is designed to be the ultimate parental control app. It goes beyond Screen Time restrictions and fully manages iPhones instead.
While it is marketed as a parental control app, accountability partners can repurpose the app with a lot of success. One of the biggest reasons we like Qustodio is that it uses two apps, one to enable restrictions (this will be installed on the target iPhone that's being restricted) and another app to manage restrictions on a target iPhone. Since it uses two separate apps, enables restrictions remotely, gathers detailed internet activity, and is remarkably difficult to disable, it makes a great option for accountability partners.
We go more in-depth with our recommendations in our dedicated Qustodio review , so I'd strongly recommend checking that blog post out for more information.
Covenant Eyes has been built with adults in mind. It includes many powerful features that we really like, such as automatic screenshots, AI-enhanced image filtering, and a filtered VPN that blocks adult websites across the entire iPhone. This is one of our best recommendations for adults who need an additional accountability layer on top of a solid network-level internet filter.
However, while Covenant Eyes is effective on most devices, it struggles on iPhones in part due to restrictions Apple imposes on apps downloaded from its App Store. For example, it captures screenshots of Safari activity only, and it can't record screenshots while browsing other apps. We explain several of these nuances for iPhones in our dedicated Covenant Eyes review .