I’ve been wrestling with Apple’s parental controls for 10+ years, going all the way back to my then 5 year olds iPod Touch. They’ve been shockingly stagnant in developing it into a powerful usable parental tool. I’m glad to see they’re making some progress.
As a side note, one improvement I’ve noticed in the Beta is when a parental setting blocks something from functioning it actually tells you now. In the past some operation on the phone wouldn’t work but it would give no indication as to why. Leading to scrolling through parental settings hoping to find the culprit.
Do you get the advantages of the new parental controls even if the other devices (i.e. my kid's iPads) aren't on the beta? I've been considering upgrading my phone, or at least my iPad, to gain access. How's the stability?
My 16 year old put the Beta on his phone, against my recommendation, lol. So I’ve only seen how it behaves on that device. Nothing appears changed on my end so I’d suspect all devices have to be updated. He’s definitely mentioned some glitches and also an uptick in battery draining.
I thought surely there HAD to be a way to automate the “open screen time” ritual via Shortcuts, but I should’ve just had faith in your efforts – no such functionality is there. Apple’s decided on a set number of actions you’re able to take within Open App: Settings. I’m sure there’s some advanced way of scripting that invokes some uri-handling function or exploits something akin to the “request permission” function, but that’s far from a reasonable ask for anyone. My goodness! Thanks for your thoughts as always, Patrick!
[edit:] oh gosh this ended up threaded, my apologies to the OP!
You can add a Screen Time widget to your home screen that takes you directly to the full Screen Time section within Settings when you tap it. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Jxw10X4JqAI
Sadly, you can't add it to the Control Center (swipe down from top right) or assign it to the Action Button yet.
I’ve been wrestling with Apple’s parental controls for 10+ years, going all the way back to my then 5 year olds iPod Touch. They’ve been shockingly stagnant in developing it into a powerful usable parental tool. I’m glad to see they’re making some progress.
As a side note, one improvement I’ve noticed in the Beta is when a parental setting blocks something from functioning it actually tells you now. In the past some operation on the phone wouldn’t work but it would give no indication as to why. Leading to scrolling through parental settings hoping to find the culprit.
Do you get the advantages of the new parental controls even if the other devices (i.e. my kid's iPads) aren't on the beta? I've been considering upgrading my phone, or at least my iPad, to gain access. How's the stability?
My 16 year old put the Beta on his phone, against my recommendation, lol. So I’ve only seen how it behaves on that device. Nothing appears changed on my end so I’d suspect all devices have to be updated. He’s definitely mentioned some glitches and also an uptick in battery draining.
I'll have to install it on my iPad and report back on how it all works. I don't mind if that device gets a little weird.
I thought surely there HAD to be a way to automate the “open screen time” ritual via Shortcuts, but I should’ve just had faith in your efforts – no such functionality is there. Apple’s decided on a set number of actions you’re able to take within Open App: Settings. I’m sure there’s some advanced way of scripting that invokes some uri-handling function or exploits something akin to the “request permission” function, but that’s far from a reasonable ask for anyone. My goodness! Thanks for your thoughts as always, Patrick!
[edit:] oh gosh this ended up threaded, my apologies to the OP!
You can add a Screen Time widget to your home screen that takes you directly to the full Screen Time section within Settings when you tap it. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Jxw10X4JqAI
Sadly, you can't add it to the Control Center (swipe down from top right) or assign it to the Action Button yet.