A bedtime schedule app for phones, plus a homework focus mode
Set the shape of a normal day once. Bedtime winds the phone down at night, Homework Hour leaves only the school apps, and school time quiets the distractions during lessons. These are parental control routines that the phone runs on its own, so you’re not the timer any more.
Android child app
Runs in any browser
You know the half-past-nine argument. The phone was meant to go off at nine, it’s now nearly ten, and you’re the bad guy again. A bedtime schedule app should take you out of that fight — not by being harsher, but by making the schedule the phone’s job instead of yours.
A Routine in FreePhoneSpy is a scheduled on/off window. You pick the hours and which apps are allowed during them, and the phone follows the plan every day without being reminded. Three routines cover most of family life: Bedtime for the night, Homework Hour for the hour after school, and school time for lessons. Set them up once in the browser panel and the day runs itself.
Scheduled on/off windows you set once
A routine is just a window with a start, an end, and a rule about which apps are allowed inside it. You build it in the panel: pick the days, pick the hours, choose what stays on. From then on the phone knows what a Monday looks like, what a Saturday looks like, and when each window opens and closes.
That’s the whole idea — you shape a normal day one time, and the phone keeps to it. No manual switching, no maths at bedtime, no standing in a doorway with a countdown. If your week changes, you change the window in the panel and it takes effect the next time the phone has a connection.
- Choose the days and hours for each window
- Say which apps stay reachable inside it
- Different windows for weekdays and weekends
- Edit any time from any browser
Bedtime: the phone winds down at night
Bedtime is where most families start, and it’s the one that ends the nightly negotiation for good. From nine to seven — or whatever hours you pick — the fun apps go to sleep. Games, video and the endless scroll wind down, so there’s nothing to argue about, because the phone has already decided.
It goes quiet without going dark. Calls and messages can stay on, so a real emergency still gets through and a lift home can still be arranged. Before the window starts there’s a wind-down warning, so a game gets saved and a message gets finished rather than cut off mid-sentence. The point isn’t to punish the evening. It’s to let it end calmly, the same way, every night.
- Fun apps sleep during the night window
- Calls and messages can stay reachable for emergencies
- A wind-down warning before it starts, not a sudden cut-off
- Consistent hours, so there’s nothing to renegotiate
Homework Hour: only the school apps
The hour after school is when homework has to compete with a group chat and a new game, and homework usually loses. Homework Hour tips it back. During the window, games and social are parked and the phone leaves only the apps schoolwork actually needs — a browser for research, a documents app, a calculator, the school’s own tools.
It’s a focus mode, not a blackout. Your child can still look something up or open the reading they were set. What they can’t do is drift into the feed for forty minutes and call it studying. When the hour ends, the phone comes back on its own, so there’s no “can I have it back now” every single afternoon. If a particular app is getting in the way more than most, you can also cap or block it directly with app & website blocking.
- Games and social parked for the window
- School and reference apps stay open
- The phone lifts the window on its own when the hour ends
- Pairs with per-app limits for the apps that distract most
School time keeps lessons distraction-free
The school-time routine handles the part of the day you’re not there for. During lessons it locks the distractions and leaves the essentials, so the phone stays a way to reach home rather than a thing under the desk. When the bell goes, the window closes and the phone returns to its normal rules without anyone touching it.
Set the school hours
Choose the days and the start and end times that match the timetable. Term-time weekdays, not weekends or holidays.
Keep the essentials on
Phone, messages and maps stay reachable so a child can always get hold of you and find their way home.
It ends by itself
No message from you, no unlock. The window closes on schedule and the normal day picks back up.
How the phone enforces a routine on its own
This is the part that makes routines worth having: the rule lives on the phone, so it holds without you. This is on-device enforcement. When a window opens, the app on the child’s phone applies it there and then — it doesn’t wait for a signal from you or a server. So Bedtime still starts at nine even if the phone has dropped off Wi-Fi, and Homework Hour still parks the games in a dead spot on the way home from a friend’s.
Changes you make in the panel sync down the next time the phone has a connection, then they stick. You’re not sending a command every night; you’re describing the day once and letting the phone keep to it. That’s what takes you out of the enforcing business. You set the shape; the phone holds the line.
- Rules run on the device, not from a live command
- Windows hold even offline or on patchy signal
- Panel edits sync down when the phone reconnects
- Essential apps stay reachable inside every window
Wind-down warnings, so nothing dies mid-sentence
Nothing sours an evening like a screen going dark in the middle of something. Before a routine window starts, the phone gives a wind-down warning — a heads-up that the game should be saved and the message should be sent. It’s a small thing that changes how the transition feels, from a punishment to a nudge.
The warning is why routines land better than a hard cut-off. Your child gets a moment to finish and put the phone down on their own terms, which is a far easier ask than yanking it away. Over a few weeks the warning becomes the cue and the arguments quietly stop. If the day genuinely needs bending — a project running long — the child can send an Ask for a bit more time, and you can trade time for chores with tasks & rewards rather than only ever saying no.
- A heads-up before a window starts
- Time to save the game and send the message
- The transition becomes a cue, not a fight
- Extra-time Asks for the nights that need it
How routines overlap with the screen-time budget
Routines and the daily minute budget are built to work together, and the overlap is where families get the most out of both. The budget sets how much total phone time a day holds; routines decide when that time can be spent. A tight weekday budget doesn’t need to be burned on schoolwork, so Homework Hour can leave the school apps open without the clock ticking against the fun time later. And Bedtime can end the evening even if there are minutes left over, because “you still have twenty minutes” shouldn’t override “it’s ten o’clock”.
You build the two once and they cover the shape and the size of a day between them. The clearest way to see how they fit is on the screen-time budget, where the day’s minutes and the active window sit on the same screen. Everything then surfaces on the Today dashboard, so a bedtime that got extended and a homework window that got skipped are both one glance away in the morning.
- Homework Hour can leave school apps open without spending budget
- Bedtime ends the day even with minutes left over
- The budget handles “how much”, routines handle “when”
- Both roll up onto one Today dashboard
How to set up routines
A couple of minutes in the panel. Here’s the order that works.
1. Turn on Bedtime first
Pick the night hours and choose which apps stay reachable — usually calls and messages. It’s the routine that pays off fastest.
2. Add Homework Hour
Set the hour after school, park games and social, and leave the school and reference apps open.
3. Set school time
Match the timetable, keep the essentials on, and let the window close itself when the bell goes.
4. Show your child the screen
Walk through each window on their phone so it’s a shared agreement. Point out the wind-down warning — they’ll come to rely on it.
What a fair set of routines looks like in practice
The goal isn’t the strictest schedule. It’s a phone that fits the day. A routine that clamps everything shut breeds workarounds and resentment. The version that works keeps the essentials reachable, warns before it starts, and leaves a door open for the night that genuinely needs bending.
Picture a normal Tuesday. Your child gets home, Homework Hour quietly parks the games for an hour and leaves the school browser open. At nine, Bedtime winds the fun apps down but leaves calls on, and the phone gave a warning at ten to, so the game was already saved. Nobody shouted. The phone did the enforcing and you didn’t have to be the timer once. That’s the whole point of setting it up as parental control routines rather than doing it by hand every night.
Good for
- Ending the nightly “turn it off” argument
- Giving homework a clear hour to happen in
- A calm, consistent bedtime that runs itself
- Keeping lessons free of the feed
- Setting the day once and letting the phone hold it
Be realistic about
- It’s a shared agreement, not a silent lockdown
- Your child sees every window and its hours
- Very determined teens will test any limit
- Hours need nudging as timetables change
Routine questions, answered
What’s the difference between a routine and the screen-time budget?
The budget sets how much total phone time a day holds. A routine sets when the phone can be used and for what — Bedtime at night, Homework Hour after school, school time during lessons. They work together: the budget handles “how much”, routines handle “when”.
Can calls still get through during Bedtime?
Yes, if you leave them on. You choose which apps stay reachable inside each window, so calls and messages can stay live for emergencies while games, video and social wind down. The phone goes quiet without going dark.
Does a routine need the phone to be online to work?
No. Routines are enforced on the device itself, so Bedtime still starts and Homework Hour still parks the games even if the phone has dropped off Wi-Fi. Changes you make in the panel sync down when the phone next has a connection.
What is Homework Hour exactly?
It’s a focus mode for the hour after school. Games and social are parked while the apps schoolwork needs — a browser, documents, a calculator, the school’s tools — stay open. When the hour ends, the phone lifts the window on its own.
Can my child get more time if a night runs long?
Yes. Your child can send an Ask for extra time with a reason, and you tap 15, 30 or No from the panel. You can also let them earn time through chores with tasks & rewards, so a routine doesn’t have to mean the answer is always no.
Does my child know the routines are set?
Yes. FreePhoneSpy is transparent by design. Your child sees each window and its hours on their own phone, along with a Transparency screen listing what’s shared. Routines are meant to be set up openly, together.