Support

How do I start?

Onboarding walks you through it: pick the kinds of challenges you want, pick a difficulty, pick the apps to block, and turn on what your phone needs for the blocking: Screen Time access on iPhone, Usage access and Display over other apps on Android.

Which apps can I block?

iPhone: almost any app, using Apple's own Screen Time picker. Apple hands YoloIt an opaque token — we never see which apps you chose, only how many.

Android: almost any app you can launch from your home screen. YoloIt shows you the list and you tick the ones to block. YoloIt itself and built-in system apps that have never been updated, such as Settings, are not listed.

How does the blocking actually work?

On iPhone, YoloIt uses Apple's Screen Time system. Blocked apps show a YoloIt shield instead of opening. The button on the shield closes the app and returns you to the Home Screen — Apple does not allow a shield to open another app, so you tap YoloIt yourself from there.

On Android, YoloIt watches which app is in the foreground and draws a full-screen YoloIt screen over a blocked one. A permanent notification tells you the blocking service is running — that is how Android requires us to be honest about a service that keeps running while you use other apps (a foreground service), not something you did wrong.

How do I earn and spend minutes?

Open YoloIt, tap Yolo it on Home, and you get a challenge. Do it, then tap I YOLO’d it. Easy challenges earn 3 minutes, Medium ones 5 and Bold ones 7.

The minutes land in your balance half the challenge’s time after its card first appeared, and never before you tap. An Easy challenge’s 3 minutes land 1 minute 30 seconds after you first saw it; if you took longer than that, they land the moment you tap. Until then they show as “on the way”, and minutes on the way land one after another. Tap before you’ve done it and the minutes still come, but History marks that YOLO as doubtful.

Then tap Unlock, choose how long, and press and hold to unlock: your blocked apps open, and the minutes are used up only while you actually use them, not by the clock. When they are used up the block comes back on its own, even if you close YoloIt, swipe it away or restart your phone. On Android, Force stop in YoloIt’s App info stops blocking until you open YoloIt again.

What are the free plan’s limits?

The free plan blocks one app (on iPhone, one app, one whole category like Social, or one website). Each day, five challenges earn minutes and you can draw a different challenge three times. Your balance holds up to 30 minutes, and one unlock lasts up to 30 minutes. You can keep up to three challenges saved for later, and they count toward the same limits. History shows your last 7 days.

YoloIt Premium removes the daily limits, blocks as many apps as you like, and adds goal and difficulty changes after setup, your full history, and Progress with stats and streaks.

What plans are there?

YoloIt Premium is a yearly subscription, with 7 days free for eligible new subscribers, or a monthly one. If you close the subscription screen while you are on the free plan, YoloIt may offer you, once, your first year at an introductory price, paid up front, after which it renews at the normal yearly price. The App Store or Google Play shows every price before you confirm, and charges your store account. Every plan renews automatically until you cancel.

How do I cancel?

Cancel any time in your store account. Deleting YoloIt does not cancel a subscription.

• iPhone: open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions. Choose YoloIt and tap Cancel Subscription. Apple’s help: Cancel a subscription from Apple.
• Android: open Google Play, tap your profile picture, then Payments & subscriptions, then Subscriptions. Choose YoloIt and tap Cancel subscription. Google’s help: Cancel, pause, or change a subscription on Google Play.

While you have a subscription or a trial, Profile → Manage subscription in YoloIt opens the same page. To avoid being charged after a free trial, cancel the subscription before the trial ends (on the App Store, at least 24 hours before); with notifications on, YoloIt reminds you two days before. After you cancel, Premium stays until the end of the period you paid for.

How do I get Premium back on a new phone?

Make sure the phone is signed in to the same Apple Account or Google account you bought with (in the phone’s settings or Google Play, not in YoloIt), then open YoloIt and tap Restore purchases in Profile. It is on the subscription screen too.

How do I get a refund?

Refunds go through the store you bought from. This does not limit your rights under consumer law.

• App Store: Apple handles refunds. Request one at reportaproblem.apple.com. Apple’s help: Request a refund for apps or content that you bought from Apple.
• Google Play: request one through Google Play. Google’s help: Request a refund on Google Play. We can also refund a Google Play purchase ourselves, so write to support@yoloit.app if Google sends you to us, for example more than 48 hours after you bought.

How do I turn the blocking off?

Any of these, whenever you like. YoloIt is a self-control tool, not a lock someone else put on you.

• Clear your block list in the app. Nothing is blocked any more.
• Withdraw the permission. On iPhone: Settings → Screen Time, and remove YoloIt's access. On Android: Settings → Apps → Special app access → Usage access, and → Display over other apps.
• Uninstall YoloIt. Everything goes with it, including the block.

There is no password, no accountability partner and nothing we can do to stop you.

My apps stayed blocked after I unlocked them

Open YoloIt once — that is usually enough. If it persists on iPhone, clear your block list in Profile and re-add the apps you want blocked. If on Android your blocked apps open freely instead, that is the opposite problem: see the battery setting for your phone. Still stuck? Write to support@yoloit.app with your Support code.

I did not get my daily reminder

The daily reminder is on by default — you can turn it off, or change its time, in Profile. It needs notification permission, which your phone asks for once. If you declined, re-enable notifications for YoloIt in your phone's settings.

What does YoloIt know about me?

Almost everything is on your phone and stays there: your challenges, your history, your minute balance, your settings, your answers to the setup questions and your block list. There is no account and no profile of you on a server. Crash reports go to Google Firebase so we can keep the app working; they are not tied to your name or an account. The App Store and Google Play versions send no usage measurements: only some early test versions do, and every newer version has them switched off. A store version sends a technical bug log only if we invited you and you turn on Help fix bugs in Profile → About. Full detail in the privacy policy.

Where do I find my Support code?

In YoloIt, open Profile → About and tap the Support code row to copy it. Put it in your email to us. It lets us find your bug log, if you turned on Help fix bugs, and anything our team set for your phone, and it is the only way we can link either of them to you. The “Get help” button in the blocking setup, and on Home when blocking needs attention, writes it into the email for you. It changes if you reset the app or reinstall it. Earlier test versions call it the tester code.

On iPhone, can YoloIt see which apps I blocked?

No. Apple's Screen Time framework hands the app an opaque token per app — a meaningless identifier only iOS can resolve. The YoloIt app can count them but cannot read them. The block screen does show the blocked app’s name: iOS gives that name only to the small part of YoloIt that draws the block screen, which never records it. YoloIt never reads your Screen Time statistics — not what you opened, not how long. While an unlock is running it only asks iOS to say when the apps you unlocked have been in use for another minute, so the minutes are used up by actual use; iOS answers only “another minute”, never which app.

On Android, what does Usage access let YoloIt see?

YoloIt only looks at which app is in the foreground right now and compares it with your own block list. Which app it was is never written to disk, never logged and never sent anywhere; YoloIt’s technical log notes only whether the app in front was one you block.

How do I delete my data?

Inside the app: Profile → Reset all data, then press and hold Hold to reset. It clears your settings, your setup answers, your minute balance, your completed challenges, your saved challenges, your chosen categories and your block list, and cancels your reminder. It also turns Help fix bugs off and gives you a new Support code. It does not cancel a subscription, and a debug log you turned on yourself stays on your phone until you clear it. A reset deletes nothing that was already sent to us or to Google Firebase: for that, see “Data we hold” below.

Completely: uninstall YoloIt. Everything it stored on your phone goes with it. On iPhone, an iCloud or computer backup made earlier may still hold a copy.

Data we hold: for a bug log, anything our team set for your phone, or any other data request, write to privacy@yoloit.app, with your Support code if you have it. Copy the code before you reset or uninstall, because both replace it. Crash reports are not filed under the Support code, so we may not be able to tell which are yours; if so, we will tell you.

Do I need an account?

No. This version has no sign-in at all.

The setup sends me to a Settings screen and I can’t find YoloIt

Both switches live in long alphabetical lists, so YoloIt is near the bottom. Scroll all the way down and turn on the switch next to YoloIt (on some phones you tap YoloIt first, then the switch), then press back.

If the setup’s button opened the wrong place, the written paths are Settings → Apps → the three dots → Special access → Display over other apps → YoloIt, and the same for Usage access. On Samsung phones they are called Appear on top and Usage data access. If there are no three dots, look for Special app access at the bottom of Apps. Typing the switch’s name into the search bar at the top of Settings also finds it.

The switch is greyed out

On Android 13 and later, Android can lock these switches for apps installed from outside Google Play. Open YoloIt’s App info (press and hold its icon → App info), tap the three dots at the top right, tap Allow restricted settings, then go back to the switch. Installing YoloIt from Google Play avoids this altogether.

Blocking works at first, then stops after a while

Your phone put YoloIt to sleep to save battery. YoloIt notices, restarts blocking the next time you open it, and shows a card that opens the right setting. If it keeps happening, set YoloIt’s battery use to Unrestricted and, on some makers, allow it to start on its own. The menus move between versions: if a name below is not on your phone, open YoloIt’s App info and look under Battery.

Both switches are on, but a blocked app opens anyway

Some phones need one more permission before an app may draw over another. On Xiaomi, Redmi and POCO phones, open YoloIt’s App info → Other permissions and allow Display pop-up windows while running in the background. On other phones, look in YoloIt’s App info for any setting about pop-up or floating windows and allow it. Then open YoloIt once and try the blocked app again.

Home says “Blocking is paused”

One of the two switches was turned off: by you, by a phone update or by a cleaning app. Tap the card’s button (Turn on usage access, Turn on display over other apps or Turn both back on) and it takes you to the switch. While YoloIt is closed, the same message appears as a notification, if you allow YoloIt’s notifications.

An app I want to block is not in the list

YoloIt lists the apps on your main profile, except YoloIt itself and built-in system apps that have never been updated, such as Settings. Apps inside Secure Folder, a work profile or a Dual Messenger copy (a second WhatsApp or Instagram) are separate apps that YoloIt cannot see or block. Websites are not blocked either: if you open Instagram in Chrome, block Chrome too.

Apple’s Screen Time popup does not show, or I tapped Don’t Allow

Open Settings → Screen Time, scroll down to Apps with Screen Time Access, and turn on YoloIt. If Screen Time itself is off, turn it on first (Settings → Screen Time → Turn On Screen Time). Then open YoloIt and tap Try again, or go to Profile → Blocked apps → Turn on blocking.

YoloIt says ‘Ask your family organiser’

Your iPhone does not allow Screen Time changes right now. That happens when a Screen Time passcode or Content & Privacy Restrictions are set (Settings → Screen Time), or when a family organiser or your employer manages the device. Lift the restriction, or ask whoever manages Screen Time to allow YoloIt. YoloIt cannot do this for you, and it never sees who set the restriction.

My apps did not lock again when the minutes ran out

The block comes back on its own, even with YoloIt closed. If it did not, open YoloIt once: it puts the block back, and shows a card if Screen Time access was switched off meanwhile (Settings → Screen Time → Apps with Screen Time Access → YoloIt). If this happens more than once, write to us with your Support code and the time it happened.

The website version of a blocked app still works

Apple’s picker blocks apps; a website is blocked only if you pick it too. In Profile → Blocked apps, open the picker and add it under Websites, or block Safari as an app.

1. Your Support code (Profile → About, tap the row to copy it). It lets us find your bug log, if you turned on Help fix bugs, and anything our team set for your phone. Without it we are guessing.

2. Your phone model and Android or iOS version. Settings → About phone on Android; Settings → General → About on iPhone.

3. A screenshot of the screen you were stuck on, and what you tapped just before it. Crop out or cover anything private first, such as notifications or messages.

The Get help button in the app writes the first one into an email for you. From here, Report a problem opens an email ready to fill in; attach the screenshot yourself.

I lost my minutes and streak after reinstalling

YoloIt keeps everything on your phone and sends none of it to us, so deleting and reinstalling the app starts fresh, and we cannot recover it for you. On iPhone, restoring the whole phone from an iCloud or computer backup made before you deleted YoloIt may bring it back. Premium is not lost: tap Restore purchases in Profile.

The app crashes

Update to the latest version first. If it still crashes, email us with your phone model, your Android or iOS version, your Support code and what you were doing.

Challenges repeat too often

Your choice of goals and difficulty narrows the pool. With Premium you can widen either in Profile → Goals or Profile → Difficulty; on the free plan they stay as you set them during setup, so use your three re-draws a day, or Profile → Reset all data to start over from setup.