block-websites-and-apps-on-android header

How to Block Websites and Apps on Android

Answer Summary

Here's the honest answer most pages bury: Android (and Chrome on Android) has no built-in way to block a single website. Digital Wellbeing can put time limits on apps and sites, but a limit isn't a block. To truly block a site you'll use Family Link, a Private DNS, or a third-party app.

Key Takeaways

  • Android has no native single-site blocker; only time limits via Digital Wellbeing.
  • To truly block a site: Family Link (a child's device), a Private DNS, or a third-party app like BlockSite.
  • Digital Wellbeing's site “timers” are Chrome-only and reset at midnight.

Let's be straight about this one, because most guides aren't: Android doesn't have a built-in switch to block a single website, and neither does Chrome for Android. What it has is time limits; useful, but not the same thing. Here's what actually works.

Step by step

  1. Limit apps (Digital Wellbeing): Settings → Digital Wellbeing & parental controls → App timers → tap Set timer next to an app → choose time (the app closes when time's up; timers reset at midnight).
  2. Focus mode: Settings → Digital Wellbeing & parental controls → Focus mode → choose apps to pause → Turn on now or Set a schedule.
  3. Truly block a site (options): Google Family Link (manage a child's device); or Private DNS (Settings → Network & Internet → Private DNS) for category-level filtering; or a third-party app (BlockSite, AppBlock) that covers all browsers.
  4. Family Link site block: Family Link app → select child → Controls → Google Chrome and web → choose a filter, or under Manage sites → Approved/Blocked sites → Add a website.

Good to know

So to be clear: Digital Wellbeing's site “timers” are time limits, not blocks, and they only apply to Chrome. And Family Link turns off Incognito on the device it manages.

If the real goal is a quieter night, the simplest fix skips software entirely: charge the phone in another room and keep a clock by the bed. More in the full guide.
R Blank
Written by R Blank Founder & CEO of Shield Your Body, author of Empowered, and host of The Healthier Tech Podcast

R Blank is the founder of Shield Your Body and the author of Empowered: A Practical Guide to Protecting Yourself from EMF. He spent years thinking about the devices we keep closest, and what they quietly ask of us in return. Then he put his own phone down, and found clarity, stillness, and the sense of being present in his own life again on the other side. In 2024 he brought Bagby into the Shield Your Body family, to help more people find their way back to the same.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions