App Limits: can the time be spread throughout the day?

ShoobyDoobyDoo wrote:

I normally use it on my Mac via Safari and I’m closing out the tab (but not quitting the browser). There is some kind of process registering on screen time in the background though, as App & Website Activity shows more than 30 hours of daily screen time (which isn’t even possible). Unfortunately it just shows a grey bar which does not indicate which website or app is running, but I wonder if that has anything to do with this issue.

Huh, that's certainly not right. No idea why it'd be registering an impossible amount of screen time.

You might try, for a day, quitting Safari after using it and see if the Screen Time records accurately.

ShoobyDoobyDoo wrote:

I’m trying to limit my use of Instagram, so I set an App Limit for 5 minutes a day thinking I could divide that time throughout the day, using it for one minute in the morning, two minutes during midday, and two minutes at night. When I visited the Instagram website at 11 this morning, I used it for just one minute, figuring I could use the other four minutes later in the day. However, when I went back at 1 PM, I was greeted by the Time Limit screen, indicating that App Limits appear to function as a kind of timer wherein when the app or website is opened for the first time, that five minutes is counted down even when it is not in use.

If there is not a setting to allow Screen Time to limit app/website usage cumulatively throughout the day rather than a one-and-done timer, Apple would do well to include it in a future version of macOS and iOS.

Closing the app/website should stop the timer, as far as I'm aware. Are you closing the app/website entirely or just closing your device/switching apps? With a time limit of just five minutes, it's possible it's running in the background for a bit even if you aren't actively using it.