Hold distracting iPhone apps at prayer times

Set up your first prayer-time hold

Start with the apps that interrupt your prayer routine. Sutrah applies a shield to your selection; it does not block every app on your phone. Your location and calculation settings determine when the prayer windows begin.

1. Open Sutrah and set your city or coordinates in the prayer settings.
2. Open Focus and allow the Screen Time permission when iOS asks.
3. Tap Choose apps and categories, make your selection, and confirm it in Apple's picker.
4. Turn on Hold apps at each adhan. Choose the prayers and hold duration offered in your installed version.
5. Check the Prayer screen to confirm the timetable before relying on the schedule.

Choose scheduled prayer holds or a focus session

A prayer-time hold starts around a selected prayer's calculated time and lasts for your chosen window. It can help create a pause between the adhan and returning to distracting apps. The app does not detect whether you have prayed.

Deep focus starts when you choose. The available session lengths run from 15 to 120 minutes. Before starting, decide whether you want a normal session with an early break or strict mode, which removes Sutrah's early-end and Quran-unlock options until that session ends.

Use a Quran or dhikr gate for a timed break

When a selected app is held, use the shield's Open Sutrah action and follow the unlock flow. A Quran gate offers a reading target of 2, 5 or 10 minutes, with a break of 15, 30 or 60 minutes. Focus contains the settings for those durations.

The alternative dhikr gate uses a 100-count tasbih flow. When the chosen gate is completed, the selected apps open for the configured break. The reader timer and counter support your routine; they do not assess recitation, understanding or prayer completion. Strict sessions do not offer these early unlocks. Check the in-app Sutrah Pro screen for any unlock limits that apply to your version.

Understand Screen Time permission and its limits

Sutrah uses Apple's Family Controls and Managed Settings frameworks. You authorize access and choose the apps through Apple's picker; iOS applies the shield. A schedule can continue through the system's device-activity extension when the main app is closed.

This is a personal focus tool. You retain control of Screen Time permission in iPhone Settings, and removing that permission can remove the holds. Strict mode describes the controls inside Sutrah; it is not a promise that iPhone restrictions cannot be bypassed. Keep essential communication tools outside your selection.

If a selected app is not being held

Check the permission, selection and timetable together. A missing location, a disabled prayer or an expired break can explain behavior that looks like a failed schedule.

1. Confirm Sutrah has Screen Time access in iPhone Settings.
2. Open Focus and confirm the intended app or category is still selected.
3. Check that prayer-time holds are enabled and the relevant prayer is selected.
4. Confirm the city, prayer time and hold duration. A hold applies during its window, not throughout the day.
5. Open Sutrah after restarting your phone or changing your location. If the issue continues, contact support with your iPhone model, iOS version and the affected prayer or session.

Questions, answered

Further help

• Official Sutrah App Store listing
• Sutrah support
• Sutrah privacy policy