Screen time for families

Screen time in view, to protect your child

Schirmziit shows how long and at what time of day your child’s phone is used, so you notice when it becomes too much and can talk about it. No content, no location, no remote control.

Self-host it Hosted version

Not just how much, but when

An hour at 11pm means something different from an hour after lunch. So Schirmziit draws the day as a ribbon from midnight to midnight — you read the shape of the day at a glance.

How it works

A small app runs on the child’s phone. It reads the usage statistics Android keeps anyway.
About every 30 minutes it sends hourly figures to your server — with no internet the figures wait on the phone.
You look at them in the browser, or in the iPhone app.

What Schirmziit measures

Which app was in the foreground and for how long — per hour.
How often the phone was unlocked.
What time of day the phone was used.

What Schirmziit never collects

No messages, chats, searches, photos or keystrokes.
No location.
No websites and no videos that were watched.
No microphone or camera recordings.
Nothing is blocked — Schirmziit never switches an app off.

The child sees the same numbers

Your dashboard shows the last 14 days at a glance; tap any one of them to see it hour by hour. The app on the child’s phone shows exactly the same — the same 14 days, the same day in detail, the same numbers. It stays a shared basis for a conversation rather than a check running in the background.

Devices

What works today — and what does not.

Android

Complete: per-app time per hour, unlocks, the shape of the day. Android 8 and newer. Installed as an APK today, not in the Play Store yet.

iPhone

Both roles run on iPhone: the dashboard for parents, and now a view for the child too. An iPhone is measured as well — for that the app needs Apple’s Screen Time access, which Apple grants per app. It holds for our own test devices; for distribution through TestFlight or the App Store the approval is still outstanding. iOS 17 and newer.

What runs where

Today’s state, row by row. “Not yet” means planned or blocked — the note says which.

Feature	Android phone	iPhone	Dashboard in the browser
Measuring on the child’s phone
Per-app time, per hour	works	works	not intended here
What time of day the phone was used	works	works	not intended here
UnlocksiOS has no unlock count. What is counted is how often the phone was picked up — the closest honest equivalent.	works	partly	not intended here
Audio in the background, screen offOn Android only if you allow notification access; iOS does not expose it. This time is never counted as screen time.	partly	not yet	not intended here
App names instead of package namesiOS withholds some names, and then the app’s identifier is shown.	works	partly	not intended here
With no internet the figures wait on the phone	works	works	not intended here
Installable without a developer machineAndroid: an APK, signed with the project’s release key, but no Play Store yet — so updates are not automatic. iPhone: TestFlight and the App Store need Apple’s approval for distribution, which is still outstanding.	partly	not yet	not intended here
Looking at it
Parent and child role in one appThe Android app is for the child’s phone only.	works	works	not intended here
The last fourteen days at a glance	works	works	works
One day, hour by hour	works	works	works
Last week against the week beforeScreen time and evenings from 21:00, plus the apps that moved. Seven finished days: the day you are in is not compared, because it is not over.	works	works	works
The child sees the same numbers on their own phone	works	works	not intended here
Add and remove a child	works	works	works
Disconnect a phone	works	works	works
Create a connect code for a child’s phoneShown as a QR code and as six characters, in the dashboard and in both phone apps. The child’s phone scans the code, or someone types the six characters and the server address.	works	works	works
Connect by scanning the codeBoth phone apps read the square themselves. Scanning fills in the address and the code; connecting is still a press, because a code is valid once.	works	works	not intended here
Delete a child’s stored figuresDeletes hourly figures and daily totals and says how many rows went. The child stays connected and keeps reporting.	works	works	works
Help and the Swiss advice services	works	works	works
German, French, Italian, English	works	works	works

works partly not yet not intended here

Two ways

Self-hosting

For you if you already run a server or a Raspberry Pi.

Two containers: Schirmziit and Postgres.
The data stays on your hardware, in your database.
Updates, backups and TLS are yours to handle.
Free, with no account with us.

Self-hosting

Hosted (private alpha)

For you if you do not want to run a server.

We run it — for now on our own homelab in Switzerland.
Data sits in Switzerland, not at a hyperscaler.
Free during the alpha, with limited places.
You can switch to self-hosting whenever you like; it is the same software.

Hosted

Help and guidance

Schirmziit shows numbers, not advice. How much screen time makes sense, and what helps when it turns into an argument, is better explained by these Swiss organisations:

Jugend und Medien

The federal platform for media skills: age guidance, house rules, parent leaflets (DE/FR/IT).

Pro Juventute — screen time

Concrete guide values per age and tips for agreements within the family.

Counselling 147

Free, round-the-clock counselling for children and teenagers by phone, chat or SMS.

Zischtig.ch

Swiss specialists in media skills: parents’ evenings, courses, one-to-one advice.

Free and checkable

Schirmziit is open source. You can read what gets sent, and host it yourself — including if we ever stop.

Waiting list

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