Apple's Screentime: Parent's Best Friend? Frankenstein's Software Monster?

Happy Weekend Folks. I promise my next post will be more than just complaints but apparently I'm on a tear.?

Today, Apple's Screentime

Any parents here? Please do tell me how well Screentime works for you. For me, it's a total nightmare.

I’m not going to get into the merits and flaws of kids with screens here. You know what I’m talking about. I’m going to focus on Screentime’s general usability and robustness as a product.?

And, before, I talk about its flaws I'd like to offer a few of my bonafides.

• I've been using Apple products since 1980.?
• I've owned hundreds of Macs.?
• I co-founded Method, one of the seminal UX design firms.?
• I used to sell Macs in the Bay Area, I sold one to Steve Jobs while I was working at Computer Attic in Redwood City.?
• I've done IT work, managed IT, been the guy who does all of the troubleshooting.?
• All of that aside, I think I can assert that I'm basically technically competent and know something about design and UX

Some of the surprising decisions Apple has made about Screentime.?

• That an app for user and device management should get shoved into settings. Settings that are generally intended to be for managing a device be it a Mac or iOS device.?
• User privileges should be inside said app inside settings
• That websites and apps can have multiple duplicative limits applied to them? Are they additive, does the most restrictive apply, maybe the least? I have no idea.
• App Usage, Pickups, Notifications are separate sections but basically show the same infographic with related data - why are these separate whereas Content & Privacy has everything and the kitchen sink shoved together? Is there any logic because it's beyond me.?
• Despite being iCloud synced none of this is accessible via iCloud on the web.?
• The only option for passwords are 4 digit numbers. Maybe Screentime runs on top of a late 80s era ATM machine.

Ok, so there are some weird interface issues at play. Maybe the product folks are trying to build a unified product on top of disparate systems. Maybe something else is at play. Certainly it’s a big company and often building good products requires working across the organization which makes things like good design as much about organizational alignment as anything.?

With all of that said I could live with the weird choices and bad organization if it actually worked. Go to some forums; reddit, apple’s own, FB parent groups, etc. they are full of many thousands of people with exactly the same issues. I’m not talking about people not understanding how to use the tools to manage their kids use, not problems resolveable by repeatedable troubleshooting routines, not even problems solved with witchdoctery, chicken blood, or other magic practices. Stuff that just randomly doesn’t work and that hasn’t worked for many years. There are many posts on apple’s own support forums going back five years with the exact same issues people are dealing with today.?

Here are just a few examples of what doesn’t work:

• Screentime limits don’t seem to apply to all apps. Some simply continue to be usable despite having limits and the system even showing that the limits have been exceeded. Youtube is a good example
• Limits that deleted often re-appear. Sometimes minutes later, sometimes days later
• When website access is limited to approved sites many services critical for the system to work, including Apple’s own, need to be approved by parents to work. Sometimes every single time the computer is used, sometimes every few minutes. Maybe this is a sync thing related to the previous issue.
• Requests for more time often vanish into the ether
• Approvals for more time often vanish into the ether
• Downtime works sometimes and sometimes it doesn’t

Apple occasionally posts recommendations but they are mostly of the “turn it off and back on” variety. Delete your preferences, reset your device, do everything all over again. BURNING IT WITH FIRE would likely work better. I, for one, am ready to trash these glowing square fruits in favor of some green robots.

Also, while it’s an aside Apple has had pretty decent remote device management tools for decades. Apple’s mobile device management (MDM) framework is pretty robust and there are lots of tools out there. Why doesn’t Screentime make use of any of this??

Clearly I could rave on forever here. Instead I’ll wrap it up. Apple please stop punishing parents who are trying to use your ecosystem with their families. You have both the product design and technical capabilities to make Screentime work well. You’ve had plenty of time to fix it but instead you just carry the problems forward year after year. Oh, and you’ve made it harder for 3rd parrties to develop their own solutions. Sherlocking them would be less offensive if you actually did it and had a decent product of your own.

Ok, rant off.