Interactive tour · Kids mode
Hand over the phone, not the internet
Kids mode is a second home screen with only the apps you allow, a time cap, a grey screen and a slow touch. Scroll to watch it set itself up. Leaving it needs your PIN.
Turn it on once
Settings → Family → Kids mode. Everything below is set up in about a minute, and remembered for next time.
Choose a parent PIN
Four digits, entered twice. It is the only way out of kids mode, and your fingerprint works too. Three wrong tries lock the screen for a while.
Allow a few apps
Pick what the child may open. Nothing else is reachable: no browser, no store, no feeds, no chats.
Set the time
A cap per go and a cap per day. An optional window turns kids mode on by itself, say weekend mornings.
Hand it over
Tap Kid mode on your home screen and pass the phone. The child sees a clock, the minutes left and four plain names. In black and white.
Slow touch
Quick taps do nothing. Opening anything takes a held touch of about three seconds, which stops frantic tapping and makes the phone a calm thing, not a slot machine.
A dull scratch pad
Drawing is allowed, in shades of grey. It is there to be boring enough to put down and interesting enough for the car.
When time is up
The clock reaches zero and the apps go quiet. More time needs a parent, so the phone comes back to you instead of the argument.
Leaving needs you
Hold the clock, enter your PIN. A wrong PIN counts down the tries. The right one brings back your own home screen, in colour.
Scroll to move through the steps
Built for the restaurant, the car and the waiting room
Kids mode is not a parental-control suite. It is the smallest thing that makes your own phone safe to hand over for half an hour: a short list of apps, a clock the child can see, and a way back that only you have.
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