minulo is an iPhone app that opens Instagram without Reels and YouTube without Shorts, so you can keep your messages after studying and stop the feeds before bed, and hiding is free. It can also lock the official apps at bedtime, free for up to 2 hours per block. You close the textbook, lie down "for five minutes", and Reels or Shorts take the rest of the evening. You can't just switch the phone off, because the class group chat and your friends are on Instagram. (I'm the developer of minulo.)
The iPhone and YouTube facts below come from Apple's iPhone User Guide and YouTube Help, as summarized on minulo.app and checked between October 23 and 25, 2026. Menu names can change with updates. This is about settings, not medical advice.
Why the evening after study is the risky part
While you study, there's a reason to keep the phone away. Once you stop, that reason is gone, the phone is in your hand, and the feed has no end. In minulo's own anonymous usage data, most social media sessions happen between 8 pm and 1 am (Japan time, where most of the data comes from). So the settings below are for the hours after the books close.
What iPhone and YouTube offer, and where they stop
A Focus for studying
A Focus lets you choose which people and apps can notify you, and switch to a Home Screen page without social apps. It's useful while you study. But it only filters notifications. If you open Instagram yourself, it opens, Reels included.
Downtime with Block at Downtime
- Open Settings, tap Screen Time, then Always Allowed, and add the messaging apps you need at night.
- Tap Downtime, then Scheduled, and set times, for example 11 PM to 7 AM.
- Set a Screen Time passcode and turn on Block at Downtime. Without it, you only see a reminder.
On iOS 27 the same idea is called Screen Time Schedule. The catch is that it works on whole apps: Instagram DMs stop with Reels. If a family member sets the passcode, you can't switch it off half asleep.
Sleep schedule and Sleep Focus
In the Health app, set a sleep schedule and a wind down time, anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 hours before bedtime. Sleep Focus starts with wind down. It filters notifications and calls, but it doesn't stop apps from opening.
YouTube's bedtime reminder and Shorts feed limit
In YouTube, tap your profile picture, then Settings, then General, and turn on Remind me when it's bedtime. You can close the reminder or tap Remind Me Again for another one in 15 minutes. The Shorts feed limit (You, Settings, Time management) can be set to 0, but it applies all day and you can dismiss it. Neither removes Shorts.
The same evening, with minulo
A note before the steps: I'm Ayumu Kitabayashi, and I build minulo, so this part is the developer describing his own app.
- Install minulo, tap Add a service and add Instagram and YouTube.
- Tap the gear next to YouTube and turn on Hide the Shorts shelf, Hide the Shorts tab and Send Shorts links to the normal player. Normal videos, Subscriptions and search stay.
- Tap the gear next to Instagram and turn on Reels and Explore tabs. If you only need messages at night, turn on Every tab but DMs. Hiding is free.
- When you get into bed, open the Block tab and lock the official Instagram, TikTok or YouTube apps with Screen Time. A free block lasts up to 2 hours. Tapping a locked icon shows a block screen with Open in minulo.
- If you also use Downtime, add minulo to Always Allowed so you can still answer the group chat.
With minulo Pro, Sleep mode starts by itself every night at the time you set. During Sleep mode, social media won't open even in minulo. You pick the apps you still need in Apps allowed in Sleep mode, and you can skip a single night.
A simple evening could look like this: study ends, you reply to the group chat in minulo where there are no Reels, you start a block when you lie down, and the phone charges on the desk.
Five limits of minulo
- The official apps don't change. Reels and Shorts are hidden only inside minulo.
- Free locks last up to 2 hours. You start each one yourself, and you can start another when it ends.
- Nightly schedules are Pro. Sleep mode, blocks longer than 2 hours, Hard Mode and multiple block lists are part of minulo Pro.
- No notifications while an app is locked. A locked official app sends no notifications, and minulo sends none of its own. On a night you're waiting for a message in that app, leave it unlocked.
- It's an iPhone app, with a Mac version too. The Mac version works in Safari and Chrome. There is no Android version yet.
Posting Stories, voice messages and calls aren't available in minulo, and it is new, with few ratings so far.
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