Frequently asked questions

Finite Phone works on a Pixel 6 or newer, or a Samsung Galaxy phone, with Android 14 or newer.

We're adding Motorola phones next.

It doesn't work on iPhones, other Android phones, work phones or phones with a work profile. You keep your carrier, plan and number.

With Finite Phone, unblocking takes 48 hours, and there's no emergency pass. Most blockers can be turned off on the phone, with a pass or by uninstalling them. Android's own screen time limits can be changed or turned off in Settings at any time.

What happens if you try to get around it

Finite Phone starts with a free 30-day challenge, then costs $29 a year, plus any tax where you live. There's no other fee.

It renews each year until you cancel. We email you 30 days before each renewal. You can cancel any time on your account page.

You get 30 days of Finite Phone free, with every feature. You don't need a card.

If you don't add a card, Finite Phone comes off your phone 30 days after setup, and every app it hid comes back with its data.

To keep it, add a card on your account page before then. We email you a reminder at least 7 days before the end. We charge $29 when the challenge ends, then once a year until you cancel. You can get a full refund within 14 days of the first charge.

The challenge is once per customer. Our Terms call it the free trial.

Yes to both. Banking apps install from Google Play and work as they do on any Android phone. Finite Phone doesn't change Android itself, so their security checks still pass. Google Wallet works too, so you can tap to pay.

Your phone keeps every block, even through a restart, and nothing you asked to unblock comes back while our servers are down.

Yes. Android and its security updates come from your phone's maker as always, and Finite Phone never holds them back. Finite Phone updates itself, and Android shows its own notice when it does.

We sell Finite Phone only to customers in the United States. If you travel, it keeps working wherever your phone does.

No. Finite Phone is made for adults, 18 or older, to put on their own phone. It isn't a parental control.

Setup makes the Finite Phone app your phone's device owner, the Android role made for managing work phones. That role lets it hide apps, keep them closed during a lock, and block websites.

Your lock screen then says the phone belongs to Finite Phone, and Settings says Finite Phone manages it. Android also shows its own notice about managed phones, which no app can turn off.

What Finite Phone sees on your phone

Only a few things, on every phone. Apps installed from outside Google Play and, on a Galaxy, the Galaxy Store are hidden. So are the browsers other than Chrome that we know of. A few sites built to get around blocks won't open. The home screen's search bar searches your apps instead of the web.

Chrome's suggested articles on new tabs are off, and the Google app's Discover feed is closed. Everything else stays open until you pick it.

It's hidden, not deleted. It's off your home screen and app list and won't open, and its data stays on your phone. Its Lite version and the copies we know of are blocked with it. When you block it, you can block its website too.

If you install it again, it's hidden as soon as it's back. When it's unblocked, or Finite Phone is removed, it comes back as it was.

Yes. Finite Phone won't block, lock or limit these:

• The phone's basic apps, like phone, messages, camera and settings.
• Finite Phone, Google Play, the Google app and Chrome.
• Apps Google Play files under Finance, Medical, Health and Fitness, Maps and Navigation, or Tools.
• A short list of others, like Google Maps and password apps.

A few trading and betting apps, like Robinhood and Coinbase, can still be blocked.

Yes, in Chrome, the one browser Finite Phone leaves on the phone. You can block one site by its address, like reddit.com, or a whole list of sites. The lists are Social media, Adult sites, Gambling sites, Shows and movies, Popular news front pages, Other endless sites and Browser games.

Popular news front pages blocks the front pages of 50 big news sites and leaves their stories open.

Yes, in the Finite Phone app. Lock an app once, for 15 minutes to 24 hours, or on a schedule, like weeknights from 9 PM to 7 AM. Or give it a daily limit in minutes or opens. When that runs out, it locks until 4 AM.

Making a schedule or a limit stricter takes effect at once, and loosening one takes 48 hours. Once a lock is set, there's no early unlock, not even from us.

No. A block covers a whole app, and Finite Phone doesn't block videos inside apps.

For an app you still use, you can lock it, give it a daily limit, add a short pause before it opens, or turn it gray.

Not when the app opens the page in its own window. Website blocks apply only in Chrome, not to a page another app opens in its own window.

No, apart from the Galaxy Store on a Samsung Galaxy phone. An app you blocked is hidden as soon as it's on the phone, whichever store installed it. An app from a downloaded file won't install, and one put on over a USB cable is hidden.

Tap Unblock on anything you've blocked, in the Finite Phone app. It comes back 48 hours later, even on your first day. Until then, you can keep it blocked.

An hour before, your phone shows a notification with a Keep it blocked button. If it would come back between 10 PM and 9 AM, the notification comes at 9 PM the evening before.

Yes. Unblock it in the Finite Phone app, and its sites open 48 hours later. You can also unblock one site on a list and keep the rest blocked.

The wait is still 48 hours. A lock doesn't end early. There's no emergency pass or code, and we won't shorten a wait if you write to us. So don't block or lock an app you'd need in an emergency.

Finite Phone won't block your phone's own Phone and Messages apps, maps or banking apps, and it never blocks emergency calls.

How removal works

There's no off switch on the phone. You remove Finite Phone on your account page. It comes off the phone 48 hours later. You can change your mind any time before then. A factory reset also removes it right away, and erases everything on the phone.

We won't shorten the 48 hours, even if you write to us.

Cancelling your subscription is separate. It stops the renewal. If you add a card and then cancel, Finite Phone comes off the phone 48 hours after your challenge or paid year ends.

In your first 24 hours after setup, removal doesn't wait 48 hours. It usually happens within 15 minutes, or right away if you open the Finite Phone app.

A factory reset erases the whole phone, Finite Phone included, and what's left is an ordinary Android phone. A reset doesn't cancel your subscription. To put Finite Phone back, run setup again from your account page with a USB cable.

From a computer, with your phone on its USB cable. Go to finitephone.com/install in Chrome or Edge, on Windows, Mac or a Chromebook. Enter your email and the code we send you, then follow the steps. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes. The cable has to carry data, not only charge.

Android lets an app manage a phone that's already set up only from a computer. Every other way needs a freshly reset phone.

Your free 30-day challenge starts the day the phone is set up, and you don't need a card.

Setup checks the phone's model and Android version, lists your accounts so you can sign out of them, installs the Finite Phone app, and lists your apps so you can pick what to block. Before it blocks anything, it shows you everything it will block. Then it makes Finite Phone the phone's device owner and restarts the phone. It doesn't open your messages, photos or files.

The setup page does only what setup needs, and only while it's open. It reaches your phone over the cable, after you allow it on the phone, and it runs from my.finitephone.com in your own browser.

When it finishes, it turns off USB debugging and Developer options, so nothing reaches the phone over the cable until you turn them on again.

Your list of accounts stays in your browser. The names of your apps reach our server once, to check which can be blocked, and we don't keep them with your account.

Android won't let an app manage a phone while any account is signed in, including the ones apps make for themselves, like WhatsApp's. The setup page lists each one and shows how to remove it.

A few apps sign out only when you uninstall them, so you reinstall those and restore them from their own backup. Then you sign back in to Google, so have your password ready, and another way to confirm it's you, like a backup code.

No. Setup never wipes the phone, and your photos and text messages stay on it.

Signing out can still cost a few things. Google Wallet deletes a digital car key when the Google account is removed. Passkeys and authenticator codes that aren't synced may not come back. Back up the phone first, and check that anything you rely on is synced.

What signing out can affect

No. Setup won't finish while the phone has a work profile, a private space, a Secure Folder, a guest or a second user. It names the one it finds and shows how to remove it. A phone your employer manages won't work.

Cancel any time on your account page, at my.finitephone.com. Cancelling stops the renewal. You keep Finite Phone until your challenge or paid year ends. Removing Finite Phone is separate, and doesn't cancel your subscription.

How removal works

If you cancel during the challenge, you're never charged. After the challenge, you can get a full refund within 14 days of your first payment. Email support@finitephone.com, and you don't need to give a reason. This applies once per customer.

A refund ends your subscription, and Finite Phone comes off the phone 48 hours later. In your first 24 hours after setup, it usually comes off within 15 minutes.

No. One subscription covers one phone, and it doesn't work on tablets or computers. To move to a new phone, remove Finite Phone from the old one, or tell setup you no longer have it, then set up the new one.

We receive your blocks and settings and a few facts about the phone. We never see your browsing, and we don't receive your contacts, messages, photos, what you do inside your apps, or how much you use them. Finite Phone doesn't use Android's accessibility access, which lets an app read your screen.

• At setup: the phone's model, a one-way code made from its serial number, and your first block list. App names reach us once, to check which can be blocked, and aren't kept with your account.
• About every 15 minutes: which version of your blocks and settings the phone is using, and, for each app you blocked, whether it's on the phone and hidden.
• When you change something in the app: the change.
• Once a day: a report on how the app is running.

Your minutes and opens stay on the phone. Your other apps and Google still collect what they always have.