Need a hand?
How to set up HomeRules, and answers to what parents ask most. Question not here? Just email us.
How to set it up
On your child's phoneYou hold it. About 2 minutes.
- Install HomeRules on your child's phone. With Family Sharing it's in the App Store under Purchased. If Ask to Buy is on, you approve it.
- Open HomeRules and tap Start. Choose My child's.
- Type your child's name.
- Allow Screen Time access. Apple asks for your Apple Account. That way your child can't remove HomeRules on their own.
- Pick the apps that lock. Pick Social, Games and Entertainment, and new apps are included too.
- Switch on the house rules that suit your family, with their times. Bedtime and Dinner are already on.
- Choose a six digit PIN, twice. Don't use a birthday.
- Allow notifications for the heads-up five minutes before.
- Link with your phone: scan the QR code your phone shows. Or do it later in Settings.
On your phoneAbout 30 seconds.
- Install HomeRules on your own iPhone and tap Start.
- Choose Mine. I'm the parent.
- Tap Link a child and type your child's name. You see a QR code. Don't show it to anyone else.
- Scan it with your child's phone. See the same four digit check number on both? Then you're linked.
- Your child asks for more time? Tap your child, pick +15 min, +30 min, +1 hour, +2 hours or Free until it ends, and confirm with Face ID.
Questions
How do I set up a child account in Family Sharing?
On your iPhone: open Settings and tap Family. On older iOS versions it's under your name, in Family Sharing. Tap Add Member and choose Create Child Account. If your child already has an Apple Account, invite it. Then sign in on your child's phone with that account.
If your child is too old for a child account in your country, HomeRules runs in light mode.
What is light mode?
If your child isn't a child account in your Family Sharing, HomeRules runs in light mode. Rules and codes work the same, but your child can switch HomeRules off or delete it. Settings on your child's phone shows which mode is on. Want the full version? Turn on Family Sharing and set HomeRules up again.
I lost my phone.
Your PIN still works on your child's phone: it opens settings and gives extra time. You can also delete HomeRules on your child's phone with your Apple Account and set it up again.
With your new phone you link again. The link secret never moves to a new phone, so a found or stolen backup can't make codes.
The code doesn't work.
- Check that your child typed all eight digits right.
- A code is valid for fifteen minutes after you make it. Too late? Make a new one.
- A code works once, and only on the phone of the child you made it for.
- Did you make a newer code since? Then the older one no longer works.
- Does it say Is this phone's clock right? Then set Date and Time to automatic on your child's phone, in Settings > General.
My child has to wait after wrong codes.
Your child gets five tries. After that they wait: 1 minute, then 2, then 4, and so on up to 60 minutes. The phone shows when they can try again. After 30 wrong codes in a row, codes stop completely; link again with your own phone. The PIN shares the same counter.
My child reset the phone to factory settings.
Then HomeRules is gone, like the rest of the phone. Install it again, set it up and link again with your own phone. It takes a few minutes.
I forgot the PIN.
On your own phone, make a code with Open settings. That opens settings on your child's phone for ten minutes, and you choose a new PIN there.
How do I link a second parent?
The second parent installs HomeRules on their own iPhone, chooses Mine and taps Link a child. On your child's phone, open settings with a code or the PIN and scan the QR code there. Up to four parents per child.
I don't get the heads-up.
The heads-up five minutes before a rule is a notification. Turn on notifications for HomeRules on your child's phone, in Settings > Notifications > HomeRules. Then check in HomeRules settings that Heads-up is on.
My child's phone says: HomeRules is off.
Then HomeRules has lost its Screen Time access. Open HomeRules and allow access again. In light mode your child can switch this off; with a child account in Family Sharing they can't.
How do I get a refund?
You buy HomeRules in the App Store, so refunds go through Apple: go to reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in and choose the purchase. Apple decides. We can't refund an App Store purchase ourselves.
Which iPhones work?
iPhone with iOS 16.4 or later, for you and your child. There's no version for iPad, Mac or Android.
Contact
Email info@abn.company. Tell us which iPhones you have and which iOS version they run. We answer within a few working days.