Stay informed.
Stop living in the update.

The short answer: turn off breaking-news notifications first, use Screen Time if you want news at particular hours, and use Fella if you want selected news apps blocked all day by default.

News apps create a special kind of checking loop because every refresh feels responsible. Breaking alerts, live blogs, personalized recommendations, market updates, election coverage, and duplicated headlines from several publishers make “staying informed” difficult to finish.

The goal does not have to be avoiding news. A good setup separates information you can act on now from commentary you can read later. It also keeps official emergency and weather routes available rather than treating every headline as equally urgent.

Turn off app notifications. Go to Settings > Notifications, choose each news app, and disable Allow Notifications. If you still want a digest, add news apps to Scheduled Summary instead of allowing immediate delivery.

Clean up Apple News alerts. In Apple News, open Following, scroll to Notifications & Email under Manage, and keep only the channels or Apple News alert types you truly want. Availability and labels can vary by region.

Remove widgets and badges. Headlines on the Home Screen and red notification counts can start a check before you make a conscious decision. Remove news widgets and disable badges while leaving the app installed.

Keep a small source list. Five apps sending versions of the same story do not create five times the understanding. Choose one or two reliable sources and reserve long-form analysis for a planned reading window.

To create a daily limit, go to Settings > Screen Time > App & Website Activity > App Limits > Add Limit. Expand categories and select individual news apps, or select a broader category only if every app in it should share the limit.

Use Downtime when timing is the real problem—for example, no headlines before work or after 9 p.m. Review Always Allowed so essential communication, maps, authentication, health, and safety apps stay open.

1. Select each news app individually. Add Apple News and any publisher, finance-news, aggregator, or live-update apps that lead to repeated checking. Leave Weather and other practical apps unblocked if you use them for safety.

2. Make the block your all-day default. Fella is not a schedule builder. Selected apps remain closed without requiring you to start a focus session.

3. Save one emergency 5-minute unlock. Use it for a specific update you actually need, not a general scan. Decide the question before opening: “Has the closure changed?” works better than “What is happening?”

4. Let access end automatically. When five minutes finishes, the selected apps relock. The limit applies to the access window rather than asking you to judge when you have read enough.

Fella does not evaluate sources, filter political topics, summarize the news, or block websites. Its job is narrower: restrict the iPhone apps you selected.

Keep official emergency alerts configured. On iPhone, government-alert options live in Settings > Notifications and vary by country or region. Review them separately from publisher notifications.

Keep weather and local safety tools available. If severe weather, wildfire, transport, school, or municipal alerts matter where you live, do not add the only relevant app to a blanket block until you have another route.

Ask people to contact you directly. Family or coworkers should call or text when a developing event changes your plans. You should not need to monitor a live blog to learn information someone already knows affects you.

Plan one or two news windows. A morning newsletter, lunchtime briefing, or evening review can provide context without keeping the nervous system on standby all day. If you need several planned windows, Screen Time fits better than Fella's single daily unlock.