How to Block Among Us on iPhone

Setting a Screen Time App Limit on Among Us takes a few taps and does close the app once the clock runs out — but the thing that usually worries a parent about Among Us isn't how long a round lasts. It's who's in the lobby. A public match puts a child in open text chat with random strangers for as long as the round runs, and an App Limit has no opinion about that at all.

How do you set a Screen Time App Limit on Among Us?

1. If your child isn't already part of your Family Sharing group, set that up first in Settings → [your name] → Family Sharing, adding them with their own Apple ID.
2. From your own phone, open Settings → Screen Time, then select your child's name under Family.
3. Tap App Limits → Add Limit, then choose Games — the category Among Us falls under in Apple's classification — or search for Among Us directly to limit just that app.
4. Set a time allowance and the days it applies.
5. Confirm a Screen Time passcode is set on your own device, not your child's, so the limit can't be turned off without you.

This closes the app icon once the allowance runs out, but it says nothing about who your child was talking to during the time that was allowed. That's a separate problem — and it's the one most searches for "block Among Us" are actually about.

Why is an Among Us round hard to walk away from?

Among Us runs in rounds of social deduction — Crewmates working out who the impostor is — that end when the group agrees they're over, not on a clock built into the game. A limit that lands mid-meeting pulls a player out of a live accusation with several other people mid-argument, which reads as abandoning the group, not just stopping a game. That's most of why "five more minutes" requests around Among Us tend to be genuine rather than stalling. The same live-session pull shows up in Roblox, another game where the real parental concern is usually who's playing alongside a child, not how long the session runs.

Does an App Limit stop the chat with strangers that's the real worry?

No, and this is the gap that matters most. An App Limit only tracks elapsed time on the icon — it has no idea who your child was matched with, whether the match was public, or what got typed during it. Among Us's own text chat opens during every meeting, and in a public lobby, "everyone in the room" means whichever strangers matchmaking assigned to that round.

What can actually be dialed back lives inside Among Us itself, not in Screen Time. In the game's own Settings (the gear icon), under Data → Chat Type, an account can be set to Free Chat (typing anything) or Quick Chat (a fixed list of preset phrases). Accounts registered under 13, and local guest accounts with no sign-in, default to Quick Chat only — a real, if narrow, safeguard, since a stranger can't slide into a real conversation through preset phrases. An adult, or a child's account with a parent's permission, can switch this to Free Chat, reopening full typed conversation with the lobby.

Voice is a separate story: Among Us doesn't ship built-in voice chat on iPhone. When a group sounds like it's talking over the game, it's almost always a separate call — Discord is the common one — running alongside the match. That call sits entirely outside Among Us and outside anything Screen Time tracks; blocking the game does nothing to a conversation happening in another app.

Is there a browser version of Among Us to worry about?

No — and for once, that's good news. Unlike social apps with a companion website, Among Us has no meaningful web version on mobile; there's no equivalent of opening Safari to keep playing after the app is blocked. An App Limit on the Among Us icon is the whole story here, with no separate browser loophole to close.

What actually reduces contact with strangers — private lobbies and Communication Limits?

The most direct fix isn't a Screen Time setting at all: host or join Private games instead of Public ones. A private lobby needs an exact room code, shared only with whoever the host chooses to tell — usually classmates or friends passed the code directly — so it never surfaces in public matchmaking for a stranger to stumble into. That single choice does more for who a child is talking to than any App Limit will. If Among Us is one of several games in a broader plan, screen time limits for teens covers the wider setup.

Communication Limits is worth turning on too, with a clear sense of what it covers. It manages who your child can reach through Phone, FaceTime, Messages, and iCloud contacts — not Among Us's own in-lobby chat, which isn't one of its channels. Where it earns its place is the moment after the lobby: if a stranger from a match tries to keep talking by texting or calling the number directly, Communication Limits set to Contacts Only stops that message from an unrecognized number from ever landing.

Does an iPhone limit stop Among Us on Switch or PC?

No. Among Us is cross-platform — Nintendo Switch, PC, Android, and iPhone all run the same game and can land in the same lobby. A Screen Time App Limit only governs the one iPhone it's configured on; a kid locked out on their phone can often just switch to whichever other device in the house still has the app installed, same account, same friends, same public matchmaking if that's what's set.

What can't this approach fix?

Nothing here makes Among Us unreachable. A determined kid can play at a friend's house, switch devices, or wait out a limit until a tired parent approves "five more minutes." Setting games to Private and locking chat to Quick Chat closes off the two biggest ways a stranger reaches a child through this game, but neither Apple's tools nor Among Us's own settings can see what gets typed once Free Chat is on, and no developer in this category — Step N Scroll included — gets visibility into who was in a lobby or what was said there. Apple's Family Controls framework hands third-party apps opaque tokens for blocked apps, not a window into what happens inside them.

If Among Us keeps coming up as a source of conflict, pair the settings above with an actual conversation about who counts as an acceptable person to play with. For working through a rule like that with a child rather than imposing it unilaterally, see how to set Screen Time without fights — a rule a child understands tends to hold better than one just enforced by a passcode they don't have.

FAQ

Does a Screen Time App Limit stop my child from chatting with strangers in Among Us?

No. An App Limit only tracks how long the app icon has been open — it has no visibility into who your child is matched with or what gets typed during a round. A public Among Us lobby can put a child in text chat with random strangers for the entire time the limit still allows, which is why the limit alone doesn't address the concern most parents actually have.

What's the difference between Quick Chat and Free Chat in Among Us?

Free Chat lets a player type anything; Quick Chat restricts them to a fixed list of preset phrases, which makes it much harder for a stranger to start a real conversation. Accounts registered as under 13, and guest accounts with no sign-in, default to Quick Chat only. An adult account, or a child's account with parental permission, can switch to Free Chat from the game's own Settings → Data → Chat Type — this is controlled inside Among Us itself, not through iPhone Screen Time.

Does Communication Limits protect my child inside an Among Us lobby?

Not directly. Communication Limits governs who your child can reach through Phone, FaceTime, Messages, and iCloud contacts — it doesn't extend into Among Us's own in-game chat, which isn't one of the channels it covers. It's still worth setting, because it's what stops a stranger met in a lobby from successfully texting or calling your child's number directly once the game session ends.

Does an App Limit on my child's iPhone stop them from playing Among Us on a Switch or PC?

No. iPhone Screen Time only governs the iPhone it's configured on. Among Us runs the same way on Nintendo Switch, PC, and Android, often under the same account and in the same lobbies, so a phone-only limit doesn't remove access — it just moves where the playing happens.

Does Among Us have voice chat built in?

Not on iPhone. When a group sounds like they're talking during a match, it's almost always a separate voice call — Discord is common — running alongside the game in another app. That call is invisible to both an Among Us App Limit and to Screen Time generally, since neither one is aware it's connected to the match.

Can an app like Step N Scroll see who my child is playing with in Among Us?

No. Apple's Family Controls framework gives third-party apps opaque tokens representing blocked apps, not visibility into who's in a lobby or what was typed there. No developer in this category can see inside an Among Us match.

Sources

• Apple Support — "Set up Screen Time for a family member"
• Apple Support — "Use parental controls to manage your child's iPhone or iPad"
• Common Sense Media — "Among Us - Parents' Guide & Game Review"
• Pew Research Center — "Parenting Approaches and Support in the Digital Age"