Time limits for games: how to set them on Android, Windows, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch

Android phone: Family Link

Google Family Link sets a daily limit on your child's phone, with a separate number for each day of the week. When the limit is reached, the phone locks: notifications are hidden and apps won't open. Your child can still answer calls and tap Emergency. Apps you've marked as Unlimited time stay available after the lock.

For a single game, Family Link has app limits: go to Screen time > Time limits > App limits, pick the game and set hours and minutes per day. An app limit applies across all of your child's Android devices and Chromebooks. The daily device limit works differently. Google counts it per device, so a two-hour limit means two hours on each phone or Chromebook.

If you want to give an extra half hour, add Bonus time for today in Family Link. The daily limit and schedule stay the same.

Digital Wellbeing app timers

Android settings have their own App timers. You set a timer for a game on the child's phone itself, and it resets at midnight. Google's help page says that to use the app again before midnight, you delete the timer, and without a PIN your child can do that too.

Some phones offer an App limits PIN in Digital Wellbeing, so only the person who knows it can change the limits on that device. If your child's phone has no such option, we'd use timers only for a child who wants to play less. For a child who doesn't, use Family Link or a separate parental control app.

Windows PC: Microsoft Family Safety

On Windows, limits come from Microsoft Family Safety. Your child needs their own Microsoft account in your family group, and you set limits at family.microsoft.com or in the Family Safety app on your phone. There are two kinds: screen time for the device by day of the week, and app and game limits. A game limit applies across your child's connected Windows, Xbox and Android devices.

Microsoft counts time while your child is signed in, even when they're idle. Microsoft's own example: with a two-hour allowance, a child who signs in and does nothing is locked out after two hours, while the activity report may show as little as one minute. So your child should sign out when they walk away from the computer.

We compared Windows settings, router controls and dedicated PC apps in how to limit screen time on a computer.

PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4

Sony calls these playtime controls. A family manager sets them in the PlayStation Family app, in Account Management on the web, or in the console settings. For each child you set Playtime Duration and Playable Hours, either for every day or for specific days of the week.

You choose what happens at the end: Notify Only or Log Out. Before time runs out, a notification appears at the top of the screen. On PS5, your child can Ask for More Playtime right from that notification.

Sony's limit counts time on the console as a whole. If you want a separate limit for one game, check that game's own settings. Fortnite, for example, has a play-time limit in the Epic account portal, covered in Fortnite parental controls.

Xbox

You can't set screen time on the Xbox console itself. Microsoft sends parents to the web or to the Xbox Family Settings app. Screen time for Xbox and Windows is managed in one place, and limits for individual games are set through Microsoft Family Safety, the same way as on a PC.

As on Windows, time counts down while your child is signed in, so they should sign out after playing. When time is up and your child is signed out, some apps and games can still be opened without signing in. Microsoft recommends limiting them with Signed-out content restrictions.

Nintendo Switch and Switch 2

On Switch, you set the limit in the Nintendo Switch Parental Controls app on your phone. You decide how long and how late the console can be used each day.

When time is up, an alarm pops up on the screen. You can also have the console suspend the game automatically. With your PIN, you can add more time or turn off the alarm and suspension for a while or for the whole day.

Nintendo's limit covers the whole console. For individual games, you can restrict in-game communication and sharing or viewing of user-generated content.

Game limits in Gardion: Android and Windows

In Gardion we built three levels of limits: a daily limit for the device, a limit for a single game, and a limit for the Games group. You set all three from one panel for an Android phone and a Windows PC. A group limit works as a shared budget: every game in the group draws on the same minutes. When a game or the group runs out of minutes, Gardion closes the game. Other apps keep working until the daily limit runs out.

For a game to count toward the group limit, it needs the Games category. The panel lists new programs that have no category yet, and you mark which of them are games.

You can also make the daily limit shared across all of your child's devices. Time on the phone and the computer then adds up to one daily budget, so two hours means two hours in total. How the daily limit is counted and what keeps working after the lock is explained in daily screen time limit.

The first 14 days come with full access. After that, the Family plan is $39 a year for two devices and two children, and Premium is $59 a year for five devices and five children. PlayStation, Xbox and Switch are set up with their own tools described above.