So is Fella safe? What can it see? What does Screen Time access actually mean?
The reassuring part is that Fella does not invent its own way into your phone. It uses Apple's Screen Time technology, including Family Controls and Managed Settings, to block the apps you choose.
Those frameworks are built into iOS specifically so apps can manage access while keeping the system in control.
That distinction matters.
Fella is not reading your Instagram feed to decide whether Instagram should open. It is not watching your messages, recording your screen, or inspecting what you type.
It asks iOS to restrict access to an app you selected.
Apple handles the boundary.
What Fella can see
When you choose apps to block, Fella uses Apple's Family Activity Picker.
Apple designed that picker around privacy.
In its standard form, the apps, websites, and categories you select are represented by opaque values. Fella can pass those selections back to iOS and tell the system what to block without needing a plain text list of everything you chose.
That is one of the most important things to understand about Fella privacy.
The blocker does not need to read what happens inside TikTok to block TikTok.
It does not need your Instagram messages.
It does not need your browsing history.
It needs permission to tell iOS which access rules to apply.
Apple also requires apps that distribute Family Controls features through the App Store to request the appropriate entitlement.
So this is not an unsupported trick running around iOS protections.
It is an Apple provided capability being used for the job it was designed to do.
What Fella does collect
Privacy should not require pretending an app collects nothing.
Fella's current App Store privacy label says that an email address and user ID may be collected and linked to your identity for app functionality.
Its privacy policy also says it may process basic technical information such as your app version, device type, iOS version, crash information, subscription status, and feature state.
That information is used to run the app, restore access, diagnose problems, and manage your subscription.
Fella's privacy policy says blocked app selections are not sold or used for advertising. It also says blocking configuration and unlock state stay on your device or inside Apple controlled frameworks where possible.
Subscriptions are processed through Apple.
Fella does not receive your full card number or your Apple ID password.
That is a much more useful privacy picture than simply saying no data is collected.
A note about the App Store privacy label
The App Store privacy section is worth checking, but it should be understood correctly.
Apple provides the format and displays the information on every listing.
The developer provides the answers.
Apple states clearly that this privacy information is not independently verified by Apple.
So treat the label as a useful disclosure, not an Apple certification.
Then compare it with the developer's privacy policy and with the permissions iOS actually asks you to grant.
The three should make sense together.
With Fella, they do.
Who built Fella
Fella is not listed under an unnamed publisher.
The App Store identifies its developer as Matas Klemenis.
You can also see the product changing in public through its App Store version history. Fella launched in July 2026 and has received repeated design, reliability, performance, subscription, and blocking updates since.
That does not automatically make an app trustworthy.
It does make accountability easier.
There is a named developer, a public version history, a support channel, a privacy policy, and an App Store listing you can inspect yourself.
Trust is better when it can be checked.
What you should check yourself
You should never need a review to tell you an app is safe.
Open Fella's App Store page.
Read the App Privacy section.
Open the privacy policy.
Look at the permissions iOS asks you to approve.
Check whether those permissions make sense for what the app claims to do.
For an iPhone app blocker, Screen Time access makes sense.
Access to your contacts, microphone, photos, or precise location would deserve a very different question.
You can also remove Screen Time authorization later. Fella only works while iOS allows it to use the Screen Time frameworks it depends on.
The final control stays with the device.
Is Fella safe?
Based on how the app is built and what it currently discloses, there is nothing unusual about the access Fella needs to block apps on an iPhone.
It uses Apple's Screen Time frameworks.
Apple provides the app selection and authorization systems.
The standard selection system is designed around private representations of the apps and websites you choose.
Fella's current App Store privacy disclosure lists email address and user ID as data that may be linked to you for app functionality.
Its privacy policy says blocked app selections are not sold or used for advertising.
That is the trust story.
Not "give Fella access to everything."
Give iOS permission to let Fella do one very specific job.
Block the apps you asked it to block.