Couples Screen Time Agreement (Free Template)

By the Snitch team, behavioural science experts from Imperial College London #couples#templates

How to raise phone use with your partner without starting a row, plus a free agreement to fill in together: phone-free times, break days and check-ins.

Made by the team behind Snitch. The template is free to use however you like. How we write these guides

Phone use is one of those things couples bicker about without ever really sorting. An agreement gets it out in the open, kindly. Here’s how to raise it, and a template to fill in together.

How to bring it up

  • Pick a calm moment, not mid-scroll or mid-argument.
  • Start with yourself: “I’ve been on my phone loads in the evenings and I don’t love it.”
  • Make it a shared goal: “Want to try cutting down together?”
  • Avoid “you always”. It turns a plan into a row.

The template

## Our Phone Agreement


We want more: ____ (e.g. proper evenings, better sleep, actual conversations)


1. Phone-free times: dinner / in bed / ____
2. Phone-free zones: bedroom / ____
3. Our daily goal: under ___ hours each
4. When one of us needs the phone (work, family): we just say so
5. Break days: ___ per month, no guilt
6. If one of us slips: a gentle nudge, never a lecture
7. Check-in: every ____ we look at how it's going
8. Reward: if we stick to it for a month, we ____

Keep it kind

  • Review it together after two weeks.
  • Don’t police each other’s screens.
  • Celebrate wins.

Apps that help

See our roundup of the best screen time apps for couples. LockPact is a free app for pairs. Snitch (ours) lets you share one daily time pot, with a Rot Day each month.

If phones keep causing real conflict, it may be about more than phones. A couples counsellor can help.