Today, Microsoft announced some improvements to its Xbox Family Settings app. Specifically, there are two new features coming for both Android and iOS.
The first and the most significant is that you can pause screen time, something that Microsoft said was the number-one requested feature from parents. You"ve always been able to set screen time limits, but now, you can pause it right in the middle of that screen time. The examples that Microsoft uses for this are if your kid needs to finish their homework, or set the table for dinner, but it can be any number of things.
When parents press pause on screen time, kids will get the usual "Your screen time is up" notification, and parents will have to turn it back on when they"re ready to.
The other new feature is slightly less significant because it"s already available in family settings on Xbox consoles, but this is called Ask to Buy, and it"s exactly what it sounds like. Parents can give their kids the power to buy things, but if they"re not comfortable with that, kids can request to buy things, such as games, add-ons, and so on. The parent will get a notification on their phone and the option to approve it.
The updated features are available from the Xbox Family Settings app now. You can find it on Android here and on iOS here.