SkieHow do I block personal apps and games on work phones?
Use an allow list for the group. Only the apps you add can run, the Play Store is hidden, and anything installed afterwards is silently removed. Games, social apps and shopping apps are blocked simply because they are not on the list. Apps can be allowed during certain hours with a schedule window.
Blocking games one by one never ends. The way to keep personal apps off a work phone is to allow only what the job needs. In Skie, the group's app list is the allowed set. Everything else is hidden or suspended, not deleted, so the data comes back if you allow the app later.
Hide the Play Store by policy so nobody can add anything. If an app gets in by some other route, the install guard removes it. The baseline snapshot of apps present at setup means existing apps are not wrongly removed, and essential system apps are never touched. Unknown sources are blocked, so installer files cannot be sideloaded.
Some firms prefer a softer approach: personal apps allowed at lunch or after hours. Use schedules. A window has days, start, end and an allowed app set, and windows can run overnight. The first matching window wins, so you can have a narrow list during working hours and a wider one in the evening. The device switches on its own.
You can also go further. Optional switches disable the camera, SMS, outgoing calls, Bluetooth, NFC, screenshots, SD cards and cloud backup if the job does not need them.
Tell staff what the rules are and why. A short policy that says company phones are for company work, and that staff keep personal phones for personal life, avoids most arguments. A route to request an extra app helps too.