You Can Now Pause Your Kids' Screen Time With The Xbox Family App

Microsoft has today updated its Xbox Family Settings App on iOS and Android, bringing a couple of highly-requested new features including the ability to pause screen time and an 'Ask to Buy' option for your kids.

The 'Pause Screen Time' feature is as simple as it sounds - a button allows you to block their account temporarily until you decide their play time can resume, and of course you can still set time limits on their Xbox activity as well.

The 'Ask to Buy' feature allows your kids to ask you if they can buy something, sending a prompt to your phone giving you some information on the request, as well as allowing you to approve or decline the purchase.

If you haven't tried it out before, the Xbox Family Settings App boasts a massive range of parental control features including Friends List monitoring, activity reports, content filters and much more. It's available for free over at the App Store for iPhone and iPad users, and the Google Play store for Android users.

"We hope the Xbox Family Settings app will empower parents to have conversations about the right amount of gaming and appropriate content with their children. We’ll continue to update the Xbox Family Settings app to ensure that it meets the needs of today’s families and help everyone to enjoy fun and age-appropriate gaming."

Happy with these new features? Have you been using this app? Give us your thoughts in the comments below.