What are pickups in Screen Time?
Apple's definition
Apple's Screen Time guide describes the Pickups chart as showing how many times you wake your device to use it, and the first app you use after waking it. You can view it by day or by week, and Apple's Mac guide adds that the chart can be narrowed to a time period, an app, a website or a device.
Where to see it on iPhone
Settings → Screen Time → Daily Average → Week or Day → scroll down to Pickups. Full steps: how to check pickups on iPhone.
Pickups are not screen time
- Screen time is minutes: how long apps were on screen.
- Pickups are returns: how many separate times you went back to the device.
- First app after pickup shows what pulls you back most often.
A low screen time with a high pickup count means many short returns. That pattern is easy to miss if you only look at hours.
Why can my number look too high?
When Share Across Devices is on, Apple combines your iPhone, iPad and Mac signed in to the same Apple Account, and the report counts pickups across your devices. Turn it off in Settings → Screen Time → Manage Screen Time if you want each device on its own.
Is there something similar on Android?
Android's Digital Wellbeing shows Times opened, which Google describes as how often you've unlocked your device and opened certain apps. It is close to pickups but counted differently. See how to check on Android.
What to do with the number
Look at a week, not a day. Guess before you look, as in Beeri Tzori's street interviews (guide with screenshots). If you want fewer returns at home, the simplest change is where the phone lives: where to keep your phone at home.
Sources
Last checked: 2026-10-25