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Why is Chrome blocked but Safari is not?

Updated September 2026

Screen Time's website filter only takes effect inside Safari, so Safari is left installed and filtered rather than sealed shut. Every other browser has no such filter, so Fold'em covers it the only way iOS allows: by shielding the browser itself as an app, which is why Chrome, Firefox and Edge are standing entries when you pick your apps. The web shield's resolver sits underneath both and reaches every browser on the phone, so a betting domain on its list fails to load even in a browser you never sealed. Sealing Safari as an app would take the filter's own home away, so Fold'em never does it.

Two different mechanisms, one for each kind of browser

Fold'em covers the web twice, and the two layers have different reach.

The Screen Time website filter is applied to a set of domains and stops them inside Safari. It is the layer that produces Apple's own restricted site page. It does not reliably reach a browser Apple did not write, so treating it as cover for Chrome would be a claim Fold'em cannot keep.

The web shield's resolver answers the name lookup for the whole phone, so it does reach every browser, and every in app browser with them. It is on when the DNS setting is on, and it is what makes a betting domain fail in a browser you never thought about.

That leaves the gap the app layer closes: a browser that is open while the resolver is standing by, or a gambling site the resolver's list has never seen. Shielding the browser itself removes that gap, and iOS gives Fold'em exactly one way to do it, which is to treat the browser as an app.

How the web shield stops a betting site A browser asks for a betting address. The question goes to dns.foldem.app, the resolver you set once on the phone. The resolver answers 0.0.0.0, the address for nowhere, so the page never loads and the site itself is never reached. There is no tunnel and nothing of yours passes through Fold'em. Below, a second row: Screen Time's site list reaches Safari only, so Chrome, Firefox and Edge are sealed as apps instead. THE RESOLVER, FOR EVERY APP bet365.com where? 0.0.0.0 dns.foldem.app one setting Never reached The page never loads 0.0.0.0 is the address for nowhere. No tunnel. Nothing of yours passes through it. THE SITE LIST IS SAFARI ONLY Safari the list works Chrome, Firefox, Edge the list cannot reach Sealed as apps
Every lookup on the phone goes to dns.foldem.app, which answers a betting domain with 0.0.0.0, the address for nowhere, so the page never loads. There is no tunnel. Screen Time's site list reaches Safari only, so Chrome, Firefox and Edge are sealed as apps.

How each browser ends up covered

  1. Seal the other browsers when you pick your apps

    Chrome, Firefox and Edge are standing entries in the app pick, beside the sportsbooks. Ticking one in Apple's picker puts it in the same seal your betting apps are in, and opening it lands on the block screen.

    The setup step titled Now the apps on this phone, with an empty grid and the Add apps button.

    Setup, picking the apps

  2. Leave Safari installed, and filtered

    Safari carries the website filter, so Fold'em never shields it as an app. Gambling sites on the curated list show Apple's restricted site page there, and while any filter is applied iOS turns Safari private browsing off, so there is no private window to slip through.

    The Shield tab with the WEB tile reading On, Sites never load, beside the APPS tile.

    Both layers on the Shield tab

Adding a browser later, and why it cannot come back out

App tokens are picker only. Nothing in Fold'em can add or remove a browser on your behalf, and no switch anywhere flips one on: the only way in is Apple's picker, and the only way to open it is the plus tile on the Shield tab or the pick during setup. If you missed a browser, add it there and it joins the seal for the rest of the term.

Taking one back out is not offered while the term runs. The seal only ever tightens, which is what stops a browser being unsealed on the evening it matters most. It comes out when the term ends, with everything else.

What this does not do

Sealing a browser blocks the whole browser, not the gambling part of it, so a browser you seal is unavailable for everything until your term ends. A browser you do not seal is covered by the resolver's list and by nothing else, so a gambling site the list has never seen will open in it. None of this reaches a browser on another device, and Safari on a second phone is not affected by anything you set here.

Still stuck? Email support@foldem.app and we answer within two working days.