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How do I set Fold'em up?

Updated September 2026

Setup is six steps on one hub, and then a seal. You choose a commitment and buy a plan first, which enforces nothing; after that the hub asks for your account, the apps, the deletion lock, the web shield, your keyholder and your witnesses, and you can leave and come back to it as often as you like. Nothing on the phone is blocked until you slide the seal at the end, and the day count starts from that moment. Three of the six are the ones the app will not proceed without: signing in, granting Screen Time, and having at least one thing to enforce.

What happens before the six steps

The first part of the funnel asks you what you want and what it has cost you, then asks for the commitment: ongoing with no end date, or a fixed end date at least one month away. After that comes the plan. Paying blocks nothing. The purchase buys the subscription and the trial; it does not apply a single shield, and the screen after it says so in its own words: six steps to sealed, protection starts at the seal.

The gap is what makes the act resumable: you can put the phone down halfway through setup without ending up with half a lock, and the seal at the end has something real to state back to you.

The six steps of setting up, then the seal A checklist of six steps, each ticking in turn: the account, Screen Time permission, the apps you seal, the deletion lock, the web shield, and your circle. When all six are ticked, the seal closes below: a lock ring completes and Day 1 begins. SETTING UP, THEN THE SEAL Accountso the server can hold the lock Screen Timethe permission the shield needs Appspicked in Apple's own picker Deletion lockso Fold'em cannot be removed Web shieldone resolver setting, for sites Circlea keyholder, and any witnesses SEALED Day 1 the term begins
Six steps set Fold'em up: the account, Screen Time, the apps, the deletion lock, the web shield and your circle. Nothing holds until the seal, and the day count starts from it.

The hub is the map, and it holds your place

Every step lives on one screen. Your plan sits at the top already done, then the six rows, each carrying its own state: done, next, required or optional. The rows are not tappable on purpose; a single button at the foot takes you to whichever row is open, so the order is always decided for you.

The act is written to the phone as you go. Close the app, take a call, come back tomorrow, and the hub is where you left it with the same rows answered. What the hub asks is device truth rather than a saved intention: it reads whether you are signed in, whether Screen Time is granted, whether an app is picked, whether the shield reports itself on, and whether an invite was actually minted.

The picture above groups the same act slightly differently. It draws the Screen Time grant as a station of its own, because that is the screen the apps row sends you to first, and it draws the keyholder and the witnesses together as your circle, which the hub keeps as two separate rows.

The Make it real hub: Your plan marked done, then six rows reading Your account, The apps, The deletion lock, The web shield, Your keyholder and Your witnesses, each with a state word, and a Continue button at the foot.

The hub, with six rows and one Continue

Three things it will not go without

Most of setup is leaveable. Three things are not. You have to sign in with Apple, because an account with no identity is a lock anyone can walk away from and because the lock has to be able to come back on a new phone. You have to grant Screen Time, because Screen Time is the thing that actually holds the apps and Fold'em can only seal what iOS lets it seal. And the seal itself refuses unless there is something to enforce: at least one app picked, or the web shield up.

The Screen Time step raises Apple's own permission dialog. Fold'em cannot answer it for you, cannot ask for the part of the permission that would reveal which apps you use, and does not ask for it.

The Screen Time step: a headline reading Give iOS the controls, Apple's own permission dialog with Don't Allow and Continue, and a Grant Screen Time button at the foot.

The Screen Time grant, with Apple's own dialog

The six steps

  1. Your account

    Sign in with Apple. The purchase happens before this, so the account is claimed after the charge rather than before it. From here on the lock belongs to the account and not to the app on this phone, which is what lets it come back after a reinstall.

  2. The apps

    Apple's picker opens and you search for each app by name. The checklist names ten sportsbooks and casinos plus Chrome, Firefox and Edge, and the counter shows how many came back without ever learning which. This row is answered only when Screen Time is granted and at least one app is picked, and its button routes to the grant first if that is still open. Set them up later is a real answer, but it only counts as answered while the web shield is up, so a setup with neither layer raised is never complete.

    The apps step: a headline reading Now the apps on this phone, an empty grid of app tiles, an Add apps button and a quiet Set them up later.

    Picking the apps through Apple's picker

  3. The deletion lock

    Optional, and off unless you turn it on. With it on, iOS refuses app deletion across the whole phone, Fold'em included, and turning it back off later starts a 72 hour window that your keyholder is told about. The step states that cost on the screen rather than in a footnote.

  4. The web shield

    This one hands you to iOS Settings to allow an encrypted DNS setting, because no app can turn that on for you. Once iOS reports it enabled, gambling addresses stop resolving on the phone in every browser. The hub keeps asking for it until it is up.

    The web shield step: a headline reading Turn on the web shield, a line about 356,500 gambling sites, a diagram of requests passing a shield with gambling and betting refused, and an Add the shield button.

    Raising the web shield

  5. Your keyholder

    Name one person and Fold'em mints them an invite. The step states what they will and will not see before you send it, and the link goes live at the seal rather than the moment you type the name. Choosing to go solo instead is an explicit choice with its own consequence stated: every early exit then takes fourteen days.

    The keyholder step: a headline reading Who holds your key, an illustration of one person handing another a key, an invited row for Sam, and a line naming what they will see and never see.

    Naming a keyholder

  6. Your witnesses

    Up to three people who watch the days stack. A witness holds no key, is never asked about an exit, and sees less than a keyholder does. Maybe later is a real answer here and the hub records it as answered rather than open.

One beat before the ceremony

After the witnesses, one screen asks to turn notifications on and shows you two of the notifications it would send rather than describing them. Allow raises the real iOS prompt. Not now raises nothing at all, spends no prompt, and leaves it askable later from Settings. It is a beat and not a step: the hub still says six, and the seal never waits on it.

The seal is the moment anything is blocked

The last screen states the whole arrangement back as a contract: the term, the apps, the websites and the keyholder, with a row for every witness invited. A layer you did not raise says so in its own row rather than being left out, so an empty contract cannot read as a complete one, and a seal with nothing to enforce refuses and says why.

Sliding it is what applies the shields. Each row lights as the thing it names becomes true, the term row lights last when the server confirms the commitment, your signature inks itself under the contract, and the slide reads Sealed. From that moment the apps are shielded, the day count runs, and your keyholder's link is live.

The seal screen at the end of its run: a contract ledger with ticked rows for Term, Apps, Websites and Keyholder, and the slide at the foot reading Sealed.

The seal, after the run

What this does not do

Setup does not block anything before the seal, and there is no partial protection while you are part way through. It cannot grant Screen Time for you, cannot enable the DNS setting for you, and cannot pick an app on your behalf, because all three are permissions iOS gives to you and not to us.

It also does not reach a second device. Everything here configures the one phone you are holding, and every layer it raises stops at that phone's edge.

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