What’s the Grey Bars in Screen Time?

It’s an other-others category. When viewing screen time, click “show categories”. Here you’ll see the few color coded categories, for example as in the original post: creativity, social networking, reading & reference. The rest of the categories listed under “show categories” are the groups that will show in the bar graph as grey.

Furthermore, if you delete an app after using it for some time- such as Instagram. Say you have it downloaded for the day, and use it 2 hours, but decide to delete it.... instagram will not show as an app in screen time, nor will it show under social networking. Instead, the time spent on Instagram will show as a grey bar, but with no data in “show categories” or in “show apps & websites”. If you re-install Instagram, it will then show as normal in screen time.

Apps that does not belong to predefined categories fall in to "Others" That grey bar is for other apps.

The grey bars at least in my case are when the phone is in use for audio based functions: Spotify and podcasts. after reading these posts I took the dog for a walk and listened to a podcast for 40 minutes. My screen time shows 40 minutes of grey for that hour. Test it out yourselves and see if this is right. It fits with in general my usage of audio content.

I have figured out what the gray bars are!!! It is when your screen is idle but does not “go to sleep”/go black.

No there not.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT208982

Okay so I think this will better explain what I was saying in the first pic it is with instagram installed and me using it and then the 2nd is instagram uninstalled right after. And the bar appears gray, same amount of time still but with the app gone.

That sounds about right, but it seems like FaceTime without video also falls into that gray category. And because of it, my daughter is able to talk to her friends for hours and it never gets block. It is extremely frustrating. Sure, I can disable FaceTime, but there are times when it is good to use, especially with other family members. Instead I have been using the OurPact app. She hates the app, but it is the only sure way I can limit the amount of time she uses her phone during the day.

These replies are rubbish. The grey bar is not ‘others’. In my screen time, there’s already an others category. Try again; this time I want something definite answer from Apple, not some wild guesses from the masses. Otherwise, screen time goes in the great rubbish heap of useless apps. Like the Fitbit app and the Versa, which was a waste of $230. I don’t spend money on expensive hardware that doesn’t produce.

I have 1hr limit ok all apps on my sons iPhone, and 30 minutes for gaming. The screen time report shows the my son spends more than 5 hours in the phone... how can that be possible? Obviously it’s telling he is spending the time in the grey bars, but what is he actually spending time in? I does not tell. Can someone help?

But they don’t add up though...

I believe it’s possible apps you have uninstalled. So they just appear grey. Because the time doesn’t add up regardless if counting the misc. apps.

That must be the screen without interaction with any app until it turns off . That’s the only logical explanation.

Could the gray bats be notifications? I know notifications are noted separately on screen time but it does not note the time in that area. So I was thinking that maybe the gray bars could be notifications (time)???

My sons iPad will show dark blue for games, but he’s been playing a game for an hour it shows the game for maybe 15 minutes then grey the rest of the time.... really makes limiting game time a useless feature.

None of these answers are correct, unfortunately. Just waiting for Apple tom chime in! My daughters phone shows she used it for a total of 2.5 hours yesterday, however when I add up all of the time that is shown being used in ALL categories including "other" it is off by more than an hour. The screentime app does NOT show any details about what is being used in the gray bar area, but that is where ALL of her time was being used yesterday. I have app limit restrictions set, so I have a feeling she's found a way around them since there's so much gray area.