I’m looking for an android setting or app that will either force shut down the screening app & lock the screen after a period of time - or will simply lock the phone after a period of time despite it playing an active episode. Does this exist?
Based on this description from
https://www.android.com/digital-wellbeing/#dwb-app-timers, it sounds like you might come close to what you want:
"In Digital Wellbeing, you can see which apps and websites you use most and set daily limits. Once you hit the limit, those apps and sites pause and notifications go quiet."
Thing is, I'm not sure if pausing the app will cause the screen to go off. If not, or if your partner's usage time is not predictable, MacroDroid might be useful. I don't have the video apps you mentioned, but here's a macro I created using Peacock as the video source, and it does what you want.
Plain-English translation:
Triggers are the "things" that cause the macro to do something. There can be multiple triggers, and if any of them are true, the macro starts. In your case, it would be a single trigger with multiple apps listed. If any of
them are true, the macro starts.
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Actions are what happens when one of the trigger conditions is met.
1. A variable named "!continue" is created and has its value set to 'yes'
2. Everything between "WHILE / DO" and "End loop" is a series of actions that are repeated as long as !continue = yes
Every 20 minutes (or whatever time the two of you agree on), a pop-up will appear in the middle of the screen asking "Continue?" If 'yes' is tapped, the popup disappears and the loop restarts with a new 20 min timer. The default is 'no' with a 5 second timeout timer. If 'no' is tapped, or no response, the macro will fake a Back-button press (to exit the video app) and then turn the screen off.
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Constraints (the green section) represent additional items that must be true (in addition to the trigger) in order for the macro to execute. There are none in this example, but you could for instance, constrain it to certain days of the week, between certain hours, etc.