Most people around the world use the Android operating systems on their Samsung, Sony, Huawei and other non-Apple phones. Google, the maker of Android, has recently added a welcome feature to Android’s operating system—a new tool called Digital Wellbeing so that users can track just how much time they’re spending on their devices.
The newest version of Android is known as 9 Pie and contains several updates and new features for users to enjoy. The software was actually launched last August but was only installed in Pixel and Essential gadgets. However, it recently made its debut on Huawei, OnePlus and Sony phones as well.
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Digital Wellbeing tells users the number of times they unlocked their phone, how many minutes they’ve been on every app, among others.
All users have to do is open the Digital Wellbeing toggle in the settings menu, and they can automatically see all the data. There’s also an App Timer so users themselves can set limits as to how much time they want to spend on an app, a Do Not Disturb function that temporarily shuts off notifications, Wind Down to dim the light on the gadget, among others.
According to Google, “While much of the time we spend on our phones is useful, many of us wish we could disconnect more easily and free up time for other things.
In fact, over 70 percent of people we talked to in our research said they want more help with this. So we’ve been working to add key capabilities right into Android to help people achieve the balance with technology they’re looking for.
At Google I/O in May, we previewed some of these Digital Wellbeing features for Android, including a new Dashboard that helps you understand how you’re spending time on your device; an App Timer that lets you set time limits on apps and grays out the icon on your home screen when the time is up; the new Do Not Disturb, which silences all the visual interruptions that pop up on your screen; and Wind Down, which switches on Night Light and Do Not Disturb and fades the screen to grayscale before bedtime.”
While the tool was introduced a few months back, only Pixel devices contained an incomplete, Beta version of it.
However, it’s now been made available for Android One and Google Pixel hardware, and importantly, it already contains a ‘dashboard’ wherein a list of apps installed and the number of minutes spent on each is shown.
Google has announced that ‘Digital Wellbeing’ tool will be extended to other devices aside from ones using Android One and Pixel, but when this will be has not yet been disclosed.
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