One of the major pieces of the Android Pie presentation back at Google I/O 2018, digital wellbeing, aligned with what many other companies have been trying to do: make it easier to disconnect. They've been doing this by providing usage metrics and incentives through various "wind down" or Do Not Disturb features that both inform the user and help them check their phone only when necessary. On Android, these features were initially rolled out as part of a Digital Wellbeing beta announced alongside the public Android 9 Pie release. Google has not stopped implementing new features, and that includes quite a few changes with the official release of Android 11. VPN Deals: Lifetime license for $16, monthly plans at $1 & more We have even seen the best Android smartwatch and some of the best fitness trackers launched with features designed to get you up and moving around. Not only is it terrible for you to be sitting in a chair all day, but chances are, you're staring at a bigger screen, and that can be harmful and tiring for your eyes. What is Digital Wellbeing? The idea behind Digital Wellbeing isn't necessarily using your phone less, though it can lead to that behavior. Instead, according to EK Chung, a UX designer at Google who played a role in designing the new features, "It is all about high efficiency, and making your interaction with your device more meaningful and efficient so that you can get things done and then get back to what's really meaningful in your life ... actually simplifying how people get things done." In other words, if you're spending too long on Twitter or Facebook right now, you may intellectually know this and may want to cut down but don't know how to do it. Google is providing tools to not only make the whole OS feel more fluid and efficient but the ability to see how many minutes or hours you're spending in an app, with an easy way of adding soft limits that make it more difficult to open it once you've hit them. Digital Wellbeing: Everything you need to know What phones support Digital Wellbeing right now? Any phone running at least Android Pie has Digital Wellbeing set up and ready to use, including Android One phones and, of course, Pixel phones. To find Digital Wellbeing on your phone, open Settings and scroll down until you find Digital Wellbeing. Here's how it works! The Dashboard To find the Digital Wellbeing section, you must open your phone's settings page and scroll down to find it. You can do this by opening the app drawer and tapping Settings, or swiping down the notification tray twice and tapping on the little settings cog. Once in there, you'll see the dashboard, which will show you a circular chart of all the apps you've used that day. Tapping on it will take you into a list of all the apps you've used, ranking them by "screen time" by default. You can also rank them by "notifications received" and "times opened," which may change the order considerably. Tapping on an individual app shows you the breakdown per day or hour, which is helpful, but also lets you set timers and manage notifications. How to limit the time you can spend in an app App timers limit the amount of time you can spend in an app. When a timer is set, Android keeps track of how long that app has been open throughout the day and gives you warnings as you approach that limit. Once the limit is set, the app icon is greyed out, and the OS gives you a warning saying you can't open it until the following day. Of course, you can undo the app timer — it's not a prison — but it's a good way to prevent endless scrolling in Instagram and Twitter, for instance. From the main Digital Wellbeing page, tap Dashboard. Next to the app you want to limit, tap the hourglass icon next to the app. Select the amount of time you want allotted to use an app. Press OK. Use the app until you have hit your limit. How to change or disable an app timer When you butt up against your own app usage limits, the icon will grey out, and you'll get a notification saying that you can't use it anymore. Of course, you can lengthen the timer if you really want to. Tap on the greyed-out icon. Tap Settings. Change the app timer to the number you want. It's Bedtime Initially, this was called "Wind Down" and but has been renamed to Bedtime while keeping many of the same features and settings options. The idea behind Bedtime is pretty interesting. It combines existing Do Not Disturb behavior with the also-existing Night Light feature and a Grayscale mode that turns your screen monochrome. All of these things — fewer notifications, a warmer screen tint, and black-and-white imagery — are meant to make it easier to "wind down" and settle before bed. Here's how to configure it. From the main Digital Wellbeing page, tap Bedtime mode. Toggle Do Not Disturb and Grayscale if you want these to be enabled with Bedtime mode. Configure the time you want Bedtime mode to begin and end automatically. I have it between 11:00 pm, and 7 am. You can also set this to be enabled while charging your phone after the time set. From the final panel, you can again enable or disable DND or Grayscale. There's an additional option to turn off the Always-on Display starting at Bedtime. Optionally, you can choose to add a Bedtime Mode toggle in your quick settings panel. This is a handy feature for those who might need to enable Bedtime Mode before the schedule is set to begin. An example of this is if you want to take a nap during the day, but don't want to be bothered. Open your quick settings tray by pulling down the notification tray. Pull down the notification tray again. Tap the pencil icon to edit your quick settings toggles. Find the Bedtime mode icon in the lower pane. Tap and hold it to drag it into the upper pane. Simply exit the edit menu to save the change. Now, all you'll need to do to get everything back to normal on your phone is to go into your notifications panel and tap the Bedtime mode icon. Reducing interruptions Using your phone less is one of the strategies around Digital Wellbeing. The other is being distracted less when you're using it, or when you've put it down. One of the major parts of this is managing notifications. The fewer notifications you receive, the less likely you are to get lost in your phone when you only meant to pick it up to check something quickly. How to manage notifications In Android Oreo, Google introduced the idea of notification channels, which allow developers to break down the notifications they send you into various categories. The idea was to make it easier for the user to turn off specific notifications without disabling the app's correspondence entirely. With Digital Wellbeing, Google has made it easier to configure these notifications using the Digital Wellbeing tools. From the main Digital Wellbeing page, tap Manage notifications. Next to the app you want to manage, either: Uncheck the button to disable notifications entirely. entirely. Tap on the app icon itself to check for notification channels. Some notifications, like phone calls, can't be disabled, but it's worth digging into the apps that annoy you the most to see whether it's worth disabling them either partly or entirely. You may realize you don't need any of them at all. How to change Do Not Disturb features Under "Reduce interruptions," Google has also added a handy shortcut to the Do Not Disturb section, which has been improved for Android Pie. It's now much more granular than before, allowing you to choose between seeing, but not hearing, notifications when they come in, along with what constitutes an exception. It's worth looking into the rules that automatically kick in, too. For example, you can create schedules for when DND is enabled, along with selecting what or who can interrupt the Do Not Disturb settings. From the main Digital Wellbeing page, tap Do Not Disturb. Near the bottom, tap Schedules. Tap on the rule you want to manage. You can also create new rules based on specific calendar events, times of the day, or if you are driving. You can also set it so that your phone's Do Not Disturb feature will engage when placing your phone face down. Google calls this "Flip to Shhh." The concept isn't exactly new in the world of smartphones, but it's nice to see it as part of Digital Wellbeing's standard feature set. Better yet, enabling the feature is pretty easy: From the main Digital Wellbeing page, scroll down until you see the Reduce Interruptions section. Tap Flip to Shhh. Make sure the toggle is in the On position. You'll know it's on when the toggle turns blue. Now, when you turn your phone down on its face, you'll automatically be spared the hordes of vibrations and ringtones you're running from. Just make sure you get in the habit of placing your phone down the right way according to your needs. Focus Mode Sometimes you just need to be able to sit down and focus without being distracted. Your phone is a source of more distractions than almost anything, but Google has implemented a Focus Mode to help keep you focused. Open the Settings app on your phone. Scroll down and tap on Digital Wellbeing & parental controls. Under Ways to disconnect, tap Focus mode. Select which apps to pause from the list. All of the apps on your phone will be listed, with checkboxes next to them. The most frequently used apps will be listed at the top, giving you an idea of what apps you should "step away from" when it's time to get some work done. Tap on the box next to each app to put pause it, and then you can create a schedule by tapping the Turn on now button at the top. When an app has been added to Focus Mode, it will become grayed out on your Home Screen. Notifications will also be paused for the duration, removing any worries of being interrupted by distractions while it's time to sit down and get some work done. Since everyone needs to take a break every once in a while, Google has made it possible for you to use those grayed-out apps. Tapping on the grayed-out icon will show a pop-up menu with three break options: 5 minutes, 15 minutes, or 30 minutes. Once the time has expired, it will go back to being grayed out. Set up Auto-reply when you aren't available Everyone needs a vacation every once in a while, but you don't want to be bothered with a bunch of emails coming through. You can set up an automatic reply that is sent every time someone sends you an email. This is a feature available in many email applications, but it's also available in the Gmail app. Open the Gmail app on your phone. Tap the menu button in the top left-hand corner. Scroll to the bottom and tap Settings. Select the account you wish to have Auto-reply enabled. Tap on Vacation Responder. Tap the toggle to the On position. Fill in the dates, subject, and replying message. Tap Done. If you happen to come back early from your vacation, you can turn Vacation Responder off, but heading back into Gmail and tapping the toggle to the Off position. Use Smart Replies to save some time Google has been working on some ways to speed up your interactions with others, when possible. Smart Replies has been added to Gboard users with Android 11 installed, offering intelligent suggestions in-line so that you can respond quickly and efficiently. Currently, there are some limitations to which apps can take advantage of this, but now that the API is available, we are expecting developers to jump on board.<doc-sep>Alongside Intelligence and Simplicity, Google announced Digital Wellbeing as a third tentpole for Android Pie at I/O 2018. These features that help manage device usage won’t launch until this fall, but Google is opening up a beta for the Pixel and Pixel 2 starting today. The move towards creating a better relationship with technology is an industry-wide trend this year, with Google noting that over 70% of people it surveyed wanted more help balancing their “digital wellbeing.” YouTube was the first to launch these features, followed by Google Calendar, and Android Pie is following this fall. Dashboard Available in the Settings app, the new Digital Wellbeing section notes how long you’ve been using your phone everyday. A circular graph breaks down usage by app, while stats for the number of device unlocks and received notifications are available underneath. This hub notes “Ways to disconnect,” with the Dashboard view providing a more granular daily chart and list of time spent in every app. Next to each item is the ability to quickly set an App Timer. Back on the main page, you can set up Wind Down and determine whether it also enables grayscale and Do Not Disturb at night. There is also a section to “Reduce interruptions” by managing notifications. Coming soon App Timer The App Timer allows users to impose limits on daily application usage with Android “nudging” them via alerts when they’re close to meeting the restriction. Once hit, that app icon will be grayed out for the rest of the day. Wind Down This feature gets you ready for bed by turning on Night Light — which tints your screen amber — and enabling Do Not Disturb. Google at I/O even touted Assistant integration so users can tell their phones what time they want to “wind down” by, with Android Pie able to fade the device’s screen into grayscale to encourage them to put down a device. Availability Digital Wellbeing will officially launch in the fall starting on Pixel devices, with Android One and other Android Pie devices following “later this year.” Until then, Google is launching a beta for Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, and Pixel 2 XL devices running Android 9 Pie. Starting today, users can sign up by heading to this site and entering their Google Play account. A welcome email will feature a link to accept the invitation, with Digital Wellbeing features appearing in a device’s Settings app within 24 hours. Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news: FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More. Check out 9to5Google on YouTube for more news:<doc-sep>
Feel like you’re spending too much time on your smartphone? Tech addiction is a real problem. A recent survey, developed by Motorola and an expert from Harvard University, found more than half of Generation Z respondents described their phone as a best friend, and 35 percent of respondents agreed they spend too much on their smartphone. Google and Apple have noticed. Both companies have developed tools in the latest versions of their respective mobile operating systems to help people control time spent on smartphones. We’ve compared the differences between Digital Wellbeing in Android 9.0 Pie and Screen Time in iOS 12, but we’re only now getting our first real look at Google’s initiative. Android 9.0 Pie may have rolled out, but Digital Wellbeing is still in beta, and you will need to sign up to test it before it rolls out later this year. The beta is only available for Pixel and Pixel 2 series smartphones. Let’s take a closer look. Set up After signing up for the beta through our Pixel 2 XL, we received an email inviting us to download the beta version of the Digital Wellbeing app. This may download as a traditional app, but you won’t be able to find it through the Google Play Store on another smartphone. Once downloaded, it’s also not an app available in the App Drawer. Instead, head to the Settings app and scroll to the bottom. There’s a new Digital Wellbeing category sandwiched between Accessibility and above Google. Tap it, and the following two splash pages will appear, and you will need to give Digital Wellbeing access to Do Not Disturb. Digital Wellbeing In the hub of Digital Wellbeing, a circle lies at the top, and the number in the middle shows for how long the screen has been turned on. The circle’s line is made up of a variety of colors, with each one highlighting an app you spent the most time using (it shows five apps, and the rest fall in the Other category). Tap on the name or color of each app to dive into more detailed information. For example, tapping Twitter shows we spent 9 minutes in the app this week — this can also be broken down daily and hourly, and you can cycle through weeks. Tap on the little down arrow at the top right corner, and you can change the graph to show Notifications received, and Times opened. For us, it said we received 11 Twitter notifications this week, and that we opened the app twice. You can set App Timers here, which we’ll get to soon, and control the app’s notifications as well. Head back to the main screen, and there are two other numbers below the circle — the amount of times the phone has been unlocked in a day, and the total amount of notifications received. You can’t really act on these specific numbers, but their presence hopefully may help people visualize exactly how many times we reach for our phone in a given day. The two main “ways to disconnect” are listed below the circle: Dashboard and Wind Down. Before we dive into these, at the very bottom are two links to jump into Android’s notification management menu and the Do Not Disturb menu, both of which we’ve already explored. Android 9.0 makes it easy as pie to turn off notifications from apps (you can even control which notifications from apps come through), and the revamped Do Not Disturb system is dead simple to use. Just turn it on and all visual and sound interruptions disappear (but it’s also customizable). Dashboard: Setting App Limits Tap the number in the middle of the circle or Dashboard on the main Digital Wellbeing menu to access your smartphone usage data. You can see different information here, such as how many notifications you’ve received and screen time, as well as a list of apps you spent the most time using. Next to these apps are labels that say No timer. If you feel like you’re using an app for far too long, tap No timer and a pop up menu with a few options will appear: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, or custom timer. Set a limit you feel is appropriate, and once you hit your allotted time limit, you’ll see the following: The app will minimize, and a popup appears saying you’ve hit your allotted screen time.