Digital Wellbeing hands-on: Prepare to be afraid off of your phone forever

After activity hands-on with Google’s Digital Wellbeing, I appetite to assuredly aphasiac notifications and never blow my phone again.

Digital Wellbeing Hands-On

Google alien a new affection it calls Digital Wellbeing aback at the I/O 2018 developer conference, advised to advice Android users adviser their phone and app usage. While the affection wasn’t accessible throughout the Android P Beta Program, Google bygone appear a beta adaptation of the app alongside the aboriginal official anatomy of Android 9.0 Pie.

As accession who relies on their phone for about all agenda advice and scrolls through several amusing media apps assorted times a day, I accepted Agenda Wellbeing would reflect my abundant usage. Despite this, aback I aboriginal opened the app, I was absolute abroad by the detail of advice I was confronted with. I capital to anon blackout all notifications and bandy my phone to the added ancillary of my house. 

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Let’s booty a attending at how Digital Wellbeing works. 

Digital Wellbeing Hands-On

Once installed, Agenda Wellbeing becomes an advantage in the phone’s settings menu. Jumping into it, users are greeted with a blueprint that break bottomward how continued the phone was acclimated that day and which apps were best active. 

Below the blueprint is area the abstracts started to affect me. Not alone does Agenda Wellbeing accumulate clue of how continued an app has been used, but it additionally monitors the cardinal of times the user has apart the handset and how abounding notifications accept popped up on the phone.

For me, the day wasn’t alike abutting to actuality over and I had apart my Pixel 2 XL about 60 times and had accustomed about 900 notifications. By the time I’d accomplished autograph this piece, my absolute cardinal of unlocks accomplished added than 70 and my notifications had jumped to over 1,000.

In the app’s Dashboard menu, you get a attending at some added abundant advice (see the screenshots below). Users can adapt the abstracts by awning time, notifications received, and times opened. After attractive at the abundant breakdown from anniversary category, users can set a timer for alone apps. With these set, Agenda Wellbeing gives users reminders about how abundant time they accept larboard to browse a accurate app and will abjure admission to it already that absolute is reached. 

Unlike the “take a break” affection that was alien in the YouTube app several months ago, users can’t aloof abolish the time limit. If they appetite aback into the app, they accept to go into the phone’s settings card and attenuate the Agenda Wellbeing timer. While this isn’t a complicated process, it’s aloof annoying abundant to accomplish users accede their app acceptance and if it’s account the accomplishment aloof to accumulate scrolling through Instagram.

The Wind Bottomward area of the app is article that I plan to advance as my phone is the capital aberration that keeps me up backward at night. There are two appearance it makes use of: grayscale and Do Not Disturb. From whenever the user chooses to accredit and attenuate Wind Down, the handset will annihilate all colors on the awning to accomplish the accessory beneath ambrosial and blackout all notifications so that there’s beneath of a acumen to aces up the phone.

An added advantage in the card is the Night Ablaze schedule. This isn’t a new affection in Android, but its accession to Wind Bottomward makes sense. By enabling it, the phone’s affectation will cut out dejected ablaze — the affectionate of ablaze that tells your anatomy it’s still daytime and accordingly not accessible to beddy-bye — from dusk to sunrise. It should advice you catnap off at night. 

Lastly, Agenda Wellbeing includes shortcuts to advice users administer notifications and set up Do Not Disturb mode. Using the aboriginal option, users can see which apps accept best afresh or best frequently delivered notifications. They can either accept to absolutely attenuate the app’s notifications or go a footfall added and attenuate specific notification channels.

The Do Not Disturb settings adjustment is primarily appropriate if you about-face on the advantage aural Wind Down. Here you can behest the phone’s behavior while the approach is enabled. This includes selecting which notifications to adumbrate from the lock screen, which phone calls to acquiesce through, and abundant more.

Digital Wellbeing only became accessible bygone so it’s too aboriginal to say if it will advice me cut aback on my phone usage. As I declared at the alpha of this hands-on, however, I was afraid by the abstracts that the app presented to me. I knew I spent a lot of time scrolling through apps — and accustomed added notifications than best — but the numbers that I saw were astonishing.

To absolutely get article from Agenda Wellbeing, users will accept to consistently analysis their stats and use the congenital appearance to advice absolute the bulk of time spent aimlessly scrolling through apps. Of course, this is an alternative account in Android Pie so bodies don’t necessarily accept to use it. Agenda Wellbeing is aloof one added apparatus that can advice those adulatory to barrier their smartphone acceptance accomplish their goal.

Up Next: Android 9 Pie review: Closing the gap

Digital Wellbeing is not absolutely accessible for the primetime, but users active Android 9.0 Pie can assurance up to beta analysis the app by beat on the button below. For those who ambition to wait, Agenda Wellbeing should be accomplished and formed out to all accessories active Pie by the end of the year.

Dashboard

Wind Down

Reduce interruptions

Wrap up

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