Android P digital well-being features are a joke
So Google I/O is today and the company announced the beta release of Android P. One of the key new themes of Android P is how focused the company is on “digital well-being,” which is basically, a set of features that helps you not be so addicted to your phone. At least, that’s the idea. The Verge writes:
Android P, due out later this year, will have a new dashboard that tells you how often, when, and for how long you are using every app on your phone. It will also allow you to set limits on yourself. You could give yourself a half-hour of Instagram per day, for example. Once your 30 minutes is up, the icon will go from its usual eye-catching gradient to a dull grayscale.
Meanwhile, you do all realize if you hadn’t been conditioned to be addicted to your phone all these years, none of these features would be necessary, right? Despite my love of tech, I personally don’t think I’m addicted to my phone and I find it almost comical the companies who are responsible for hooking so many people to these devices finally grew some kind of conscious or came to the realization that they had to at least try to do something about it. And I can’t help but wonder how effective these new features will even be. People have to enable them and then they have to keep them on and abide by the limits they setup. I guess we’ll see.
In addition to the limitations, Google also rolled out a feature called “Wind down,” which when you turn it on, and tell it when you want to go to bed. When your bedtime arrives, your phone will automatically go into Do Not Disturb mode and become entirely grayscale, with no color at all.
I may be in the minority here, in fact, I’m 99.9% positive that I am in the minority here, but I don’t bring my phone to bed. I don’t even have it in my bedroom. You should try it, leave your phone somewhere else in your home when you go to bed, I guarantee you’ll fall asleep faster and sleep better.
Here’s what the Digital Well-Being dashboard on Android P looks like if you’re interested:
What are your thoughts on the new Android P digital well being features? Let me know.