Google introduced Digital Wellbeing, at its I/O event last year, to help users curb their smartphone addiction. Under the same initiative, Google has now launched 6 new apps to help you spend less time on your smartphone.
This experimental app helps users in various ways such as reducing smartphone usage, increasing awareness of the time spent on the phone, or limiting notifications. For those of you who feel addicted to smartphones, here are 6 Google applications to overcome smartphone addiction:
1. Unlock Clock
This app lets you know your daily smartphone usage “by counting and displaying how many times you unlock your phone in a day.” After installing the app, you can find Unlock Clock within Google Wallpapers app and use it as live wallpaper. It will display the number of unlocked phones every time you unlock the phone. You can download the Unlock Clock application directly from the Google Playstore or from here.
2. Postbox
Post Box changes the traditional way of receiving notifications. Instead of being hit by push alerts throughout the day, you can choose a regular time or interval (like breaks) to receive all notifications at once. There’s also an “I need to see my notifications now” option – in case of an emergency. You can download the Post Box application directly from the Google Playstore or from here.
3. Morph
The third app is Morph which is basically an Android launcher but shows different apps based on your time or location. For example, it can display various applications based on your needs at home or office. In terms of holidays, you can minimize the number of applications and try to be more present with others.
Morph helps you stay focused, by adapting your phone to what you are doing. Just think about how you divide your time and choose the most important apps for you in each mode. Based on the time or place, your phone will automatically adapt – giving you the right app at the right time. Morph is part of Digital Wellbeing Experiments, a platform for sharing ideas and tools that help people find a better balance with technology. You can download the Morph application directly from the Google Playstore or from here.
4. We Flip
This app is designed to reduce smartphone usage when you are with a group of people. We Flip can pair every phone in the group and everyone flips their phone to start a “session.”
This session lasts until someone peeks at their phone. So the app tracks who unlocked their phone and gives the same report. For those who can’t resist the urge to spend time with friends and family, We Flip is a pretty smart app. You can download the We Flip application directly from the Google Playstore or from here.
5. Desert Island
Desert Island is another launcher app with a different idea. It lets you select only 7 apps to show at a time and keeps the rest hidden (You can access the rest via the icon on the top right). After 24 hours, you will receive a report on how well you did in focusing on just this app and how many times you gave in to your urges and opened another one.
Desert Island is part of Digital Wellbeing Experiments, a platform for sharing ideas and tools that help people find a better balance with technology. You can download the Desert Island application directly from the Google Playstore or from here.
6. Paper Phone
The last one is a unique application called Paper Phone. It lets you break away from your digital world “by printing out a personal booklet of the key information you need that day.”
Paper Phone lets you choose what to enter like favorite contacts, maps, and meetings and prints them directly onto a piece of paper that you can take with you. This little experiment can help you get a digital detox from technology.
The above app has been announced as an open platform by Google to allow designers and developers to post ideas and try new things. Interested developers can head to GitHub or download resources like the “Hack Pack” and various APIs to create their own version of the Digital Wellbeing app.
