Release of Android Pie (9.0) came with a bunch of new features and possibilities. Google I/O 2018 focuses majorly on one of the biggest aspects regarding improving digital wellness of their consumers. The new tool focuses on helping users understand how they interact with their technology, that tool is Google’s Digital Wellbeing.

Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls on Android, a Google’s requirement

The concept behind Digital Wellbeing is developing awareness among mobile users to create better balance between their digital and real world life. Everywhere, mobile users regardless of their ages, bury their heads in their screens, rarely interacting with one another.People opt to communicate via messaging or email rather than face to face. Social media has become such a distraction it keeps users from being productive. Google realized this issue and decided to do something about it. That idea was realized into Digital Wellbeing.

What is Digital WellBeing

Digital wellbeing is a term used by health professionals, researchers and device manufacturers to describe the concept that when humans interact with technology, the experience should support mental and/or physical health in a measurable way. In the recent Android version Digital Wellbeing is a feature which shows apps dashboard through which one can see how much time any application opened and also swiping to different screens allows you to see breakdowns by day, by hour and by app. by using Digital Wellbeing, users can view:

  • an overview of digital habits
  • Know how frequently different apps are used
  • Get information about how many notifications are received
  • Get to know how often the phone is checked

Oky, Now What Digital wellbeing app Exactly do

Google’s Digital Wellbeing app provides several features to help mobile user control their smartphone usage. First, its Dashboard lets user, monitor how long they have used the apps on mobile phone.This is also known as screen time, how many times a mobile user has opened each app (times opened), and how many notifications were received from each app (notifications received.) The Dashboard provides a bar chart for each option that lets mobile user compare the app usage each day of the week, and from the Dashboard, user can also set an App Timer to limit the daily use of a particular app.
Next, the Wind Down feature helps user to go to sleep by reducing the urge to use mobile phone at night. it accomplishes this by applying a gray scale filter on the screen and enabling Do Not Disturb mode at night. With Focus Mode, user can temporarily stop from using certain apps on phone. Lastly, Family Link integration provides easy access to Google’s parental controls app.
Digital Wellbeing app enables mobile users to:

  • Set app usage timers
  • Configure Do Not Disturb.
  • Manage notifications.
  • Set Flip to Shhh.
  • Use the Wind Down to help disconnect at night, thus improving sleep pattrens.

How to get the Digital WellBeing

Initially, Digital Wellbeing is only available for Pixel Phones. Even if mobile device is running Android Pie 9.0, unless it’s a Pixel, you won’t be able to enjoy Digital Wellbeing. Google says, Once the app comes out of beta, it will become available to general Android Pie users. Until that point, no Digital Wellbeing for users other than Pixel. A few months after release for Pixel smartphones, Google’s Digital Wellbeing app became available for a handful of Android One smart phones from HMD Global. At Mobile World Congress this year, Google announced the expansion of the app to the Moto G7 series. Since then, it is seen that the app roll out on phones from ASUS, Realme, Razer, and others. Xiaomi’s MIUI and Huawei’s EMUI have their own digital wellness solutions, so smartphones from those two brands don’t integrate Google’s wellness app. Going forward, all Android devices that are pre-installed with Google’s app and services⁠—basically every Android device sold outside of China⁠—must come with a digital wellbeing solution and parental controls out-of-the-box. Since OEMs must sign a licensing agreement with Google to use the Android branding and Google’s apps are basically a necessity for selling devices internationally, this new requirement effectively makes Digital Wellbeing and Parental controls an Android requirement.
In summary, Google is requiring that all new devices launching with Android 9 Pie or Android 10 after September 3rd, 2019, come with a wellness app and parental controls⁠—either Google’s Digital Wellbeing/Family Link or a custom solution. This requirement also extends to devices upgrading to Android 9 Pie or Android 10 after September 3rd. Thus, mobile user no longer have to ask the manufacturer to add a wellbeing solution on a new device or Android OS upgrade.

Where do you find DigitalWell being on mobile phone?

If you have a Pixel device running Android Pie, by default, Digital Wellbeing is not found in the app list within the App Drawer. Instead, open Settings and scroll down until you see the Digital Wellbeing entry .

 

 

Digital WellBeing a Wind Down feature

The Digital Wellbeing Wind Down feature allows mobile user to set a bedtime schedule. Wind Down:

  • Turns on the Night Light feature to avoid stressing your eyes
  • Adds a bedtime reminder (all color on your device will shift to grayscale to remind you it’s past your bedtime)
  • Do Not Disturb will mute sounds.

To set this feature, tap the Wind Down entry in the main window and walk through the simple set-up wizard. Once the wizard is complete, you can then set the times to start and end Wind Down (Figure G), as well as enable/disable grayscale and Do Not Disturb, as well as enable the Night Light schedule.

This Article Covers

android digital wellbeing, digital wellbeing google, what is digital wellbeing, what is digital wellbeing app, How to use Google’s Digital Wellbeing , Parental Controls on Android

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