Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is rolling out a new Digital Wellbeing feature to help you spend less time on distracting apps without completely locking you out.
- The new feature, called Screen time reminders, gently nudges you to stop using an app when you’ve spent too much time on it.
- It displays a pill-shaped notification at the top of the screen that shows the amount of time you’ve spent on the app.
The Digital Wellbeing app is getting a new feature to help you spend less time in distracting apps. Instead of completely blocking you out, the new feature gently nudges you with a reminder at the top of your screen when you spend too much time on a selected app.
We first spotted this feature in a teardown of the Digital Wellbeing app last month, and it has now started showing up for some users (H/T Mishaal Rahman). Google has made some changes to the feature since our previous report, and it’s now called Screen time reminders instead of Mindful Nudge.
As you can see in the attached screenshots, the feature brings up a pill-shaped notification at the top of the screen after you’ve used one of the selected apps for a long time. The notification will show the amount of time you’ve spent on the app, prompting you to close the app and make better use of your time.
You can enable the feature on your phone by navigating to the new Screen time reminders option in the Digital Wellbeing & parental controls settings. Enable the Use reminders option on the following page and select the apps you want to see reminders for to set things up. The feature will then automatically show you a reminder when you spend too much time on one of the selected apps.
