Smartphones and Android apps make our lives easier. However, in recent years, experts have viewed smartphones as a distractor. We will explain how. Does it happen to you that when you are working and a sudden notification from an application catches your attention?Now, if it's a message from your bank or your boss, it's important to you. What happens if it is another game app or one that is not really important to you while you are busy in the office. Basically, you have to waste a few minutes of your life to check what the app notification has to say. This way you are distracted from your work.
Is there a way to select a bunch of apps and turn off their notification.? So that you are not disturbed by unnecessary notifications from them while you are at work. Well, OnePlus has come up with such a feature called Work-life balance. In this guide we will explain in detail what this feature is and how to use it.
Work-life balance
The Work-Life Balance feature is the latest addition from OnePlus to the OnePlus 6T. It deploys with the latest OxygenOS Beta 33 for OnePlus 6T. So if you have a OnePlus 6T and you are a beta user, you should have received this new beta update. Otherwise, you can check the availability of the update by accessing the System updates tab under your device settings app.
Basically, this mode allows the user to select a bunch of apps on their OnePlus 6T. Then the feature will block notifications from these selected apps for a certain period of time while it is at work. Suppose the user is in the office from 10:00 am to 7:00 pm. Then, within this time, he will not receive any notification of the applications he has restricted.
After the time has passed, it can start receiving notifications from these applications again. Well, this is only part of the story. The job is sorted. But what about life (after work hours) ..?
Now after the user gets home they would no longer want to receive annoying WhatsApp messages, calls or SMS from their boss / office to disturb them while they relax at home .
So here's how to sort out life after work is finished for the day. He can again follow the same procedure as above to select the apps that he will receive no notification of while he relaxes, sleeps or spends time with family members.
So now, we'll explain how to activate the work-life balance function on your OnePlus 6T.
Activate work-life balance mode on OnePlus 6T
First of all, you need to have the OnePlus 6T smartphone with you. Second, it should run OxygenOS Beta 33.
After upgrading your 6T to the latest beta software, you should see a small yin-yang symbol in the drop down notification center of the device. Otherwise, you can access it by going to settings > Utilities > Work-life balance.
This is where we start
- Press the Yin-Yang symbol (or Work-Life Balance Tab under public services)
- You will now see Work-life balance interface
- There are two options, Job and Life.
- Press on Job (because we have to configure the work mode. Later you can configure the lifestyle)
- In the next screen you will see the list of applications on your device
- Select apps by checking the box next to them about which you don't want to be notified while you are busy at work.
- After selecting the applications, press Next
- In the next screen you can see the option of automatic activation of the working mode.
This means that you can program the time and every day automatically the working mode will be activated. You will not receive notifications from apps that you have temporarily restricted.
- You can define the work schedule which includes the definition of a time limit and the number of days of the week during which the work mode will be applied.
Work mode by location
Additionally, you can restrict app notifications based on the locations you browse in your area. You can set the location on the map. When you are in the prerecorded location, the selected apps will not bother you with notifications.
How to configure the lifestyle
This process is not rocket science. Just like you've set up work mode, so you can select apps that won't send you notifications when you're relaxing at home.
You can even save locations to apply the lifestyle. This means that if you are at home, at the pub, at the gym, you can save these locations on the map. Anytime during the selected hour and days of the week, when you are in these places, the apps that you have restricted will not bother you with irritating notifications.
The steps are completely identical when configuring the Work and Life mode.
Work-life balance is an interesting development of OnePlus. Soon, this feature should also be rolled out for other OnePlus devices. We hope this guide has been informative for you. Stay tuned with us for more interesting guides.
Related: OnePlus Care: everything you need to know