Google has taken a lot of initiatives to help users reduce their excessive use of the phone. Android devices already have digital wellness functionality and a much revamped focus mode in this regard. Continuing this tradition, Google launched about five new experimental applications a few months ago. And now he has added three new apps to this list. Although two of them are quite interesting, the third could appear as a slightly unconventional application. Anyway, let's take a look at the three new digital wellness apps launched by Google.Digital wellness app: envelope
One is probably the strangest Digitial Wellbeing apps released by Google. Here is what needs to be done. Download the app and print the PDF file provided by the app. Then fold this paper in the form of an envelope and place your device inside. Through the envelope, you can access the keyboard and camera icons that the Envelope app will provide you with.
The envelope has been designed with the keyboard and camera keys specially placed inside the application in mind. A small hole is also present on the back to access the fingerprint sensor. Likewise, two different cutouts are available for taking photos and recording videos.
It really seems like a strange idea, to start with. I doubt anyone will actually take these many steps just to reduce their addiction to smartphones. Enabling NPD mode seems a much simpler workaround. Either way, this digital wellness app is currently only supported on the Pixel 3a. Google has also made it open-source, with the source code available on GitHub.
Digital wellness app: activity bubbles
This Google digital wellness app has a really interesting concept. It is a live wallpaper app that creates a bubble every time you unlock your device. The longer the duration of use of your device without locking, the more the bubble will grow. As soon as you lock your device, the bubble installs at the bottom. The next time you unlock the device, a new bubble will be created and a similar process will follow.
At the end of the day, you would have an idea of how many times you have unlocked the device (judging by the number of bubbles) and how long you have been using your device (judging by the size of the bubbles). The app does not give an exact measure to get this data, but rather you will have to judge via these bubbles. Still, a fascinating digital wellness app from Google nonetheless.
Screen stopwatch
Another digital live wallpaper wellness app from Google, this places a large timer on your home screen. The clock shows how long you've been using your device, in hours, minutes and seconds. With each passing second, you will also hear a subtle ticking sound that will remind you to limit the use of your device. This timer will be stopped as soon as you lock your device but will start the instance that you will unlock. At the end of the day, you will get the total amount of time that you have been using the device.
So these are all of Google's new digital wellness apps. It's really nice to see that Google is keenly interested in this direction. On this note, we would like to know your opinion on the same subject. Also, let us know in the comments section which of the three apps you found the most useful.
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