Google Digital Wellbeing Now Available in Beta
- Paul Thurrott
- Aug 09, 2018
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Those lucky enough to be running Android 9 Pie already—basically Pixel and Essential owners—now have access to the beta version of Google’s Digital Wellbeing.
“Digital Wellbeing is now available in Beta Preview for devices running Android 9.0,” the app’s listing on the Google Play Store notes. “See a complete picture of your digital habits and disconnect when you want to.”
According to the list, Digital Wellbeing will be available from Settings and provide the following:
Get a daily view of your digital habits:
– How frequently you use different apps
– How many notifications you receive
– How often you check your phone
Disconnect when you want to:
– Daily app timers let you set limits for how much you use apps.
– Wind Down reminds you to switch off at night, setting a schedule to fade your screen to Grayscale while Do Not Disturb silences notifications for a good night’s sleep.
If you’re running Android 9 Pie on a compatible phone, you can download Digital Wellbeing now from the Google Play Store.
Note that you will need to wait about 24 hours after doing so for the app to actually work: When it does, you will see a Digital Wellbeing entry appear in Settings. I will be writing up this solution once I’ve had time to test it.
In the meantime, be sure to check out Mehedi’s post, Digital Health is Too Important to Trust Apple and Google. As he notes, digital health features are incredibly important, but we are all ultimately responsible for our own behavior.