Google - through their Creative Lab - recently released some interesting Digital Wellbeing apps.
www.theverge.com
I've been trying out two in particular:
- Unlock Clock, which displays (as a wallpaper on your Home Screen) how many times a day you unlock your phone
- Post Box, which basically puts your phone in Do Not Disturb, but then "delivers" all your notifications to you up to 4 times a day in a nice fancy way.
There are a few other ones as well, but I didn't particularly take to any of them.
After having used both Unlock Clock and Post Box properly, the results are really interesting from a Digital Wellbeing view.
Unlock Clock just raises awareness - in my life, if I'm unlocking my phone more than 100 times a day, that's just way too much. But that was guessing. This is a great visual reminder not to be on my phone constantly, and I average out about 60-80 times a day (which is fine). It's not overbearing and as a subtle reminder, I like it. Will keep.
Post Box is fascinating. I absolute love it, so much. It removes so much stress from my day, so many pointless notifications... And you can check up manually if you need to.
The first week I used Post Box, it was like a revolution. The second week, I was super busy with an event and needed to be available, so I had to turn it off - the constant ping of messages annoyed me within minutes!
The event is over and Post Box is now back on 😀 HOWEVER, they definitely need to improve it. It basically blocks out phone calls too, which is ridiculous. With more granular control, this could be a wonderful option for countless people.
It's a bit different to simply leaving Do Not Disturb on permanently, as it collates all your notifications beautifully. The idea is awesome, the execution needs tweaking.
Google just launched a handful of clever apps to help you spend less time on your phone
One of them is a wallpaper that counts every time you unlock your device.
www.theverge.com
I've been trying out two in particular:
- Unlock Clock, which displays (as a wallpaper on your Home Screen) how many times a day you unlock your phone
- Post Box, which basically puts your phone in Do Not Disturb, but then "delivers" all your notifications to you up to 4 times a day in a nice fancy way.
There are a few other ones as well, but I didn't particularly take to any of them.
After having used both Unlock Clock and Post Box properly, the results are really interesting from a Digital Wellbeing view.
Unlock Clock just raises awareness - in my life, if I'm unlocking my phone more than 100 times a day, that's just way too much. But that was guessing. This is a great visual reminder not to be on my phone constantly, and I average out about 60-80 times a day (which is fine). It's not overbearing and as a subtle reminder, I like it. Will keep.
Post Box is fascinating. I absolute love it, so much. It removes so much stress from my day, so many pointless notifications... And you can check up manually if you need to.
The first week I used Post Box, it was like a revolution. The second week, I was super busy with an event and needed to be available, so I had to turn it off - the constant ping of messages annoyed me within minutes!
The event is over and Post Box is now back on 😀 HOWEVER, they definitely need to improve it. It basically blocks out phone calls too, which is ridiculous. With more granular control, this could be a wonderful option for countless people.
It's a bit different to simply leaving Do Not Disturb on permanently, as it collates all your notifications beautifully. The idea is awesome, the execution needs tweaking.