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.
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.