Finding balance with Android’s Digital Wellbeing features

What is Android Digital Wellbeing?

The more social media and mobile technology has developed, the more we've become dependent on our smartphones and the apps we use everyday. At this point, mobile phones are an integral part of our day-to-day lives, which makes achieving a healthy balance ever more important, and more challenging.

Over the past year we’ve spoken to experts, parents and young people about their experience with smartphones and social media as part of the HMD Better Phone Project. Several of the experts we spoke with shared perspectives on the risks and possible negative impacts of excessive smartphone use, both for children/teens as well as for adults. Some of the effects that have been identified can range from decreased attention spans to increases in negative comparison behaviors - just to mention a few. In this post, we’ll share some ideas on how you can use the Digital Wellbeing feature in your Android or HMD smartphones to monitor your phone and app usage, and how you can use some of the built-in features to set some boundaries on when and how you're using your phone or particular apps.

Tell me more about the Android Digital Wellbeing features

Our screens are the first thing we see in the morning and probably the last thing we see before bed. Taking a hold of our own lives, and not letting technology control us is made even easier through the Digital Wellbeing feature, available to anyone using Android™ 10 or later.

Here are three ways you can take back control and find some balance:

1. Tracking your screen time, unlocks, and notifications

Do you really know how many times you check your phone each day? Or how many hours you spend watching screens? The number may surprise you. One of the clever features on the Android Digital Wellbeing is to track your screen time. And as the classic saying goes – what gets tracked, gets managed.

Not only can you track total screen time but you can also see how much of that time is spent on specific apps, how many notifications you received and even how many times you opened your phone. This is super useful to help get a sense and track how many times a day you’re reaching for your phone.

In the Activity details section, you can follow three things:

• Screen time in minutes and hours by day
• Notifications received by day
• Times opened (or unlocks) by day

To check this out yourself you need to go to the Activity details section in your Digital Wellbeing tools. To do this, on your phone open Settings > Digital wellbeing and parental controls > View activity details.

2. Enhance your productivity with Focus Mode

Even when you aren’t actively on your phone, receiving notifications can still be distracting. Mobile phones can affect us even passively. Professor Gloria Mark discussed productivity and attention spans, and the way that smartphones have led to a decline in attention spans. With the average attention span now just 47 seconds and continuing to shrink, Professor Mark was surprised by the findings from her attention studies. She noted, "I didn’t expect attention spans to be this short. In 2012, we recorded an average of 75 seconds, but by 2016, it had already dropped to 47 seconds."

You can read more about smartphone’s affects of attention span and focus and how you can help fix your attention span here.

It doesn’t take a productivity guru to tell you the key is to block out distractions and notifications. With Focus Mode on the digital wellbeing section, not only can you block out notifications, you can set specific times to be in focus mode. If you haven’t already, try it for yourself. Start a light detox by taking a break from social media. Pay attention to how you feel and how well you’re able to focus. Everyone’s experience will be a bit different, but with fewer interruptions and distractions, you’ll likely notice some immediate effects and a difference in how you’re able to maintain focus over a longer period of time.

3. Unplug and unwind with Bedtime mode

While it's good to take a break from your screens before going to sleep, maybe it’s not so bad if your screen is the last thing you see before bed. The key is how you use your phone and about setting healthy boundaries for yourself. After a long day, you can use Bedtime mode to unplug for the night automatically – just set your bedtime and your screen automatically dims and silences your notifications. No more doom scrolling until late into the night, you can enjoy a full night’s rest without any disturbance.

Not sure what to do without scrolling on your phone? We’ve found 10 things to do instead of social media!

Finding balance in a digital world

By integrating the Digital Wellbeing features into your daily routine, you'll be able to start can achieve a better balance, and cultivate healthier habits. And why not try it on an HMD smartphone while you’re at it. For example on HMD Skyline, we have additional features like Detox Mode if you really want to up the ante on your productivity.