Digital Well-being initiative: Create screen time awareness

[Amorphous404]

Is your feature request related to a problem?

No

Describe the solution you'd like

A mock up from Indistractable launcher, Hope something similar gets incorporated in Niagara 😊

[Just-SKY]

It would be great if something like this is implemented. This can be done by using the "Usage access" of the phone. (not the "Digital wellbeing" app).

A launcher called "Ratio" give that feature using the "usage access" Like this image.

It would be nice something like this.

[Maxr1998]

I'm not sure we want to request an additional permission for this feature, and unfortunately, Niagara cannot access the already collected data from Google's digital wellbeing app. Also, showing the data on the home screen would hurt the minimal appearance of the Launcher.

It would be nice if we could show this in the long-press menu, but at least right now, we don't have any plans to implement it.

[Amorphous404]

This feature will help users to reduce screen time, as the user would be able to see app usage time right before they open any app; the usage time in the screenshots I shared above looks very minimal; it doesn't much affect the Niagara minimalistic approach. Long-pressing the app to view would be less effective, imo. Most users, I think use the long-press menu to edit their apps; you probably have the stats on how many user tap on the screen-time option in the long-press menu.

And about the usage data, I think Google Digital Wellbeing Itself doesn't have/collect the data; it uses the usage access permission to fetch the data from the system, which it stores for a couple of days; that's why every well-being app can show the old/past usage data right after installing it.

The usage permission could be requested if a user prefers to enable this feature similar to the accessibility permission, so the users who do not feel comfortable sharing the permission or don't want to use it would have the option to disable it.

It's totally up to the team how you think of it; I just felt it would give some meaning to the digital well-being initiative 🙂

[8bitPit]

Thank you all for your feedback and ideas! Just a heads up: While we don't know how exactly how we'll present the data, we're exploring a few ways to create awareness of one's phone use. That's why renamed the ticket and broadened it up a bit, I hope that's okay for you. Here are two mockups (the first one shows the usage data in two different ways) we came up with:

[Amorphous404]

• Home Screen

• App Drawer

• High App Usage Alert

Hey, Thank You For Considering It, It will be a great feature, Yes Something Like This Has Been On My Mind, I Have Shared A Few Mock Up Above.

Idk, but looking at mockup you shared, feels like only the apps that has high usage will show the app time,

Let me suggest what i think, showing the app usage time for all the apps a user (doesn't matter how long) used below the app name in a minimal size, would be great, as user will be able to make a conscious decision, by looking at app usage time whether to open it or not.

Unused app don't have to show any usage time (can be left empty)

High Usage Alert: The Mockup you shared, seems like it will warn the user based on how many time a user opened the app, again i think, it will be a problem i think, as most Android user have the tendency to swipe away the apps frequently, ik that is not good for a phone 😅, Instead A Setting can be provided to set timer for high usage Alert for an app (whole apps will have same timer or can be set individual usage time per app i.e Twitter: 1hour, Telegram: 30min etc).

A New Setting Page Can Be Created Where It Will Have All The Digital Wellbeing Related Settings:

1. Notification Summary Can Be Shifted There.
2. App Usage Time Below App Name On/Off Toggle. (This Will Help User Who Don't Want App Usage Time Or To Keep Their Setup Clean)
3. Keep The Usage Time Widget Separated (As Some Users Might Just Want To See The Phone Usage Time Below Clock Widget)
4. Set Timer For High Usage Alert (Applies Globally Or Per App Basis).

Thank You, Hope It's Not Confusing, I'm Not Good At Explaining Things 😅

[Amorphous404]

Thank you all for your feedback and ideas! Just a heads up: While we don't know how exactly how we'll present the data, we're exploring a few ways to create awareness of one's phone use. That's why renamed the ticket and broadened it up a bit, I hope that's okay for you. Here are two mockups (the first one shows the usage data in two different ways) we came up with:

And yes forgot to mention, since notification summary is a part of digital wellbeing, I'm mentioning it here, hope you don't mind, please provide a direct toggle on/off for notification summary with current selected app being saved, as of now if a user want to turn of notification summary for time being, he has to unselect all apps to turn off notification summary, and vise versa to turn on, select the apps again, which is quite a hassle 😅,

Thank You

[Just-SKY]

Both @8bitPit ideas/ ways are necessary because there are gonna be users who are going to use just one and others both.

Overuse Warnings Warning the user by the number of times that launch an app in an hour is great; however, they could launch an app just 2/3 times an use it for hours. As a result, this warning must also be triggered when the "app usage" passes certain amount of time. It could be standard times for all the apps like 1h, 1:30min, etc.This rule could apply for all apps, or for apps that the user choose to be warned. Both rules would be valuable to trigger warnings.

Screen Time I personally just prefer and will use "app usage on screen" and not "total phone usage" I find the last one just to intrusive and unnecessary. By controlling "apps usage" we control phone usage, so it isn't necessary to add a whole extra line for phone usage.

"App usage on screen" must only appear when an app reach certain amount of time. By doing this, Niagara will keep the screen clean and letting the user know an overuse of an app when necessary. When we have "app usage on screen" and notifications at the same time, the "app usage" must be hidden while the notification of the app is still active.

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@topsy-turvy99 "Let me suggest what i think, showing the app usage time for all the apps a user (doesn't matter how long) used below the app name in a minimal size, would be great."

Showing an app with just 5/10min doesn't make sense The main idea is to show the usage of those apps that are problematic.

@topsy-turvy99 Instead A Setting can be provided to set timer for high usage Alert for an app (whole apps will have same timer or can be set individual usage time per app i.e Twitter: 1hour, Telegram: 30min etc).

The idea of setting timers for each app isn't a good. There are lots of people with tons of apps. It can become a chaos easily, it is better to control the "overuse alerts" by rules.

[Amorphous404]

Thanks for sharing your point of view 🙂

1. Why i suggested, to show usage time for all used apps is because, say i my facebook limit is set to 1hr, if the usage time is shown below the app name, it will help me know upright and not after i crossed the usage limit that i have used the app for 30 min and i have remaining thirty minutes to use that way i will be able to make a conscious decision based on it, and it can added in a small minimal way, that it doesn't hurt the Niagara minimalist design, as for showing usage time for only the apps that has high usage doesn't make sense as eventually a user will get a pop up warning of high usage before opening the app. And you also shared Ration Launcher Ss, se there too it has usage time for all the used apps, and some few other launcher like indistratble launcher does the same too cause it make sense, if you want the user to make aware of his or her phone habit

2. Setting Per App Usage Time Is Not Necessary that i why i mentioned it in (Or), it can be added later on if the dev wants to provide more control to users, the benifit of it, say for example a user can divide time accross different app, it doesn't matter if a user has many apps, he can search the apps he use most via search and add the timer and those apps will mobe up of the app list, so it will be easier to look for the apps a user has set time for, for example facebook 45min, telegram 30min and so on, after the the limit is crossed, the user will be served, with a pop up saying you crossed today limit for the app.

3.Phone Total Usage In My Opinion Is Just A Widget, Which Can Toggled Of Like All The Other Widgets In Niagara.

And the devs can start it slow, starting with few option before making it full fledged feature and take suggestion from users along the way 🙂

[Oddward]

Being minimal means it shouldn't be showing lots of unnecessary elements. It makes more sense to only show usage time for apps that have significant usage time, otherwise every app could have an additional bit of text after launching it once which looks messy (it does on Indistractible launcher when I used it, I didn't care to read the usage time for apps that I don't feel I'm addicted to or that don't waste more time than expected) 🤔

Too much micromanagement is not a good way to manage time or reduce distraction IMO, you'd just waste more time looking at usage stats etc. At least having a threshold makes sense, like showing the usage time once it surpasses 1 hour or 30 mins?

I think making the text too small wouldn't be good for a lot of users and adds inconsistency

[Amorphous404]

Being minimal means it shouldn't be showing lots of unnecessary elements. It makes more sense to only show usage time for apps that have significant usage time, otherwise every app could have an additional bit of text after launching it once which looks messy (it does on Indistractible launcher when I used it, I didn't care to read the usage time for apps that I don't feel I'm addicted to or that don't waste more time than expected) 🤔

Too much micromanagement is not a good way to manage time or reduce distraction IMO, you'd just waste more time looking at usage stats etc. At least having a threshold makes sense, like showing the usage time once it surpasses 1 hour or 30 mins?

I think making the text too small wouldn't be good for a lot of users and adds inconsistency

That's make sense, only showing the time for most used apps (But I Would Like To see a toggle to turn It Off, Since I'll already Be warned with the high usage popup alert on threshold passed apps) and will help keep the screen clean)

And i will use the widget instead to check app usage time,

since it will Clutter the Niagara minimalist approach if it shows usage time for all the used in app list and favorites,

The data can be can be presented in the Total Usage Time Widget , Tapping On it will open calender like panel, where it it show App Usage Time For Top 10 Apps (Highlighted), Followed By The Other Apps For The Day, (Just like How Digital Wellbeing Apps Presents Data but would like to see the app usage time of per apps on far right side, not at the bottom of the app name)

What do you think?

[Amorphous404]

Thank you all for your feedback and ideas! Just a heads up: While we don't know how exactly how we'll present the data, we're exploring a few ways to create awareness of one's phone use. That's why renamed the ticket and broadened it up a bit, I hope that's okay for you. Here are two mockups (the first one shows the usage data in two different ways) we came up with:

Hey, just thought i will share it here,

i just liked the way Microsoft Launcher Implimented the screen time dashboard which launches upon tapping on the screen time widget, which presents the data in a just the way i wanted neat and detailed, i hope something similar can be implemented in Niagara Launcher.