Google Launched Five New Digital Wellbeing Apps for Android Users

How would you feel if your phone’s wallpaper displayed a running tally of the number of times you unlock your device every day? 

Perplexed? Indifferent?

If you have an android phone, Google has something new for you that is part of the company’s Digital wellbeings efforts.

Google is so serious about the “Digital Wellbeing” initiative. 

It has launched new digital wellbeing experiments on Android and they are all available for free to download as apps. 

The idea is to cut down the usage of a smartphone in our lives and be more productive.

Unlock Clock

The one mentioned above is about Unlock clock. 

Unlock Clock is a live wallpaper that keeps a count of the number of times you have unlocked your phone. 

It displays this count on your home screen.

Unlock Clock helps you consider your tech use, by counting and displaying the number of times you unlock your phone in a day. 

Simply download the wallpaper and get started.

Post Box

How would you like it if your notifications are delivered only four times a day in a neatly organized manner? 

Post Box does just that. 

Instead of delivering all the notifications at the same time, Post Box collects notifications and delivers them at a fixed time four times during the day.

Minimize distractions with scheduled notifications.

We Flip

We’ve all been in groups where many people keep using their smartphones while still trying to participate. 

This can have an adverse impact on the group bonding, and We Flip tries to address just that.

We Flip, all the smartphones in the group are paired together. 

All the users tap on the switch and start a new “session”. 

As soon as a member unlocks their phone, the session ends and the app throws up some stats. 

Google essentially wants you to spend quality time together.

Spend quality time together by switching off from technology as a group.

Dessert Island

As the name signifies, Desert Island takes over the control of your smartphone and only provides you access to those apps that you need the most. 

You can customize the list of these apps, so it is not as drastic as it sounds, but once you start the challenge, you will have to stick with it for the next 24 hours.

Find focus by going a day with only your essential apps.

Morph

Morph is an interesting take on digital wellbeing, but it is more of a contextual app surfacing feature more than anything else. 

Once you have Morph up and running, it tries to surface relevant apps based on your requirements. 

For example, during work, Morph will display email, calendar, and document apps.

Stay focused on getting the right apps at the right time.

Google is encouraging developers to take inspiration from these early examples and come up with their own Digital Wellbeing experiments using a “Hack Pack” and various APIs. 

“The more people that get involved the more we can all learn about building better technology for everyone,” the company wrote.