App-solutely attached: Android’s Digital Wellbeing tool just got smarter with Screen Time Reminders, aka gentle nudges when you’ve been glued to an app for too long. To turn them on, go to Digital Wellbeing and parental controls > Screen time reminders > Turn on. The catches? You can’t set a time for them to appear, and you can’t control how often they pop up. Still, give it a shot, and let me know if they help!
Can’t put your phone down? Here are tips to cut back on screen time
The more apps you have, the slower your phone runs and the more exposed you are to security risks. Tap or click here to run an app audit.
More apps lead to more time spent staring at our screens. Take a guess which country’s residents are most addicted to their phones? If you guessed the U.S., you’re wrong.
Where do we rank in the world?
The most serious screen addicts are South Africans, who spend 9.5 hours daily staring at phones and computers. The Japanese are at the other end of the spectrum, who have less than 4 hours of screen time daily.
Americans fall somewhere above the middle at 7.5 hours, with almost 43% of our waking hours.
A good chunk of our screen time is spent on mobile phones (21% of our day), and we can thank (or blame) Apple for revolutionizing portable internet with the iPhone.
Check yourself
The average person is awake for 17 hours per day and spends over 6.5 hours on a screen. How much time do you spend doomscrolling and browsing social media? Take a deep breath and look now.
Before you can view your app and device usage, you need to turn on Screen Time.
Set up Screen Time on iPhone
- Go to Settings > Screen Time.
- Tap Turn On Screen Time, then tap Continue.
- Tap This is My iPhone if you’re setting up Screen Time for yourself on your iPhone. If you’re setting up Screen Time for your child (or family member), tap This is My Child’s iPhone.
- To use Screen Time on all your Apple devices, scroll down, then turn on Share Across Devices.
After you turn on Screen Time, you can view a report of your device usage with information including how much time you spend using certain kinds of apps, how often you pick up your iPhone and other devices, what apps send you the most notifications and more.
How to finally kick your social media scrolling habit
Endless scrolling every morning. Hours wasted on TikTok after work. What’s the best way to build better habits regarding your relationship with your phone?
Digital wellness has been a huge topic of concern recently. Apple and Android devices claim to prioritize the mental health of their users. One of our favorite ways to maximize productivity is through features that limit the amount of time we spend on entertainment platforms like Instagram, YouTube and the rest.
Give your willpower a hand
Social media apps are designed to keep you scrolling. Do yourself a solid and tell your phone to limit your time on TikTok, Instagram or your weakness of choice.
On iPhone:
- Go to Settings > Screen Time.
- Tap App Limits > Add Limit.
- To set limits for individual apps, tap the category name to see everything there, then select the ones you want to limit.
- Tap Next at the top right, then set the amount of time allowed.
- When you finish setting limits, tap Add.
On Android:
- Open Settings > Digital Wellbeing & parental controls, then tap the chart.
- Select the app you want to limit or tap the hourglass icon.
- Choose how much time you can spend on that app. Then, tap OK or Set.
- The app will switch to black and white when you have one minute. After that, you’re locked out.
⏱️ For the record, you can override it once time runs out, but don’t! You set that limit for a reason. Speaking of time, the past, present and future walked into a bar. It was tense.
Delete these apps to keep your phone fast and safe
It’s a fact: your devices work better when running lean. An excess of useless apps and files consumes storage space and slows everything from opening programs to browsing the web.
When was the last time you gave your computer a good going-over? You probably have stuff on that hard drive you completely forgot about or never use. One of the simplest ways to boost a PC or Mac is by clearing out some space and removing the files you don’t need to store locally. Tap or click here to speed up your computer in three steps.
One tech change that can improve your health and wellness this year
If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to take charge of your health, there are a few ways to kick-start your journey. One of them is organizing your health records with this built-in smartphone feature.
However, your health shouldn’t just be your physical well-being. It should also extend to your digital life. It’s easy to assume those two are separate, but plenty of studies correlate digital lifestyle with physical and mental wellness.
Break your phone addiction with these proven settings
Our phones — filled with emails to check, social media to scroll, and apps to open — are designed to keep us glued to them. It’s easy to get sucked in and find it difficult to put the phone down. The app and web developers specifically designed it that way.
Can't put your phone down? How to lock yourself out
Have you been following up on your New Year’s resolutions? It’s not too late, even if you didn’t make any resolutions, to begin with. The point is to find something and stick to it.
It’s not all about losing weight or picking up a new hobby. You can start the year right by getting your tech products in order. From deleting and donating your old devices to reducing distractions, our tech resolutions are easy to follow. Tap or click here to check them out.
12 smart Android tips and tricks you should be using
Apple gets all the credit for fancy phone tricks and hacks, but that doesn’t mean Android is without cool features. If you haven’t joined the iPhone nation yet, you might be wondering what secret tricks your newest Android phone is holding for you. Tap or click for seven things you didn’t know your Android could do.
Have guests staying with you? How to tell if someone has been snooping on your phone
Ever have that feeling someone knows a little too much? It happens you get an ad for something you mentioned in passing to a friend. “How,” you might wonder, “did Google know I wanted to take a trip to Montana?”
Rest easy with these new Android sleep settings
With everything going on in the world today, it can be difficult to take a moment for ourselves and get some shut-eye. Not to mention those times when you can’t turn your thoughts off and just toss and turn all night.