How to check and manage your screen time on your Android phone

How to check and manage your screen time on your Android phone

So, you upgraded to the latestGoogle Pixel 8and now spend your days enjoying your new smartphone. But don’t forget that, like any technology, smartphones are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they put the world’s knowledge at your fingertips. On the other hand, they let you drown in the unending depth of social media.

To combat this problem and allow users to make informed decisions, Google added screen time tracking as part of the Digital Wellbeing feature in Android. It lets users track their daily smartphone usage. We recommend setting up and checking your usage data periodically to ensure you use your phone productively. Here’s how you’re able to check screen time on your Android device runningAndroid 14or earlier versions of Android.

Why you should check screen time on Android

According to astudy conducted by Éilish Duke and Christian Montagand published in Science Direct, there’s a direct correlation between high screen time and low productivity. Not only that, the study also observed that smartphone addiction negatively affects daily life.

Since screen time can track your smartphone usage, it can give you an idea of whether you have smartphone overuse problems. The feature also shows you the apps that send you the most notifications and the apps you spend the most time in, so it’s possible to easily find culprit apps and take necessary actions.

It is time you take some steps to reduce the notification clutter on your Android phone

How to check your screen time on Android

Checking your screen time is straightforward as long as your Android smartphone has the Digital Wellbeing feature.

The Digital Wellbeing pie chart shows your total screen time across all apps. For a more detailed breakdown of your per-app screen time, tap the chart to access the screen time dashboard. From here, tap an app for more insight into your phone usage habits.

How to add a screen time widget to your home screen

You can add a screen time widget to your Android phone’s home screen to check your screen time at a glance. The widget is available on devices running Android 9 or higher.

How to add the Digital Wellbeing icon to your app drawer

There’s no need to jump into the Settings menu or use the widget to access screen time in Digital Wellbeing. The app can appear in the app drawer if you prefer accessing it that way, though you’ll need to turn on the relevant option first.

On Samsung phones, tap the three-dot overflow menu button in the upper-right corner of the Digital Wellbeing page, selectSettings, and then turn onShow Digital Wellbeing on Apps screen.

What does your Digital Wellbeing screen time indicate?

The Digital Wellbeing dashboard shows a rundown of your screen time, including how much you stare at your phone daily and the time you spend on various apps. This is a great way to gain insight into your phone usage habits, such as how long you use it to get work done and how long you spend on social media apps or games.

Digital Wellbeing’s screen time helps you put your smartphone use into perspective. Working professionals who use their phones to check emails, Slack messages, and more average a screen time of around three to four hours. Anything higher than this should be the exception rather than the norm.

Using your phone for an extended period can negatively impact its battery life. When the screen time dashboard indicates that you spent hours playing Temple Run 2, that may be to blame for the poor battery life.

Digital Wellbeing’s screen time feature is available for Android phones and tablets. If your child uses an Android tablet for studying, use screen time to get an overview of how the device is used.

Various Digital well-being tools can bring some sanity to your work-life balance. To achieve this, considersetting up Digital Wellbeingon your Android phone.

How to set app timers to limit your screen time

You can reduce the usage of specific apps by setting up app timers in Digital Wellbeing. Use this feature to set time limits for apps you use on a daily basis. When that quota is exhausted, Digital Wellbeing makes that app inaccessible for your well-being.

When an app’s time limit is exhausted, its icon is grayed out. When launched, a prompt says the timer has run out, and the app can only be used from tomorrow. It is possible to set up app timers for multiple apps.

How to set up Focus mode to prevent distractions from other apps

Set up Focus mode if you are frequently distracted by notifications from social media apps while checking emails, Slack messages, or other activities. For example, pause notifications from Facebook, Instagram, and Gmail until after work hours. Set up a Focus mode for such a use case.

Focus mode automatically turns on during the specified schedule and blocks notifications from selected apps.

How to set up Bedtime mode

Bedtime mode is another useful part of Google’s Digital Wellbeing suite. This mode triggers itself when you are about to go to sleep. It automatically changes multiple system settings to ensure your sleep is not affected. This includes turning on Do Not Disturb to block notifications, switching the phone’s display to grayscale to reduce the strain on your eyes, and lowering the screen brightness. The Pixel 7 and Pixel 8 series also offer Snore and Cough Detection in Bedtime mode.

After you’ve set up and used Bedtime mode for a few weeks, you get an overview of your screen time and cough and snore information.

How Android’s Digital Wellbeing compares to iOS Screen Time feature

Like Android offers the Digital Wellbeing feature to track your smartphone use, iPhones have a Screen Time feature that does the same. While both features are similar, theiOS Screen Time implementation takes the cakewith a slight margin.

The first thing we like about the Screen Time feature on iPhones and iPads is that you can sync data across devices. That means you can see your usage pattern across all your devices in one place. This gives you a better idea of how you spend your screen time.

Secondly, and this might go either way, Screen Time isn’t so strict with its application of app timers. When you reach your app time limit on Android, the only way to use that app again is to go back to Settings and allow more time for it. On iOS, you may allow the app for a few extra minutes or the entire day without changing the timer in the settings.

One might argue that Android’s approach is better here as it makes it harder to bypass the app time limits, but we like that iOS doesn’t force us to change our daily time allowance for an app if we want to use it for some extra time.

With the latestiOS 17 update, Apple added a new Screen Distance feature, which warns users when their iPhones are too close to their eyes. It ensures that the time you spend on your phone isn’t too harmful to your eyes.

While iOS seems to have the upper hand, the bottom line is that Screen Time on iOS and Digital Wellbeing on Android do a good job of helping users curb their smartphone use.

Take control of your screen time with Android’s helpful tools

Managing your screen time is a great way to improve your digital health, as you can see the effect of turning off notifications, activating focus mode, and other Digital Wellbeing features. However, when using your phone, you’ll want to be as efficient as possible. Try theseproductivity apps to get the most out of your screen time.

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