Digital Wellbeing is a great Android utility that helps users manage the usage and time spent on their smartphones. There is a recent update from Digital Wellbeing that it will now turn the apps grayscale before they reach the time limit that the user already set for them to log off.
For example, if a user sets a time limit to certain apps, like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc., as soon as your time limit ends, your system would automatically log you out of those apps. Now, with Digital Wellbeing’s new update, the apps will start turning gray a while before they go off. This is going to be like a visual reminder for the user that ‘time-up’ is coming and they should hurry in completing whatever they were doing, or wrap up the chat that they were having before they suddenly go off and keep the other person dangling in thin air, waiting for their response!
Of course, that is an over-dramatic statement. Once a user is logged out of an app, he can log back in if he wants. Also, once the preset time limit is hit, the user will stop receiving notifications from the app, but they will be able to unlock the app again if they want. But then, it will completely kill the purpose of indulging a tool to manage and police the usage of mobile apps.
With Digital Wellbeing’s grayscale visual alarm, only the apps in question will turn gray. The rest of your Android user interface will remain bright and colorful though. This will be in sharp contrast with the now ‘graying’ apps and will give the user another quick reminder that it is time to put the phone at rest, and that they might have been over-using their phone and apps again.
Android’s built-in and recently introduced ‘Bedtime Mode’ is also a bit similar in such a way that it also switches the entire Android user interface into grayscale. But that is where the difference lies between the Bedtime Mode and Digital Wellbeing’s latest update. Bedtime Mode will grayscale the entire Android system, while this latest feature of DW will make the selected apps gray only. Also, unlike the Bedtime Mode, users will still be able to take screenshots in the grayscale of DW. So, it further clarifies that this is not a permanent or an entire system-level change.
Currently, this updated feature is available in the 1.32 beta version of Digital Wellbeing. Let us see when it rolls out for a wider audience and in stable channels?
Hat Tip: AP.
Read next: Chrome 85 Beta Brings Two Major Changes
For example, if a user sets a time limit to certain apps, like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc., as soon as your time limit ends, your system would automatically log you out of those apps. Now, with Digital Wellbeing’s new update, the apps will start turning gray a while before they go off. This is going to be like a visual reminder for the user that ‘time-up’ is coming and they should hurry in completing whatever they were doing, or wrap up the chat that they were having before they suddenly go off and keep the other person dangling in thin air, waiting for their response!
Of course, that is an over-dramatic statement. Once a user is logged out of an app, he can log back in if he wants. Also, once the preset time limit is hit, the user will stop receiving notifications from the app, but they will be able to unlock the app again if they want. But then, it will completely kill the purpose of indulging a tool to manage and police the usage of mobile apps.
With Digital Wellbeing’s grayscale visual alarm, only the apps in question will turn gray. The rest of your Android user interface will remain bright and colorful though. This will be in sharp contrast with the now ‘graying’ apps and will give the user another quick reminder that it is time to put the phone at rest, and that they might have been over-using their phone and apps again.
Android’s built-in and recently introduced ‘Bedtime Mode’ is also a bit similar in such a way that it also switches the entire Android user interface into grayscale. But that is where the difference lies between the Bedtime Mode and Digital Wellbeing’s latest update. Bedtime Mode will grayscale the entire Android system, while this latest feature of DW will make the selected apps gray only. Also, unlike the Bedtime Mode, users will still be able to take screenshots in the grayscale of DW. So, it further clarifies that this is not a permanent or an entire system-level change.
Currently, this updated feature is available in the 1.32 beta version of Digital Wellbeing. Let us see when it rolls out for a wider audience and in stable channels?
Hat Tip: AP.
Read next: Chrome 85 Beta Brings Two Major Changes
