Get off the phone

Google releases three apps for its Digital Wellbeing Experiments

In a continuous effort to help users from over using their phones, Google releases new apps to remind you to enjoy the real world a little more.

Google Digital Wellbeing Experiments apps (source: Google)

In 2019, Google started the Digital Wellbeing Experiments project with apps to help users stop using their phone as much to enjoy the real world a little more.

When the project originally launched, it includes five apps, and now, the company is introducing (via Thurrott) three new apps for the Digital Wellbeing Experiments, including the Screen Stopwatch, Activity Bubbles, and Envelope.

The Envelope is a template file that you can print out and fold to create an actual envelope to put your phone. The envelope provides an interface make of paper that you can use to make calls, take photos, and check the current time.

Then, there’s the Activity Bubbles, which is an app that creates a new bubble with each unlock of the phone, and the longer you use the phone, the bigger the bubble will get. At the end of the day, depending on how many times you unlocked the phone, you’ll end up with a lot of bubbles on the screen giving you a glimpse of the usage.

And the last app is the Screen Stopwatch, which is a live wallpaper that tells you the time you spend each day on your phone to remind you that you need to use it a little less.