Digital Wellbeing Wind Down mode gets 30-minute pause option

At Google I/O 2018, Google announced arguably one of the healthiest features for its Android OS, Digital Wellbeing and Wind Down mode. See, our phones are now more capable than ever. We spend quite a bit of time on them each day. While that in itself is not a bad thing, this happens at the expense of other things in our lives.

Digital Wellbeing was incorporated into the Android operating system to help keep track of a number of parameters on a person’s usage. These include how much time you send in each app, how frequently you unlock your device and more.

It also incorporated mitigation features that allow users to ‘detox’. These are features that among other things, set time limits to apps, set hard outs that make it hard to use your phone so you can sleep by grayscaling your display and more.

All these tools have been really helpful and even I know a number of people who heavily rely on this feature to help them use their smartphones sensibly and manage their time. However, these measures can be a little bit too limiting.

Imagine a scenario where you have set up your Wind Down mode, the time you set it quickly drawing near but you have some urgent work you need to attend to before bedtime. Well, your phone will initiate Wind Down mode regardless. This lack of flexibility has often led to users turning off the feature altogether.

As noted by Android Police, in the latest Digital Wellbeing Beta, Google is seeking to fix this. The company is incorporating a new option that allows users to snooze Wind Down mode for up to 30 more minutes.

Wind Down feature will be automatically resumed once thirty minutes have passed. If users don’t need all the thirty minutes to complete their remaining tasks, they may switch Wellbeing back on from the notification bar as per their convenience.

At the moment, this feature is rolling out to users who have signed up for the beta program of the app. However, it might roll out to supported devices at a later time. If you are interested, you can sign up for the beta program on the Play Store.

NOTE: We have these and more Android stories here.

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