Do you check your phone at least several times a day? Have you ever felt a compulsive urge to see if any of your favorite sites / apps / groups had received crucial new information that you would like to read / share? You won't be surprised how many people would answer yes to these questions. Since technology (and phones in particular) have become more and more an integral part of our daily lives, many people have become obsessed with it. Because of this, Google is doing its best to educate people about this issue. Their latest digital wellness apps aim to do just that: make people aware that they rely on their mobile devices.
There are six different experimental wellness apps launched by Google: Unlock Clock, PO Box, We Flip, Paper Phone, Desert Island, and Morph. All of these are available on the Google Play Store.
Unlock the clock is basically a locked screen live wallpaper showing the number of times you unlock the screen in a day. Hope this tells people how often they use their phones each day. In addition, Unlock Clock is a wallpaper, so it will not show up as an app, but will appear in the wallpaper library.
Post Box is a convenient way to organize notifications. Instead of constantly receiving notifications from apps, Mailbox lets you schedule how often and when you want to receive notifications. Basically, it's going to collect all the notifications from all the other apps and send them to you at a specific time of the day. This should help reduce distractions, and you won't feel the need to check your phone too often.
We Flip is an interesting way to promote “community well-being”. The way it works is pretty straightforward. While spending time with other people, you can activate this app and start the session. If a group member unlocks their phone, the session will end and all group members will be able to see how they did it. Similar to other applications, We Flip is available on the Google Play Store.
Paper phone is an interesting way to disconnect from technology. It allows you to physically print a booklet containing important information. This is a very unique way to reduce people's reliance on phones and hopefully some people will find it useful.
Desert island is an app that challenges users to go a day without using their phone too much. It allows users to choose certain essential apps that they find mandatory, and everything else is not on the table. It really is an interesting way for users to test themselves and see if they are too dependent on their mobile devices.
As with Morph, this app allows you to tailor your UI to show you different apps based on time and location. This should give you the flexibility to divide your time and let your phone adjust to show you "the right apps, the right time, and the right place." This app is also available on the Google Play Store.
Seen as experimental tools, these apps could potentially remind everyone how addicted we are to technology, which hopefully should change some of our bad habits and lead to a great lifestyle. healthier.
