Being in this tech-era, keep your hands off the smartphones is indeed a tough job. Mobile phones have occupied a major part of our lifestyle. But we can’t disagree with the fact that sometimes we use it more than we should.
Smartphones help us in various ways but excessive use can have several negative impacts on us. Not only this smartphone addiction can affect your health as well. That is why Google has launched 3 new apps on Playstore which help you to keep a check on smartphone addiction.
The 3 Google Apps to help you Combat Phone Addiction
This trio of apps will solve the modern-day problem of excessive phone usage. One of the apps is designed and developed by Special Projects – Experiments division and the rest of the apps are the creation of Google Creative Labs.
The former is definitely the most exciting one among the bunch. The main idea is to turn the basic smartphones into feature phones by adding some arts and crafts.
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ENVELOPE
Envelope is quite accurate and Google is trying its best to achieve. The main purpose of this app is to turn Pixel 3a into a basic feature phone. In order to use it, you will need a particular envelope container for your Pixel 3a smartphone (as it is only supported in Google Pixel 3a).
The container will cover it entirely leaving the fingerprint scanner and the camera region. After it is enclosed in a paper, the Pixel 3a works just as before retaining all its features and their functions.
This is possible because the display is covered in paper with light spots under the panel which helps in performing certain actions like clicking pictures, shooting videos and making calls.
Moreover, the envelope is very artsy and creative. It gives a conceptualized experience although you will not be able to look at the photos and videos you have taken without changing the Envelope mode.
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ACTIVITY BUBBLES
This app is quite dynamic as well as interesting. Activity Bubbles is a wallpaper that takes note of your phone usage by keeping a track of your screen-on time. Every time you unlock your phone, a bubble will appear on the home screen and it keeps on growing in size until you lock your phone.
As you keep on unlocking your phone the number of bubbles will also increase. At the end of the day, all the bubbles together will form an abstract wallpaper on your phone. There you will note that each of these bubbles will represent one of your active phone sessions.
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SCREEN STOPWATCH
This app is also wallpaper and its main purpose is to reduce phone addiction. The Screen Stopwatch app totally compliments its name. This wallpaper comes with a big stopwatch on the display home screen of your smartphone that works on the same metric as the Activity Bubbles wallpaper.
As soon as you unlock your phone the stopwatch starts and it only stops when you lock your phone. Again when you unlock your phone the stopwatch starts from the time it has stopped and ends when you lock your phone again.
When the day ends, you can see the correct duration of time you were active on your phone. If the duration is much higher than it should be then you can minimize your usage accordingly.
Reduction of Phone Addiction Gets a New Layout
These were the 3 apps that Google has launched to reduce the current problem of excessive phone usage. According to experts, after performing several trials and tests with these apps, they have reported that all three apps are really helpful.
They have the capability to minimize one’s phone addiction to a great extent. The Envelope app is only available for Pixel 3a users as of now, but Google has planned to develop this app for all other smartphones in the near future.
The other two apps: Activity Bubbles and Screen Stopwatch are supported on most of the latest smartphones. Furthermore, all three apps are available on Google Play Store and that too free of cost.
