Digital Wellbeing was introduced last year by Google at their annual developer conference and was slated to launch with Android 9 Pie. It was one of the highly lauded Android 9 Pie features and allows users to manage time people spend inside apps and settings, the number of notifications received and presents the results in a pie chart with the focus to improve productivity.
With Digital Wellbeing, you set an amount of time you can spend on certain apps and when that time ends, you are ousted and the app is greyed out until the next session.
Digital Wellbeing was available only to Google’s Pixel line, Android One devices and as an app but now Google wants more devices to come with this feature already baked in.
No longer Optional
The tech giant now requires all new Android 9 Pie and Android 10 devices to ship with digital wellbeing. At Google’s I/O 2019, the company announced new improvements including Focus Mode that lets users silence distracting apps when enabled for certain predefined apps. Samsung’s One UI 2.0 will come with this feature among other updates.
According to XDA, Google says that any new and existing product that launches with Android 9 or 10 or is upgraded to Android 9 or 10 after September 3rd MUST have a digital wellbeing solution with Family Link parental controls.
The requirement adds that the feature must be prominent by being located at the top level of the settings app. Smartphone manufacturers are allowed to integrate either Google’s own Digital Wellbeing app or by implementing their own custom solution in a seamless way and only if they meet certain compability requirements set by Google – Huawei’s EMUI and Xiaomi MIUI have their own versions.
With this requirement, Google hopes to increase screen addiction awareness and help users regain their freedom.
Family Link parental controls will help parents control their family members devices and monitor their online safety.
