Back in October, Google launched six digital wellbeing experiments and now, it’s launched three more.
Envelope
The first of these three is called Envelope and, sadly, only works for the Pixel 3a. What you do is download the app and then print out a piece of paper.
You then fold the paper into an envelope and slide your phone inside. Printed on the envelope is a dialler so you can still use your phone to make calls when the app is enabled. You can print out an alternative version that lets you take photos and videos instead.
Screen Stopwatch
This app is fairly simple. You set it as your wallpaper and then — once you unlock your phone — it begins counting down how long you use your phone for. This timer stacks throughout the day so when you go to bed you get a very clear picture regarding how much you used your phone during the day.
Activity Bubbles
This app is also an active wallpaper. Every time you unlock your phone, a bubble drops onto the screen to visualize how long you used your phone. For example, when you use your phone for just a couple of minutes, a small ball appears on your home screen. The longer you use your device, the larger the ball.
Anchor
This experiment isn’t available on mobile, but you can add it to Google Chrome on your computer. This extension’s goal is to help people stop endlessly scrolling.
The further you scroll down the page, the screen will get darker, while more fish will appear on the page to visualize you going deeper and deeper.
You can look at all of Google’s Digital Wellbeing experiments online.
Source: Experiments with Google
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