Google releases experimental apps to help limit smartphone use

Under the heading Digital Wellbeing Experiments, Google has released six Android apps that should encourage smartphone users to use their phone more consciously or less. Developers can also submit their own experiments.

The six experimental apps are on a Google page explaining the project. The apps work on all Android smartphones. Unlock Clock adds an interactive background with a counter that shows how many times the smartphone has been unlocked in a day. Post Box is an app that collects notifications in the background and shows them all at once at a certain time. Users can set to receive such a bundle of notifications up to four times a day.

Desert Island app allows users to set some essential apps that they can access. This should help users focus without distraction from other apps. Morph is an app that uses the Google Maps API and adjusts how the phone works depending on where the user is. For example, users at work see different apps than at home.

We Flip is an app that is intended for a group of users to deactivate their phone at the same time, for example during a dinner party. The app shows all the people who are in the session and then has them flip a switch together. Paper Phone is also on the page with experiments, an app that allows users to ‘print’ a phone. That is simply an image and has no serious application.

Developers can also create their own experiments and submit them to Google to be considered for publishing on the page. The search giant has put a toolkit on GitHub for this and published a PDF with instructions.