YouTube gets a feature to remind users to go to bed

YouTube takes on a new role as part of the digital wellbeing. A reminder is built in to tell users that it is time to go to bed. Users can set the desired bedtime themselves.

Details of the new functionality are explained on a support page, and parent company Google states that the option to set a bedtime will be available in the application for Android and iPhone. The new feature is available immediately, but it may take a few days for the required update to reach all users.

The bedtime functionality allows users to set a time for the app to notify you that it is bedtime. If desired, this reminder can pause the video that is currently being viewed, but it is also possible to only receive a reminder when the video has ended. In addition, the user has the option to suppress the reminder, or to ‘snooze’ it.

There is already a built-in option to set reminders to take a break. According to Google, three billion reminders have been sent to YouTube viewers since the feature was introduced. The internet giant has been focusing on functions for the so-called ‘digital well-being’ for some time, whereby users gain insight into, among other things, how long they use the application per day.