Tag Archives: Digital Wellbeing

Ideas from our experts on fighting screen fatigue

I’m a big advocate of stepping away from my laptop and phone after work (I've even beenthatperson who brags about their low screen time stats). But unsurprisingly, those numbers aren’t quite so low these days. Between working remotely, video calling my friends and family, scanning social media and the news, live-streaming fitness classes and definitely spending more time than usual binge-watching my favorite shows, my screen time is way, way (way) up. Sometimes, I’m relieved that I’m still able to do so much with my phone or laptop. Other times, I can’t help but feel overwhelmed and exhausted. 

The reality is that technology is critical. But in trying to find a new sense of balance (or any balance at all), there are a few things we can do to alleviate some of these growing pains. And while I’m not a digital wellbeing expert, I’m lucky to work with a few. I asked some of Google’s experts if they had any advice for me and others who are looking to use technology a little more intentionally. Here’s what they suggested.

Use your voice.   

To avoid getting pulled into your phone, you can use your voice to ask Google Assistant for help completing actions, like setting an alarm, sending a text, playing the latest news, getting answers to questions, help finding recipes or ordering takeout and much more. You can also create custom or ready-made Routines to trigger several actions with a single command. For example, when I say “Hey Google, good morning,” Google Assistant turns on my kitchen lights, starts the coffee maker, reads out my calendar and plays the news. - Lilian Rincon, Senior Director of Product Management, Google Assistant


Find active alternatives.

As our days fill up with video calls, try to step away from the screen and add physical activity into your life. Whether you go for a run, a bike ride or a walk during a telephone meeting there are many ways to squeeze movement in. If you have children, you could even exercise with them. As you make progress, use Google Fit to keep track and earn heart points which can help you meet theWorld Health Organization recommendations. That said, don't be discouraged if you fall short. Every little bit of movement adds up and has tremendoushealth benefits including improving mental health and helping you sleep better. - Kapil Parakh MD, MPH, PhD, Medical Lead, Google Fit


Discuss and plan tech use with kids. 

If you have kids, chat with them about the content you each prefer and work with them to plan out a schedule for listening, watching, playing and interacting with it. Does the content align with your family's values? Does the experience affect your kids' behavior in ways that help them relax and/or thrive? If not, consider alternatives and discuss your reasoning. Use this guide to get help talking to your kids about finding positive content and other tech topics. - Jennifer Kotler, PhD, UXR Lead, Google Play


Intentionally detach from and reattach to work. 

Clearly segmenting work time and non-work time improves one’s satisfaction with their wellbeing. Turning off notifications and putting your laptop out of sight reduces the tendency to check work email or hop into a last-minute video meeting. When it’s time to get back to work, take a few minutes to think through your goals for that work time before getting started. And create a dedicated workspace to signal to your brain that it’s time to focus. - Jessica DiVento, Psy.D., Chief Mental Health Advisor, YouTube


Reduce blue light before bedtime.

Blue light can have a negative impact on our natural sleep cycles by delaying the release of melatonin and increasing our alertness. Putting away screens before bedtime has shown to help people fall asleep easier and sleep better. Start with around 30 minutes of screen-free time before bed, and work your way up to two hours, depending on what works best for you. Try reading a book or listening to an audio program instead so you don’t have to engage with a screen. - Alan McLean, Designer, Google Wellbeing Lab


For more digital wellbeing resources, visit wellbeing.google.


Ideas from our experts on fighting screen fatigue

I’m a big advocate of stepping away from my laptop and phone after work (I've even beenthatperson who brags about their low screen time stats). But unsurprisingly, those numbers aren’t quite so low these days. Between working remotely, video calling my friends and family, scanning social media and the news, live-streaming fitness classes and definitely spending more time than usual binge-watching my favorite shows, my screen time is way, way (way) up. Sometimes, I’m relieved that I’m still able to do so much with my phone or laptop. Other times, I can’t help but feel overwhelmed and exhausted. 

The reality is that technology is critical. But in trying to find a new sense of balance (or any balance at all), there are a few things we can do to alleviate some of these growing pains. And while I’m not a digital wellbeing expert, I’m lucky to work with a few. I asked some of Google’s experts if they had any advice for me and others who are looking to use technology a little more intentionally. Here’s what they suggested.

Use your voice.   

To avoid getting pulled into your phone, you can use your voice to ask Google Assistant for help completing actions, like setting an alarm, sending a text, playing the latest news, getting answers to questions, help finding recipes or ordering takeout and much more. You can also create custom or ready-made Routines to trigger several actions with a single command. For example, when I say “Hey Google, good morning,” Google Assistant turns on my kitchen lights, starts the coffee maker, reads out my calendar and plays the news. - Lilian Rincon, Senior Director of Product Management, Google Assistant


Find active alternatives.

As our days fill up with video calls, try to step away from the screen and add physical activity into your life. Whether you go for a run, a bike ride or a walk during a telephone meeting there are many ways to squeeze movement in. If you have children, you could even exercise with them. As you make progress, use Google Fit to keep track and earn heart points which can help you meet theWorld Health Organization recommendations. That said, don't be discouraged if you fall short. Every little bit of movement adds up and has tremendoushealth benefits including improving mental health and helping you sleep better. - Kapil Parakh MD, MPH, PhD, Medical Lead, Google Fit


Discuss and plan tech use with kids. 

If you have kids, chat with them about the content you each prefer and work with them to plan out a schedule for listening, watching, playing and interacting with it. Does the content align with your family's values? Does the experience affect your kids' behavior in ways that help them relax and/or thrive? If not, consider alternatives and discuss your reasoning. Use this guide to get help talking to your kids about finding positive content and other tech topics. - Jennifer Kotler, PhD, UXR Lead, Google Play


Intentionally detach from and reattach to work. 

Clearly segmenting work time and non-work time improves one’s satisfaction with their wellbeing. Turning off notifications and putting your laptop out of sight reduces the tendency to check work email or hop into a last-minute video meeting. When it’s time to get back to work, take a few minutes to think through your goals for that work time before getting started. And create a dedicated workspace to signal to your brain that it’s time to focus. - Jessica DiVento, Psy.D., Chief Mental Health Advisor, YouTube


Reduce blue light before bedtime.

Blue light can have a negative impact on our natural sleep cycles by delaying the release of melatonin and increasing our alertness. Putting away screens before bedtime has shown to help people fall asleep easier and sleep better. Start with around 30 minutes of screen-free time before bed, and work your way up to two hours, depending on what works best for you. Try reading a book or listening to an audio program instead so you don’t have to engage with a screen. - Alan McLean, Designer, Google Wellbeing Lab


For more digital wellbeing resources, visit wellbeing.google.


Reflections and resolutions for a healthier 2020

The beginning of the new year is a great time to reflect on what’s most important to you. Taking better care of yourself is a common New Year's resolution, but let’s be real—making resolutions is often easier than keeping them. One thing we know: New habits that are repeatable and achievable are the ones that end up sticking. 

At Google, we believe that great technology should improve life, not distract from it, and we’ve heard from people that their health can be impacted by their phone use. That’s why we’ve built digital wellbeing tools and features into our products to help you unplug, minimize digital distractions and focus better when using technology. In 2019, we talked to more than 100,000 people to understand their priorities. Most people told us they need free time for themselves, quality time with others and focused time for work or school. 

This year, we encourage you to reflect on the role that technology plays in your life and set resolutions for how and when you use your phone. Everyone has a unique definition of what balanced tech use looks like, so no matter what your goals are, here are some of the steps you can take to bring digital wellbeing into your life in 2020.  

Woman walking around her home, texting and using phone, getting ready for bed, turning on focus mode and grayscale features.

Free up time for yourself

  • To stop using your phone before bed (or in bed), set a bedtime schedule with Android’s Wind Down, which automatically turns on Do Not Disturb and fades the screen to Grayscale at your chosen bedtime. (Check out this video to see how it works.)

  • Double down on your sleep goals by setting up your personal routine with Google Assistant. Simply say “hey Google, bedtime,” and it can automatically put your phone on silent, adjust lights, set an alarm and tell you about your schedule for the next day. 

  • Silence your notifications on YouTube during your preferred quiet hours.

  • Schedule internet breaks on specific devices or manage screen time by pausing Wi-Fi during bedtime or dinnertime with Google WiFi. Or just ask your Google Assistant to pause the internet connection. 

Spend quality time with your VIPs 

  • To quickly silence all notifications, including phone calls, turn on Do Not Disturb. You can choose to allow calls from the people you have “starred” in your contacts list in case close family and friends need to reach you. Or, if you use the Pixel 2, 3, or 4, simply Flip to Shhh by turning your phone face down on the table to automatically enable Do Not Disturb.  

  • Set digital ground rules and screen time limits for everyone in the household (and monitor their use) with Google Family Link. You can lock a device at bedtime, or simply when you think your child needs a break. Starting with Android 10, Family Link is standard in every Android phone. 

Find focus for work or school

  • With the new Focus mode on Android, you can switch off distractions by silencing the apps that most often require your attention—like email, social media, or the news—so you can get more done in less time. Set up a recurring schedule to make it a habit. 

  • If you have a goal to reduce the time you spend on your device, try using Google Assistant. With just your voice, you can quickly send messages, ask about traffic, organize your tasks and remind yourself to call your parents.

  • To limit the number of email alerts you receive from Gmail, you can turn on high-priority notifications and only get notified when it’s important. Turn on Priority Inbox to automatically organize your emails into categories so you can quickly see the most important ones first.

  • Spend less time writing and responding to emails by using Smart Compose on Gmail. It lets you quickly draft an email by suggesting words and phrases as you write, and Smart Reply saves you time by suggesting quick responses to your messages. 

We know that digital wellbeing is extremely personal and that it doesn’t come with a one-size-fits-all solution, but hopefully these tools can help you achieve your specific goals. To learn more, visit wellbeing.google. 

Source: Android


Reflections and resolutions for a healthier 2020

The beginning of the new year is a great time to reflect on what’s most important to you. Taking better care of yourself is a common New Year's resolution, but let’s be real—making resolutions is often easier than keeping them. One thing we know: New habits that are repeatable and achievable are the ones that end up sticking. 

At Google, we believe that great technology should improve life, not distract from it, and we’ve heard from people that their health can be impacted by their phone use. That’s why we’ve built digital wellbeing tools and features into our products to help you unplug, minimize digital distractions and focus better when using technology. In 2019, we talked to more than 100,000 people to understand their priorities. Most people told us they need free time for themselves, quality time with others and focused time for work or school. 

This year, we encourage you to reflect on the role that technology plays in your life and set resolutions for how and when you use your phone. Everyone has a unique definition of what balanced tech use looks like, so no matter what your goals are, here are some of the steps you can take to bring digital wellbeing into your life in 2020.  

Woman walking around her home, texting and using phone, getting ready for bed, turning on focus mode and grayscale features.

Free up time for yourself

  • To stop using your phone before bed (or in bed), set a bedtime schedule with Android’s Wind Down, which automatically turns on Do Not Disturb and fades the screen to Grayscale at your chosen bedtime. (Check out this video to see how it works.)

  • Double down on your sleep goals by setting up your personal routine with Google Assistant. Simply say “hey Google, bedtime,” and it can automatically put your phone on silent, adjust lights, set an alarm and tell you about your schedule for the next day. 

  • Silence your notifications on YouTube during your preferred quiet hours.

  • Schedule internet breaks on specific devices or manage screen time by pausing Wi-Fi during bedtime or dinnertime with Google WiFi. Or just ask your Google Assistant to pause the internet connection. 

Spend quality time with your VIPs 

  • To quickly silence all notifications, including phone calls, turn on Do Not Disturb. You can choose to allow calls from the people you have “starred” in your contacts list in case close family and friends need to reach you. Or, if you use the Pixel 2, 3, or 4, simply Flip to Shhh by turning your phone face down on the table to automatically enable Do Not Disturb.  

  • Set digital ground rules and screen time limits for everyone in the household (and monitor their use) with Google Family Link. You can lock a device at bedtime, or simply when you think your child needs a break. Starting with Android 10, Family Link is standard in every Android phone. 

Find focus for work or school

  • With the new Focus mode on Android, you can switch off distractions by silencing the apps that most often require your attention—like email, social media, or the news—so you can get more done in less time. Set up a recurring schedule to make it a habit. 

  • If you have a goal to reduce the time you spend on your device, try using Google Assistant. With just your voice, you can quickly send messages, ask about traffic, organize your tasks and remind yourself to call your parents.

  • To limit the number of email alerts you receive from Gmail, you can turn on high-priority notifications and only get notified when it’s important. Turn on Priority Inbox to automatically organize your emails into categories so you can quickly see the most important ones first.

  • Spend less time writing and responding to emails by using Smart Compose on Gmail. It lets you quickly draft an email by suggesting words and phrases as you write, and Smart Reply saves you time by suggesting quick responses to your messages. 

We know that digital wellbeing is extremely personal and that it doesn’t come with a one-size-fits-all solution, but hopefully these tools can help you achieve your specific goals. To learn more, visit wellbeing.google. 

Source: Android


Minimize distractions and get things done with Android’s Focus mode

It’s that time of the year again—the home stretch before the holidays. It’s when we rally to make end-of-year deadlines or put our heads down to study for final exams. It also happens to be when we plan holiday travels, shop for gifts and coordinate festivities with family and friends, all while trying to balance our daily activities. It can feel like there aren't enough hours in a day to get everything done. And because so much of this planning happens on our smartphones, it's easy to be distracted by notifications and your favorite apps.

Focus mode is a new Digital Wellbeing tool on Android, now out of beta, that helps you get things done by temporarily pausing apps so you can focus on the task at hand. You can select apps you currently find distracting (like social media or games) and if you try to open them, Focus mode will remind you that app is paused. Focus mode will also silence those apps’ notifications until you’re ready to switch out of the mode. This means you can use your phone without interruptions from apps you don't need right away.


Focus-Mode-1-Phone-Square.gif

Caption: Pause the apps you find distracting and get in the zone

Over the past few months, our beta testers shared with us how they use Focus mode and how it can be more helpful. Their feedback inspired us to include a few new features with today’s launch. For example, we’ve added an option to automatically turn Focus mode on and off for the days and times that you choose (e.g. from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays). This is especially handy for setting daily schedules; you can minimize distractions during the hours you’re at work, school or home. We also added an option to take a break, which lets you step out of Focus mode to use certain apps and jump back in when you’re ready. And if you’ve completed your tasks early, you can simply turn off Focus mode and it’ll resume as scheduled the next day.

digital_wellbeing_54_device_square.png

Caption: You can take a short break from Focus mode

Focus mode is available on all devices that currently have Digital Wellbeing and parental controls settings, including new phones launching with Android 9 and Android 10. 


We hope that Focus mode and our Digital Wellbeing tools help you stay productive, unplug when you need to, and be in control of how and when you use your Android phone—especially during this hectic time of the year. Learn more about our tools at android.com/digital-wellbeing.


Can mindfulness actually help you work smarter?

Mindfulness isn’t just sitting on the floor, legs crossed, and chanting mantras. It’s a tool that, when used wisely, can boost your experience at work, your relationships with others and even your overall well-being. Mindfulness is maintaining a moment-to-moment awareness of your thoughts, feelings and emotions, while having an attitude of kindness and curiosity.

That's the idea behind Google's mindfulness programs, which include seminars called Search Inside Yourself and Fundamentals of Mindfulness, and an internal program called gPause that promotes meditation and mindfulness practices. These initiatives have been created over the last 10 years in 64 offices around the world with more than 350 volunteers that host guided meditation practices, events and workshops. Through these programs Googlers have an opportunity to develop emotional intelligence, enhance well-being, improve team effectiveness and support a culture of respect and inclusion. 

So how can this practice actually have an impact in our jobs? To answer this question we sat with Ruchika Sikri, Well-Being Learning Strategy Lead at Google, who shared some tips we can start using in our everyday routine.

Let your thoughts settle.

Ruchika shares the analogy that our mind is like a snowglobe. We’re constantly shaking it with information overload, distractions and task switching. This results in reduced clarity of our priorities and a lack of focus. By practicing a brief meditation (as short as five minutes!)—we can let the “snow'' settle and see things more clearly and vividly. Clarity of mind can help us prioritize what’s important, solve problems better, figure out new strategies or uncover issues we may have ignored.

Be mindful of what you say. 

Mindfulness has a direct impact on our work culture and team effectiveness, Ruchika says. It helps you stay aware of what you say and what impact your words might have. It can help when you’re having difficult conversations, because you’re more present and therefore able to take your own and another party’s perspective more actively, and respond instead of react to external or internal stimuli. She cites a study done at Google, which found that most high functioning teams have psychological safety as a key element of their work environments, which means that team members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable in front of each other. Being mindful of that sense of safety can help boost everyone around you at work. “The teams that feel safe and trust each other actually feel more accomplished and do more,” she says.

Commit to a routine.  

Ruchika says a mindfulness practice starts with making a mental commitment to it. It’s certainly helpful to take a workshop, but you can simply start the practice with an app like Headspace. The app provides bite-sized guided meditations for busy schedules. You can start the practice at home or during your commute if you use public transportation.

Have the right expectations. 

Mindfulness is not a panacea, though. Instead, it’s an important tool that can raise self-awareness and help you identify personal needs more clearly. Ruchika recommends building an intention for your practice before jumping in. What is it that you want to improve? It could be better focus and clarity at work, healthier relationships, managing stress more effectively or adopting a healthier lifestyle. Then, practice makes it perfect. To actually feel the benefits of mindfulness, you have to make it a regular practice.

Step away from your screen. 

Every 90 minutes, our mind and body need a break to rest and recover, Ruchika says. To remain alert and attentive towards what you’re doing, step away from your screen and go for a nice walk, have a glass of water or simply do something different, and really savor the moment. You may notice that you have fresh perspectives and ideas when you get back to your desk. You can also install the Mindful Break Chrome extension to go through a one-minute breathing exercise.

Find a balance with tech using Digital Wellbeing Experiments

With phones becoming more crucial to every part of daily life, more people are taking steps to find their balance with technology. To help them do this, we’re making Digital Wellbeing a part of our products, like Wind Down on Android and Take a Break reminder on YouTube. Today, in support of our efforts to extend our best practices to the community, we’re launching Digital Wellbeing Experiments—a platform to encourage designers and developers to build digital wellbeing into their products. Anyone can use the platform to share their ideas and experimental tools to help people find a better balance with technology. 

Introducing Digital Wellbeing Experiments

To kick it off, we created five helpful and even playful digital wellbeing experimental apps. Each experiment centers around a different behavior, offering small ways to help improve your digital wellbeing and find a balance that feels right for you.

For example, Unlock Clock displays the number of times you unlock your phone in a day.  We Flip helps families and friends disconnect from technology together by simultaneously flipping a big switch, setting their phones to “Do Not Disturb” mode. And Desert Island helps you to find focus by spending a day only using your essential apps. 

We’ve open-sourced the code and created guides for others to make their own experiments. We hope these experiments inspire developers and designers to keep digital wellbeing top of mind when building technology. The more people that get involved, the more we can all learn how to build better technology for everyone. If you want to create your own experiment, you can add it to the collection at g.co/digitalwellbeingexperiments.

Find your balance with new Digital Wellbeing tools

Google I/O is always exciting for me. It’s a great moment when we get to tell the world about a wide range of new products and features that can help everyone do more with technology. Because of how intertwined tech is with every aspect of our lives, how we balance its use with our wellbeing has to be front and center. So, as we did last year, we made time to discuss how our users can find a balance by using technology more intentionally (and that might mean using it less).

Last year, we announced our commitment to digital wellbeing, a company-wide effort to help our users balance their technology use in a way that feels right for them. The idea has taken hold. A recent survey we commissioned found that 1 in 3 Americans have taken steps to improve their digital wellbeing in the last year, and more than 80 percent of them said this had a positive impact on their overall sense of wellbeing.

It’s still early, but we’re already seeing that some of our initial Digital Wellbeing features have helped people take control of their tech use. For instance, app timers have helped people stick to their goals over 90 percent of the time, according to our internal data from March of this year, and people who use Wind Down had a 27 percent drop in nightly usage on average.

Android Digital Wellbeing: Tools for balance

Coming to Android Q

We know there’s much more we can be doing, which is why we were excited to announce a number of new tools and features at I/O last week. We’re making several improvements to existing features, such as giving you more visibility into the status of your app timers, and allowing Wind Down to be scheduled by day of the week. And, building on the success of app timers, we’re extending its functionality to Chrome on Android, which will let you to set time limits on specific websites.

Our devices should help support our intentions throughout the day. Whether it’s work, school or family and friends that we want to focus on, our devices shouldn’t get in the way. Notifications are an important part of keeping you informed, but not all of them are urgent enough to divert your attention. Now you can choose to make some notifications ‘Gentle’. Gentle notifications won’t make noise, vibrate or appear on the lock screen but are always available if you want to browse.

And we created Focus mode, which allows you to temporarily pause distracting apps with a single tap from Quick Settings. Finally, because many people want more positive encouragement, we’re adding the ability  to set a screen time goal with helpful nudges to stay on track.

AndroidQ_Focus Mode.gif

New features for families

For parents, screen time is often a unique challenge; in fact, according to a recent study commissioned by Google, 67 percent of parents are concerned about the amount of time their kids spend on devices. People with kids tell us they love that Family Link lets them set daily screen time limits, but we know that nothing about parenting is black and white. We announced last week that Family Link will roll out new features that enable parents to fine-tune these boundaries by setting app-specific time limits and awarding bonus screen time directly from their own device. (We hope this will also help provide a little balance to family dynamics.)

But tools and features are just part of the solution; for families in particular, communication is key. So on wellbeing.google, we now offer tips and advice from experts, including a conversation guide to help parents talk to their kids about technology use.

We believe technology should improve life, not distract from it, so we’ve made a company-wide commitment to prioritize our users’ satisfaction over the amount of time they spend with our products, and our teams are designing with digital wellbeing as a core principle. We’re focused on improving lives—today and in the future—and digital wellbeing is one of the most important ways we’re working to make that happen.

Sharing what’s new in Android Q

 This year, Android is reaching version 10 and operating on over 2.5 billion active devices. A lot has changed since version 1.0, back when smartphones were just an early idea. Now, they’re an integral tool in our lives—helping us stay in touch, organize our days or find a restaurant in a new place.

Looking ahead, we’re continuing to focus on working with partners to shape the future of mobile and make smartphones even more helpful. As people carry their phones constantly and trust them with lots of personal information, we want to make sure they’re always in control of their data and how it’s shared. And as people spend more time on their devices, building tools to help them find balance with technology continues to be our priority. That’s why we’re focusing on three key areas for our next release, Android Q: innovation, security and privacy and digital wellbeing.

New mobile experiences

Together with over 180 device makers, Android has been at the forefront of new mobile technologies. Many of them—like the first OLED displays, predictive typing, high density and large screens with edge-to-edge glass—have come to Android first. 

This year, new industry trends like foldable phone displays and 5G are pushing the boundaries of what smartphones can do. Android Q is designed to support the potential of foldable devices—from multi-tasking to adapting to different screen dimensions as you unfold the phone. And as the first operating system to support 5G, Android Q offers app developers tools to build for faster connectivity, enhancing experiences like gaming and augmented reality.

See how Asphalt 9 adapts screen dimensions as you unfold the phone, a feature Android Q was built to support.

We’re also seeing many firsts in software driven by on-device machine learning. One of these features is Live Caption. For 466 million deaf and hard of hearing people around the world, captions are more than a convenience—they make content more accessible. We worked closely with the Deaf community to develop a feature that would improve access to digital media. With a single tap, Live Caption will automatically caption media that’s playing audio on your phone. Live Caption works with videos, podcasts and audio messages, across any app—even stuff you record yourself. As soon as speech is detected, captions will appear, without ever needing Wifi or cell phone data, and without any audio or captions leaving your phone.

A video that gives background on the history of captioning. In 2009, Google added automatic captions to videos on YouTube, taking a step towards making videos universally accessible. With Live Caption, we're bringing these captions to media on phones.

On-device machine learning also powers Smart Reply, which is now built into the notification system in Android, allowing any messaging app to suggest replies in notifications. Smart Reply will now also intelligently predict your next action—for example, if someone sends you an address, you can just tap to open that address in Maps.

A phone screen showing a message coming in with an address, and a chip in the notification that opens the address in Google Maps.

Security and privacy as a central focus

Over the years, Android has built out many industry-first security and privacy protections, like file-based encryption, SSL by default and work profile. Android has the most widely-deployed security and anti-malware service of any operating system today thanks to Google Play Protect, which scans over 50 billion apps every day. 

We’re doing even more in Android Q, with almost 50 new features and changes focused on security and privacy. For example, we created a dedicated Privacy section under Settings, where you’ll find important controls in one place. Under Settings, you’ll also find a new Location section that gives you more transparency and granular control over the location data you share with apps. You can now choose to share location data with apps only while they’re in use. Plus, you’ll receive reminders when an app has your location in the background, so you can decide whether or not to continue sharing. Android Q also provides protections for other sensitive device information, like serial numbers.

Finally, we're introducing a way for you to get the latest security and privacy updates, faster. With Android Q, we’ll update important OS components in the background, similar to the way we update apps. This means that you can get the latest security fixes, privacy enhancements and consistency improvements as soon as they’re available, without having to reboot your phone.

Helping you find balance

Since creating our set of Digital Wellbeing tools last year, we’ve heard that they’ve helped you take better control of your phone usage. In fact, app timers helped people stick to their goals over 90 percent of the time, and people who use Wind Down had a 27 percent drop in nightly phone usage.

This year, we’re going even further with new features like Focus mode, which is designed to help you focus without distraction. You can select the apps you find distracting—such as email or the news—and silence them until you come out of Focus mode. And to help children and families find a better balance with technology, we’re making Family Link part of every device that has Digital Wellbeing (starting with Android Q), plus adding top-requested features like bonus time and the ability to set app-specific time limits.

Phone screens showing new Family Link controls in Android Q.

Available in Beta today

Android Q brings many more new features to your smartphone, from a new gesture-based navigation to Dark Theme (you asked, we listened!) to streaming media to hearing aids using Bluetooth LE. 

A grid of logos that demonstrates which devices and brands Android Q beta is available on, including Pixel, Sony, Nokia, Huawei and LG.

You can find some of these features today in Android Q Beta, and thanks to Project Treble and our partners for their commitment to enable faster platform updates, Beta is available for 21 devices from 13 brands, including all Pixel phones.

Source: Android


How Google can help keep your resolutions going through 2019

Get active. Get some extra sleep. Find inner peace. They’re excellent New Year’s resolutions, and they’re also achievable with help from Google. More than 325,000 people with fitness goals for 2019 joined the #GetFitWithGoogle challenge during January to earn as many Heart Points as they could with Google Fit.

After looking at the statistics, Google Fit challengers were a seriously impressive bunch.

Get Fit With Google infographic

In Russia, people went cross-country skiing. In India, people loved their badminton. Brits hit up rowing machines while Americans got into weightlifting. Edinburgh, London and Kawasaki took top prizes for the most active cities around the world—while in the U.S. New York, Boston, and Washington braved the cold and topped the charts.

About four in ten of the people who joined the challenge earned at least 150 Heart Points on average per week and met American Heart Association’s weekly physical activity recommendations.  And seven percent of people achieved all the milestones, earning more than 1500 Heart Points during the New Year Challenge.

Just because the #GetFitWithGoogle challenge is over doesn’t mean the fun needs to stop. Google is still here to help you stick to stay fit, sleep better, practice digital wellbeing and live mindfully throughout all of 2019. Here are a few final tools and tricks to make sure your resolutions last all year long.

1. Set reminders in Google Calendar.

Reminders in Google Calendar

Keep up with the goals you set in early January by creating recurring weekly reminders in your Google Calendar. Reminders don’t go away until you actually do the activity, which can be a helpful self-imposed guilt-trip to push you out the door for that weekly run you promised yourself you’d do.

2. Embrace the selfie. 

Whether you’re looking to eat healthier or get more active, actually seeing your progress is a great way to keep focused on your resolution. Take weekly selfies and keep them in a Google Photos album, so you can scroll down memory lane when you need a pick-me-up. If you’re feeling proud about your progress or just enjoy compliment-fishing, share them with a friend so they can help keep you motivated, too.

3. Set up routines to turn your aspirations into habits.

Routines on Google Assistant

Do you find it hard to get out of bed in the morning? Or perhaps it takes you ages to unwind after work? Routines with Google Assistant help build healthy habits by doing multiple things for you with a single voice command. You can personalize them to suit your lifestyle and they’re a great way to set the mood for setting aside “me time.”

4. See how you stacked up with the 2019 #GetFitWithGoogle challenge.

For the last four weeks, six teams of influencers from around the world have been competing against each other to earn the most Heart Points during January.

After overtaking Switzerland in Week 2, Colombia just managed to hold on and take out the inaugural #GetFitWithGoogle challenge with a collective total of 17,465 Heart Points. Switzerland had a strong final week, finishing just 530 points being Colombia in second place—the equivalent of just 15 minutes more exercise per team member per week.

Get Fit With Google leaderboard

Team Belgium had a strong last few weeks to take out third place ahead of the U.S. in fourth.

Check out the top five individual influencers' performances from around the world. Congrats to Melissa Peláez for absolutely killing it, with 6602 Heart Points during January.

Get Fit With Google winners

We hope you all enjoyed taking part in the #GetFitWithGoogle Challenge. And hey, if you lose your way a bit here and there during 2019, worry not. We’ll be right here cheering you along next January, too.