By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
What was most impressive was the company's acknowledgement that we are spending too much time glued to our devices and that we're missin out on real life by being mired down by notifications and being distracted by social media, mobile games, infinite scroll experiences like Instagram of Facebook.
There were a lot of cool announcements today at Google I/O, the yearly pow-wow for all things Google. This is usually the time when we see the next version of Android as well as enhancements and improvements to the Google ecosystem, large as it is. Android is the world's leading smartphone platform with well over two billion user install base.
Google showed off smart functions of Google Assistant that can enable it to make calls and appointments just like a real assistant can. Improvement to the Photos app that can colour old Black and White photos using Machine Learning algorithms. Improved keyboard functionality and more intuitive Android OS features across the board.
What was most impressive was the company's acknowledgement that we are spending too much time glued to our devices and that we're missin out on real life by being mired down by notifications and being distracted by social media, mobile games, infinite scroll experiences like Instagram of Facebook. Google knows the metrics, trust me on that. This is why they're proposing a Digital Wellbeing Initiative.
Google can monitor and report how much you use your apps. Then it offers a Limit feature to set timers or even cut you off by greying out the app's icon for a pre-determined period of time.
This extends to YouTube, the silent nanny for millions of children of all ages, which can now schedule breaks (to rest your eyes, quiet your mind) as well as keep users in the present. Of course, none of these tools are any good if they're not put to use, but if a company like Google (who, by the way profits more the longer people use their services0, sees the importance of setting limits when humans just can't it is really time for us to take notice of our digital consumption.