How to limit app usage time on Android

Android’s Digital Wellbeing helps users limit app usage time on Android smartphones. This is a native feature on Android phones and it helps you spend more time away from social media.

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Limiting application usage time is a good measure to keep focus. Through Digital Wellbeing, Android mobile users can activate an app timer or focus mode to reduce access to social media. Find out how to use the resources in the following lines.

Digital Wellbeing has been around since Android 9 (Pie) and is natively available on mobiles to limit mobile usage time. The feature is very simple to use: just go to Android settings to restrict access time to an app. Find out how below:

How to limit app usage time on Android

Before proceeding to the procedure, it is important to note that this step-by-step was done on a Redmi 10A with Android 10. The instructions, however, do not change much in relation to other smartphones, since it is a native feature of the system.

1: Go to phone settings

2: Choose the “Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls” option.

The menu for configuring Digital Wellbeing is available from the Android settings home screen.

3: Click on “Dashboard” to access the app usage time limit feature.

4: Activate the app timer

Next to the name of the app you want to limit, tap the hourglass icon.

5: Choose time

Set how long the app can be used per day.

Ready! The timer is activated!

How to cancel the app user time limitation

There are two alternatives to cancel the time limitation. The easiest is to tap the restricted app icon and change the timer. But you can also make this change through Android settings:

1. Open system settings.
2. Tap “Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls”.
3. Go to “Dashboard”.
4. Click on the hourglass icon next to the app that is restricted.
5. Increase the time to be limited or press the “Delete Timer” button to cancel it.

How to find out how many notifications I received from an app

In addition to putting a block on apps, Digital Wellbeing also provides a notification counter. So you can check how many alerts an app has sent you throughout the day. Learn how to check the following indicator:

1. Open Android settings.
2. Go to the “Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls” option.
3. Go to “App Timers”.
4. Choose an application.
5. Further down, check the graphs with the times an app issued notifications or was opened.

How to use Focus Mode to limit the use of social networks or apps

You can also create a focus mode to restrict which apps can be accessed during a certain period. The function helps you to ensure more concentration at work or simply when you want to do a digital break. Find out how to enable it below:

1. Go to Android settings.
2. Choose the “Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls” option.
3. In the “Focus Mode” section, choose one of the available options – in this walkthrough, we will use “Time for me”.
4. Press the “Start” button.
5. Choose the apps you want to keep access during hover mode.
6. Below, under duration, you can also choose how long the focus mode will last.
7. When the selection is complete, tap “Start”.

Okay, focus mode is active on your phone. To turn it off, just go to notifications and tap on the alert titled “Focus Mode”. Then just hit the “End Focus Mode” button.