34 5 - 18 February 2020
Best Free Apps
NEW
App of the Fortnight
TOOLS
Activity Bubbles,
Screen Stopwatch
and Envelope
bit.ly/wellbeing494
8Last autumn, Google’s
experimental Creative Lab team
released five apps designed to
improve your digital wellbeing by
helping you monitor and control
your screen time and device
usage in different ways. We were
so impressed that we made all
five of them our joint ‘App of the
Fortnight’ in issue 488.
Far from resting on its laurels,
the Creative Lab team seems
determined to continue its run
of success, and has released
three new experimental
digital-wellbeing tools: Activity Bubbles, Screen
Stopwatch and Envelope. As a testament to their quality,
we’ve made this trio joint ‘App of the Fortnight’, too!
Two of the three are traditional smartphone apps. Install
Activity Bubbles (from bit.ly/activity494), for example, and
it allows you to visualise your daily mobile phone (or tablet)
usage as bubbles that appear on screen and start to fill
your display the more you use your device.
Screen Stopwatch (bit.ly/stopwatch494) offers a
constant reminder of exactly how much time you’ve spent
using your phone each day by presenting you with an
on-screen stopwatch every time you
unlock your phone.
Envelope takes a slightly more
left-field approach. As well as
installing the app (bit.ly/
envelope494), you need to
download and print a PDF,
which you can then fold into an
envelope shape. The envelope
temporarily transforms your
phone into a much simpler device
that lets you make and receive
phone calls only, allowing you to
take a break from the digital world.
While Activity Bubbles and
Screen Stopwatch are compatible
with handsets running Android 8
and above, Envelope is
currently limited to Pixel
3a devices. We look
forward to seeing more innovative work from
Google’sCreative Lab.Our rating (^) HHHHHHHHHH
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ActivityBubblesworkslike
ananimatedAndroid
wallpaper.Launchtheapp,
thentap‘Setwallpaper’.On
thenextscreen,you’llseea
demooftheActivityBubbles
wallpaper.TapSetWallpaper
(^1) again,thenchoose‘Home
screenandlockscreen’.^2
Now,wheneveryouunlock
yourphoneanotherbubble
dropsfromthetopofyour
screen– andthelongeryou
useyourphone,thebigger
thebubblegrows.
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ScreenStopwatchis
anotherappthatworksas
anAndroidanimated
wallpaper.Downloadand
launchtheapp,thentap‘Set
wallpaper’.Thenextscreen
showsyouwhatthe
stopwatchlookslike– tapSet
Wallpaper^1 again.Now
everytimeyouunlockyour
phone,thestopwatchstarts
runningin thebackgroundas
youuseyourdevice.It pauses
whenyoulockyourphone,
andkeepsa runningtally
throughouttheday.
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TotryEnvelope,read
theinformationin the
introductionscreens,thengo
tobit.ly/envel494in a browser
andclickthe‘DIYEnvelope
pdf’link.PrintthePDF,then
followtheinstructionstocut
outandfoldtheenvelopeand
sealyourdeviceinside.You
canstillmakeandreceivecalls
whileyourphoneis in the
envelope,butthat’sall.When
you’vehadenoughofa digital
break,takeyourphoneout,
thentapthescreen^1 to reset
your default phone app.
MINI WORKSHOP
Use Google’s new
digital-wellbeing tools
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