10 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 67
ANDROID 10
A cool new feature still in beta here but working
fine is Focus Mode. Simply select the apps that distract
you and toggle it on in the quick settings shade. It’s a
smart idea, and one that is a little more honest with
the world than Digital Wellbeing’s app timers are. With
timers, you just override them and keep looking. With
Focus Mode you’re saying you need some time away
but you’re not making a grand gesture to never scroll
through the timeline. It’s better.
Digital wellbeing itself is still here, and not much
changed. It still serves to horrify you by showing
how many times you unlocked your phone today.
Combining Focus Mode with Wind Down, the feature
that turns on Do Not Disturb and grayscales your
whole phone is the best way to go.Privacy and accessibility
There’s a new Privacy section in the settings menu
with what is debatably Android 10’s best feature,
even if it isn’t flashy. The permission manager is a
clear, accessible hub where you can deny rogue apps
permissions they don’t need. A problem on Android is
that apps present themselves as needing permissions
to work – they don’t. As I discovered, the New York
Times app does not need access to the camera.
Android 10 is also harsher on apps like this,
restricting things such as camera access and also
stopping apps starting in the background without
you opening them.
On the other hand, it shows why some people
can’t be dealing with Android’s manual way of doing
things. But if you’re using a phone from Google, a