The Digital Wellbeing tool that Google introduced will soon be “required” for all Android devices. It will supposedly help people create a balance between their digital and offline lives. One of the more useful things there is the Focus Mode which will allow you to block specific apps that may be distracting you if you need to, well, focus on work or on real-life activities. And it seems like Google will be testing out new features for it, specifically Scheduling and Take A Break options.
The folks at XDA Developers enabled the two enhancements for the Focus Mode which are already in the live build but have not been officially rolled out just yet. The scheduling feature will let you set a start and end time for the Focus Mode. This is for those times when you know you will need to eliminate distractions. Once you’ve scheduled it, you’ll receive a notification from Digital Wellbeing a minute before the start asking if you’re ready to focus. You can wait for the minute to start or you can tap Wait to postpone it for 10 minutes. After the Focus Mode starts, you’ll get a text notification reminding you when it will automatically turn off.
The “Take a break” function in Focus Mode was initially spotted by reliable tipster Jane Manchun Wong. It’s an option for you to take a break from the Focus Mode that you enabled in case you really need to access some of the apps that you blocked. There are 5, 15, or 30 minute breaks that you can take in case you can’t fulfill the schedule that you initially set for you to focus. Right now that Focus Mode is still in manual toggling, it doesn’t make sense but once scheduling is also enabled, it can then be useful.
The Digital Wellbeing tool was initially only available for Pixel devices but they eventually opened it up to other Android devices as well. Now, devices launching with Android 9 or Android 10 are required to have some sort of custom solution if they prefer or to use Google’s already existing tool together with Family Link parental controls.
Now as to when these new Focus Mode options will roll out, that remains to be seen. Similar to other APK teardown, Google may opt not to release it or the final version may be different from the one we’re currently seeing.
