When Google announced their digital wellbeing initiative, they were serious about trying to help users curb their smartphone and internet addiction by giving easy to access tools. For those who are one step away from forming a YouTube Anonymous support group, the good news is that the video sharing channel is now rolling out a “take a break” reminder that you can apply to your viewing habits. You just need to update your Android app to version 13.18.54 so you can have the “remind me to take a break option”.
While YouTube won’t technically stop you from watching the videos on the site for as long as you like, you now have the option to set reminders for you to actually take a break from watching non-stop videos of your favorite make-up tutorial, sports highlights, fan clips of your favorite tv couples, or whatever it is that keeps you glued to the app. You can set reminders every 15, 30, 60, 90, or 180 minutes and it will pause your video and flash the reminder when you’ve reached your limit.
When you see the reminder, you can actually follow through and stop watching and go back to working or whatever more important thing you actually need to do. Or you can just dismiss it and continue watching and set another reminder for later when you think you really need to get out of YouTube. To enable these reminders, go to your settings and the general section and you’ll now see a “remind to take a break” option.
The wellbeing site is already up and here you will see all the tools that they will be introducing to help people control how they use their gadgets and apps. This includes allowing your device to track your habits so you can understand what you need to regulate as well as all the tools they’ll be introducing to apps and platforms like Google Assistant, Gmail, Photos, Android Auto, etc.
SOURCE: Google
