Google first unveiled Digital Wellbeing at Google I/O 2018 with a handful of tools to help users reduce their smartphone usage, but the company has steadily improved upon the app in the last 2 years by introducing loads of new features. In the latest beta update to version 1.0.312292882, Google is preparing to introduce major new features to help you get a better night's sleep.

New "Daily Device Usage" toggle in "Manage Your Data"

The first feature that Google is introducing is already available for everyone on the latest beta release. If you open the settings menu in Digital Wellbeing, you'll see a new "Manage your data" option that brings you to a new activity with a toggle for "daily device usage." This option will let you decide if Digital Wellbeing should track your device unlocks, notifications received, and app usage. Disabling this option turns off usage access, so Digital Wellbeing can't track your phone use anymore.

Currently, this toggle is the only one available in "Manage your data." However, it will soon be joined by other options.

Sleep Habit Tracking

The biggest new feature in the works is sleep habit tracking. We managed to surface a new activity that lets the user grant Digital Wellbeing and the Google Clock apps access to daily app usage, motion and light sensor data during your scheduled bedtimes, and time zone history. Granting these two apps access to that data will let both apps "show you a snapshot of your sleep habits."

The strings from within the APK tell us what kind of insights Digital Wellbeing will be able to offer on sleep. In summary, Digital Wellbeing can tell you how long you spent in bed, how long you were on your phone while in bed (and how long you spent without it), and when your bedtime started and ended.

        <string name="sleep_insights_footer_wake_up">%1$s • Wake up</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_footer_wake_up_desc">Bedtime ended at %1$s on %2$s</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_header_bedtime">%1$s • Bedtime</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_header_bedtime_desc">Bedtime started at %1$s on %2$s</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_more_apps">+%1$d</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_more_apps_ellipsis">…</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_on_your_phone">On your phone</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_on_your_phone_duration">&lt;primary>%1$s&lt;/primary> • %2$s</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_title_bedtime_activity">Recent bedtime activity</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_title_screen_time">Screen time during bedtime</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_total_time_in_bed">Time in bed</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_total_time_in_bed_desc">%1$s in bed</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_total_time_on_phone">Time on phone</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_total_time_without_usage">Without your phone</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_total_time_without_usage_desc">%1$s without your phone</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_usage_group_collapse_action_desc">collapse</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_usage_group_collapsed_desc">Apps used for %1$s, from %2$s to %3$s</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_usage_group_expand_action_desc">expand</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_usage_group_expanded_desc">Expanded list of apps used for %1$s, from %2$s to %3$s</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_usage_group_row_desc">%1$s for %2$s</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_usage_group_single_app_desc">%1$s used for %2$s from %3$s to %4$s</string>
<string name="sleep_insights_usage_range">%1$s - %2$s</string>
<string name="sleep_screen_education_notification_text">Bedtime mode turns off always-on display to help you sleep better. Tap to make changes.</string>
<string name="sleep_screen_education_notification_title">Screen stays dark at bedtime</string>
    

Once this feature goes live, there will be a new item in "manage your data" to control bedtime sensor data use:

        <string name="manage_data_bedtime_sensor_data_subtitle">Includes motion and light detection during your scheduled bedtime</string>
<string name="manage_data_bedtime_sensor_data_title">Bedtime sensor data</string>
    

You'll also be able to see what data is sent to the Clock app and also your scheduled bedtime history:

        <string name="show_app_usage_and_sleep_api_result">Show Clock API result</string>
<string name="show_bedtimes">Show bedtime schedule history</string>
<string name="show_sleep_data">Show sleep data</string>
<string name="show_time_zones">Show time zone history</string>
    

Finally, if you turn off sleep habit tracking, all existing data that has been collected will be deleted:

        <string name="turn_off_action">Turn off</string>
<string name="turn_off_sensor_data_dialog_message">Existing data will be deleted</string>
<string name="turn_off_sensor_data_dialog_title">Turn off access to sensor data?</string>
<string name="turn_off_time_zone_data_dialog_message">Existing data will be deleted</string>
<string name="turn_off_time_zone_data_dialog_title">Turn off access to time zone history?</string>
    

Night Notes

Another major new feature that's in development alongside sleep habit tracking is "Night Notes" in Digital Wellbeing. This feature will let you quickly take a note before you head to bed or when you're already in bed and just had an epiphany.

        <string name="night_note_notification_reminder_text">"Anything on your mind? Offload your thoughts to Night Notes."</string>
<string name="night_note_notification_reminder_title">Bedtime mode starts at %s</string>
    

Once you wake up, Digital Wellbeing will show you a notification asking you if you want to see any notes you've taken during the night.

        <string name="good_morning_notification_text">Tap to view your Night Notes.</string>
<string name="good_morning_notification_title">Good morning!</string>
    

I'm not entirely sure where the notes will be written to, but there's a hint in Digital Wellbeing's feature flags that it'll launch the activity "com.google.android.compose.capture.CaptureActivity." This activity doesn't belong to Digital Wellbeing, the Google Clock app, or even Google Keep, so it could be part of a new app that Google is launching for this feature.

Cross-Profile Screen Time Use

Next, a feature that will please Work Profile users is the ability to see screen time use for work apps. Currently, you have to tap "switch to work profile" in Digital Wellbeing to see app usage statistics on apps in the work profile.

        <string name="cross_profile_meta_data">See your screen time for work apps</string>
    

Data Sharing with other Apps

Finally, there's a hint that Digital Wellbeing will share some of its data with other applications. We think this will probably be limited to Google applications, but there's a chance that Google could open up some of Wellbeing's data to third-party applications as part of an API.

        <string name="data_sharing_with_other_apps">Other apps that use your data</string>
    

You can download the latest version of the Digital Wellbeing beta app from the Google Play Store now.

Thanks to PNF Software for providing us a license to use JEB Decompiler, a professional-grade reverse engineering tool for Android applications.