We've all been there, doomscrolling on our smartphones for hours upon hours on end. Sometimes it would be nice to quickly and easily see just how long you've been using your phone on a given day, rather than having to go to your settings and look manually. Google knows this, and now the company is rolling out a Digital Wellbeing-powered screen time widget that you can add to your phone's home screen.

screen on time widget

As you can see, the “Screen time” Digital Wellbeing widget gives you easy access to your screen time on your home screen. In a 2×1 configuration, the widget only shows your total screen time. But if you go for a larger size, it also shows the time you spent on the top three apps. It’s also worth noting that the widget supports Android 12’s wallpaper-based theming engine and changes colors based on your current wallpaper, including where exactly it is on your home screen. Furthermore, it supports both dark and light themes.

Tapping the widget will open up Digital Wellbeing, where you can access options such as the following:

  • Daily timers for your apps
  • Focus mode, which pauses distracting apps at set times
  • Bedtime mode, which silences your device and changes the screen to black and white at bedtime

We've known for quite a while now that this widget was being developed by Google, and it's great to see it rolling out. While it can be a useful tool to keep your smartphone usage in check, it's also just an interesting metric to pay attention to -- especially if you're battery conscious.

Google has been working on some other great widgets since the advent of Android 12 like the new Gmail widget, YouTube, Drive, and more, and we've even others like a new "At A Glance" widget get shelved internally. We're excited to see what widgets Google might be coming up with next.

Source: Google