DURBAN - Last week Google announced that at their I/O conference that they will focus on the digital well-being of users and the latest YouTube feature is helping them to do just that.
YouTube will be the Google platform that will kick-off the company's efforts into balancing tech and life.
Google has rolled out new "take a break" notifications that will show a prompt that when you have gone over a certain amount of consecutive viewing time. The notifications are optional.
Here are the steps to follow to access this feature:
1. Tap on your user photo on the top right of the app
2. Go to settings and then select general
3. You will then see "Remind me to take a break" option
ALSO READ: High data costs hamper growth of small businesses in SA - expert
Users can then choose a "reminder frequency". The options are never and then every 15, 30, 60, 90 and 180 minutes.
This feature can be of help those who find that YouTube consumes a lot of their day. These reminders can be a wake -up call when you have spent too much time using the YouTube app.
The app will not close or stop you watching when the notification pops up and it is up to the user whether they will act on the notification or ignore them.
The video-sharing website also added a new setting called "scheduled digest" that puts together all of the individual notifications that you would get from the app into one list. The user will receive the list at a time of their choosing.
Android P
Android will also help users keep track of the amount of time that they spend on their smartphones. The device will have a dashboard that will help you keep track of the amount of time that you spent on each app.