Google Digital Wellbeing Software Could Slow Pixel Phones



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Google's Digital Wellbeing software is a useful and transparent tool to monitor smartphone usage habits and establish a healthier balance between technology and real life. But over the past two weeks, a number of Pixel owners have come to the conclusion that this has the unwanted side effect of slowing down their device. There is currently a very active thread on Reddit that includes many reports of improved performance when Digital Wellbeing is turned off. Some say the difference "day and night" is apparent almost immediately. Others seem less convinced that it's almost as drastic.

Slowing down your phone is not supposed to be one of the features of Digital Wellbeing, notice. By design, it runs in the background and records the time you spend in apps and on a device in general. This data can be extremely useful if you are trying to make better choices and spend less time watching a screen. You can set application timers or change the grayscale of the screen to make your favorite apps less attractive when you have decided not to open them impulsively.

But the idea that Digital Wellbeing could prevent Pixel phones from being as fast as they could be is a little alarming. If user reports on speed and frame rate increases are accurate, this gives users a clear reason to disable a resource that they might otherwise find extremely useful.

Digital wellness was one of the major new features of Android 9 Pie. He debuted on Pixel phones before switching to Android One and a (still relatively small) list of other devices. Google is about to develop it in Android Q with a new Focus mode. Does it make sense that such a background process can affect overall performance? It's certainly possible. The edge Google asked Google to clarify when he was aware of the slowdown caused by Digital Wellbeing.

In the meantime, if you want to turn it off – even temporarily – to see for yourself if there are noticeable improvements, here's how:

  • Access your Pixel phone settings
  • Choose digital well-being
  • Tap the three-dot icon at the top right and choose "Disable Access to Use."
  • Confirm this decision on the next "Access to Use" screen by selecting Welfare and disabling the "Allow access to use" option.

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