PHOENIX — Do you know how much time you spend on your phone?
Most devices keep track of how much time you spend on them, down to the time you spend on specific apps, and how many times you pick up or unlock your phone per day. Some phones even allow you to compare your daily and weekly average time on your phone.
With this data, users can set limits for certain apps and websites, restrict content and set schedules for phone usage.
How do you get access to all of this data? 12News breaks down how to find, understand and utilize information from your phone's screen time reports.
Screen time for iPhones
To find out how much time you or your teenager spends on their iPhone, head to settings and click on the screen time tab.
On the screen time tab, you will find a few different options:
- Daily average time spent on your phone
- Limit usage options, including downtime, app limits, always allowed and screen distance
- Communication options, including communication limits and communication safety
- Restrictions, including content and privacy restrictions
- Option to lock screen time settings
- Option to share screen time settings across devices
- Option to set up screen time for family
- Option to turn off app & website activity
The screen time summary is broken down into a few key areas: average usage, what time of day you use your phone, total screen time and the apps you use most often. The screen time settings even allow you to compare your daily usage throughout a week-long period.
When you click on a specific app, the data breaks down even further, telling you the average amount of time you spend on the app daily, how many notifications you receive from the app and how much time you've spent on the app today.
You can also set timers for certain apps or websites, and can manage timers on your teen's phone, as well. Focus settings are available, as well, which allow users to turn off notifications from certain apps or only receive phone calls from certain people. To access focus modes, head to settings and then the focus tab.
Screen time for Android devices
Screen time for Android devices is found under "Digital Wellbeing." To set up your Digital Wellbeing, open settings and tap "Digital Wellbeing & parental controls." Then tap "More" and "Manage your data."
Digital wellbeing allows you to see how much you have used your phone throughout the day, what apps you use most, how many times you've unlocked your device and how many notifications you've received throughout the day.
On Android devices, you can also set an app timer. The app timers reset at midnight and can be overridden if needed.
Similar to iPhone's "focus" settings, Android devices have "Bedtime mode," which allows users to set a schedule for the bedtime routine to operate on. Users can also choose to have bedtime mode activated when the device is plugged in. Bedtime mode includes features such as setting your phone to grayscale, turning off the always-on display, dimming your wallpaper and lock screen, and changing your theme to dark mode.
For Android devices, in order to monitor your children's devices, you must be the "default parent account" on their device.
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