New Google Digital Wellbeing features
As the global health crisis affected normal sleep patterns for millions in the past couple of months, Google has unveiled new bedtime tools for Android users to help them get more restful sleep. With Bedtime mode, formerly known as Wind Down in the Digital Wellbeing settings, your Android phone can stay dark and quiet while you sleep.
"While Bedtime mode is on, it uses Do Not Disturb to silence calls, texts and other notifications that might disturb your sleep. Grayscale fades the colours on your phone to black and white to reduce the draw from enticing colours that keep you up," Google said in a statement on Monday.
There has been a rise in sleep-related searches like "insomnia" and "can't sleep," which reached all-time highs in April and May. The company said it has now made it easier to customize how and when you turn on Bedtime mode.
Based on the bedtime schedule, one can choose to have it turn on automatically or after the phone is plugged in to charge. Bedtime mode is available on all devices with Digital Wellbeing and parental controls settings. With the new Bedtime tab in the Clock app, people can set daily sleep and wake times to maintain a consistent sleep schedule.
"In Clock, you'll see a preview of tomorrow's calendar and a tally of the total hours of sleep you'd get, and you can adjust your bedtime if needed," said Google.
People will receive a reminder before bedtime and an option to play calming sounds from Calm, Spotify, YouTube Music and more. For those with Digital Wellbeing installed, they can pair with Bedtime mode to limit interruptions while you sleep.
To avoid interrupting deep sleep and wake up more gently, the Sunrise Alarm gives a visual cue that your wake up time is approaching, 15 minutes prior to your audio alarm. The Sunrise Alarm gradually brightens your screen to help you wake up gently.
"The new bedtime experience is rolling out to Pixel devices starting Monday and will be available in the Clock app on other Android devices later this summer," said the company.
People can now get a reminder that it's time for bed in the YouTube app too.
"You can choose to see the reminder at bedtime or after your video completes. And if you need a bit more time, you can snooze to continue watching and be reminded again in 10 minutes," informed Google.
The Family Link feature helps you set digital ground rules for your children, including managing their screen time activity, app downloads, in-app purchases and even bedtime for their device.
One can create a daily bedtime schedule, adjusting it on certain days or weekends as needed. Once bedtime rolls around, the child's device will lock, but will still allow calls in case the child needs to reach you, said Google.
