What really is Experiments with Google – e-Why, What & How

No doubt technology has become an integral part of daily living for every one of us. But as we become more plugged in, it could also pose a threat to human relationships, work, & productivity as it could distract us from the things that matter the most. To help bring a balance between our life & the technologies in it, Google is developing a range of digital wellbeing tools under its Experiments project.

These new tools under the Experiments with Google project have been designed to help people reconsider their relationship with various technologies. Even though they bear some similarities with regular screen-time control apps, they offer some differences mainly because they are open-sourced. The aim of making them open-sourced is to encourage out-of-the-box thinking & inspire designers & developers to put digital well-being of their users into consideration in designing new products & digital tools.

Each experiment is designed based on specific user behavior. For example, one tool called, ‘The Post Box’ is designed to hold all of your notifications from different apps until a specific time of the day. The goal here is to help people who are easily distracted by notifications cope better

Another experiment called ‘We Flip’ takes a more group-centric approach & can be used groups of friends or family to monitor & control their screen time. This app lets everyone disconnect from technology by flipping a giant switch. If any of the participants unlock their phone, the session is discontinued for everyone. It seems like a tool that will come in handy for family nights or vacations.

‘Unlock Clock’, another experiment doesn’t interfere with your phone or apps. It simply helps you track how much you use your phone by showing you how often you unlock it during the day. This helps you to track your screen-time & know when you are going overboard.

Other apps are designed to help you reduce screen time by limiting access to some apps. For example, ‘Desert Island’ allows you to choose only the essential apps that you need for a day. Morph on the other hand only gives you access to specific apps at the right time during the day.

Another intriguing experiment is the ‘Paper Phone’ which is a printable phone meant to help you take a break from your real phone. You choose the essential things you want to include on your paper phone from your real phone & hold it instead so you don’t have to carry your phone ever so often.

Hopefully, these Google Experiments will help users get detox from digital technology, so they can focus on the more important things in their life. They can be used for a single day, a week or for as long as the user wants to. Android users can check Google PlayStore to find & download the Experiments that are compatible with their device.