Apple Unveils Ways to Help Limit iPhone Usage
Apple Unveils Ways to Help Limit iPhone Usage
New ‘Screen Time’ app will provide weekly reports of apps
use and set time limits for use of those apps
Apple iOS 12 Includes Features to Curb iPhone Addiction
At its annual developers conference, Apple revealed Screen
Time, a new feature that allows users to monitor and limit their app usage on
the iPhone and iPad.
By Tripp Mickle Updated June 4, 2018 6:14 p.m. ET
Apple Inc. on Monday unveiled new controls to help people
curb the amount of time they spend on iPhones and iPads, as well as allow
parents to remotely track and limit their children’s use of those devices—a
response to growing societal concern that adults and children are too focused
on phones.
The company said a new app it will release in September
called “Screen Time” will provide users with weekly reports of the apps they
use and allow them to set time limits for their use of those apps. Parents will
be able to use the system to remotely monitor the apps their children use and
limit their time on devices.
The new features played a central role at Apple’s annual
Worldwide Developers Conference, a gathering of about 6,000 developers who
create the apps for the iPhone, iPad and Mac computers. The event is designed
to show off Apple’s latest software—including the newest features to further
integrate into people’s digital lives.
Those new features include a new Shortcuts app that will
connect the Siri voice command with certain apps—for instance, Siri could state
flight and hotel information from the Kayak app with a voice command. Apple
also introduced new augmented technology, such as a Measure app to capture the
dimensions of objects, as well as group video chat on FaceTime.
In the middle of all these announcements to drive
interactivity, Apple’s software chief, Craig Federighi, paused to talk about
ways to “prevent distractions” and limit device use. Apple has been under
pressure this year to address those issues. In January, the company received a
letter from activist investor Jana Partners LLC and the California State
Teachers’ Retirement System, or Calstrs, which control about $2 billion of
Apple shares. The letter urged the tech giant to develop new software tools
that would help parents control and limit phone use more easily, and to study
the impact of overuse on mental health.
On Monday, Jana and Calstrs sent a new letter to Apple to
commend the moves, but also sought to continue pressing the company to work
with experts in studying the impacts of phone usage.
“This must be an ongoing effort,” they wrote, according
to a copy reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, adding the “ethical leadership”
will create long term stock value.
Kevin Holesh, a founder of the app Moment, which helps
people track their device usage, said Apple’s moves were “a good first step”
and overdue. But he questioned whether setting limits on usage actually works.
Among the 5.5 million users who have downloaded Moments and used the app’s own
limits function, their time was only reduced by two minutes on average a day on
the iPhone and iPad, he said.
“Limits are easy to turn off, and it doesn’t solve the
underlying reason of why you’re picking up the phone or an app to begin with
such as boredom or loneliness,” Mr. Holesh said.
The amount of time people spend on mobile devices has
increased by more than an hour over the past five years to 3.3 hours a day,
according to research by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. A survey
sponsored by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that promotes responsible media
and technology use for children, found about half of 620 families in 2016 said
they felt addicted to their smartphones, and several studies have found
smartphones can increase anxiety.
Apple iOS 12: The iPhone and iPad Updates You’ll Care
About
The findings have fostered concern that smartphones could
trigger a mental-health crisis for youth growing up with the device. It has
also stoked worries, including among some iPhone creators, that adults are
spending too much time on their devices and not being present enough in the
everyday world.
The concerns have created a predicament for leading
smartphone software developers Apple and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. They’re now
trying to strike a balance between releasing exciting features that make
smartphones and tablets more useful for users, potentially increasing the time
they spend on those devices, with new tools that empower them to control how
much they use the devices.
Google responded last month by announcing its Android
mobile operating system, which has an 85% market share world-wide, according to
International Data Corp., would add a new dashboard that allows users to set
time limits for apps and make the screen automatically turn gray when they’re
ready for bed. The company already offers a system called Family Link that
allows parents to remotely track their children’s screen time.
Though Apple has offered parental controls for years,
analysts say the system only allows parents to set limits on their children’s
device use—not monitor it on a continuing basis. The new “Screen Time” feature
changes that by giving parents those same capabilities.
A new Reports feature will detail how users spend time
with the iPhone and iPad, including how often per hour they look at their
devices, when they are using particular apps and what apps are sending the most
notifications.
“If Apple leads the way and we do a good job of educating
parents and the public about using the tools, this could be a major step forward
in addressing the challenges of attention, addiction and distraction,” said Jim
Steyer, founder of Common Sense Media.
Among the new software features for the company’s new
mobile software, known as iOS 12, the Shortcuts app for Siri is among the most
important strategically for Apple. Siri, which made its debut in 2011, has lost
ground to Alexa and Google Assistant as those rival systems opened up to
third-party developers, allowing users to verbally order pizza or play trivia.
Shortcuts is designed to improve Siri’s capabilities by
allowing users to program their phone for specific actions. For example, a user
could program a setting called “Heading Home,” and when the user says those
words using Siri, it would automatically pull up National Public Radio and
provide a traffic report for the drive home from work.
The custom tools show the company is in the earliest
phases of a transition, seeing Siri as a platform for users rather than just
another feature on its devices, said Carolina Milanesi, a technology analyst
with Creative Strategies. “Until they change the way they look at Siri, it will
never be able to compete with Google and Alexa,” she said.
Siri’s limitations contributed to some negative reviews
of Apple’s smart speaker, the HomePod, which launched earlier this year and was
faulted by reviewers for being largely limited to playing music at a time when
devices like the Amazon Echo could be used to answer questions and order
products like paper towels.
“Apple felt the urgency a year ago and a year later it
has become even more urgent for it to catch up in this field in a decisive
manner,” said Werner Goertz, a technology research director with Gartner , Inc.
Appeared in the June 5, 2018, print edition as 'Apple
Targets Phone Overuse.'
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