August 28, 2018 • 5 mins
YouTube has new Digital Wellbeing tools to help you control how much time you spend watching videos inside the app. Learn how to monitor how much time you or your kids are watching, get reminders to take a break, group your notifications, set quiet times and more.YouTube Blog:https://youtube.googleblog.com/2018/08/tools-to-take-charge-of-your-digital.htmlAndroid 9 Pie Digital Wellbeing:https://www.blog.google/products/android/introducing-android-9-pie/Follow Rich on Social Media:Facebook: http://facebook.com/RichOnTechTwitter: http://twitter.com/richdemuroInstagram: http://instagram.com/richontech Easy ways to listen on your phone or smart speaker:"Hey Google, Play the Rich on Tech Podcast""Hey Siri, Play the Rich on Tech Podcast""Alexa, Enable the Rich on Tech Flash Briefing"
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
YouTube's new tools to help you keep tabs on how
much you watch.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
What's going on. I'm rich Demiro. This is Rich on tech.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
YouTube is introducing some new ways to help you stay
on a good digital diet. This is part of a
bigger trend we're seeing around digital wellness from big companies
including Google, Facebook, Apple, and more. Now YouTube's new tools
are in the mobile app. To get to them, just
open the app and then tap your profile picture. Usually
it's in the upper right hand corner. Then look for
the new section labeled time watched.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Once you open this up, you can immediately see your
viewing stats. You can see how much time you spent
watching today, yesterday, the past week, or your daily average.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
This can be a handyway for parents to check in
on their kids to see how much YouTube they're really
watching on a daily basis, But as a regular person,
you can also just see for yourself.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Am I watching too much YouTube?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
That I watch more or less than I thought over
the past couple of weeks. Down below this information are
some tools to help you manage your YouTube time, including
an option to remind you to take a break. You
can set this frequency as you like, whether it's every
fifteen minutes every hour, or really whatever you want. Once
you hit this time limit, you're gonna get a friendly
screen telling you to take a break. And yes, you
(01:13):
might be thinking yourself, Hey, rich this was already in
my app before.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yes, you're right.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
This is a relatively new feature, but it has been
in the app for a little bit of time. But
now it's all under this new section labeled time watched.
Underneath the option to remind you to take a break
is a toggle to turn auto play off. AutoPlay is
one of the ways that YouTube gets us to watch
and watch and watch, So if you have this problem
where you keep watching you're spending too much mindless time
on the site, it's probably a good idea to turn
(01:39):
this off. And if you have kids that are watching YouTube,
like I talked about in a couple of episodes ago,
it's a good idea to turn off auto play because
you never know if that next video is going to
be appropriate for them. After this, the next two toggles
are very useful. The first is called Scheduled Digest. This
bundles all of your new subscription, video alerts and other
YouTube notifications to one giant notification at a specific time
(02:03):
now I definitely see the pros and cons of this one.
As a creator, you don't really want people turning this
on because they're not going to be immediately notified when
your next video drops. Plus, if your video notification is
bundled in with a bunch of other people's video notifications,
there's a.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Good chance that your video won't be watched.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Now, on the flip side, you do get to pick
the delivery time for your digest notification, so that means
you can choose a time when you know you're sitting
around or you know you're gonna have some free time
each day to catch up on your video subscription. So
for me personally, I get these little notifications from some
of the creators. I've turned on that bell for throughout
the day and I'm at work, I'm busy, and guess what,
I just swipe them away. Now, if I knew it,
(02:41):
let's say three PM, when I was sitting in front
of my TV, I was able to watch some of
these things and had some time, then perhaps I would
be more app to watching these videos. So it's definitely
a pro and con to that one. You can turn
it on if you find it useful. The final setting
is sort of a do not disturb, but just for YouTube.
You can silence notification during a timeframe that you specify.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
So if you don't want YouTube.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Nagging you while you're at work, you can set those
as your silent hours. Now, keep in mind this feature
might overlap with your standard do not disturb setting, so
keep that in mind when you're setting it up.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
But realistically it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
It's just for the app. You can set it as
you like. So why the big emphasis on digital wellness
right now? Well, it just seems like we're spending a
lot of time on our phones and if we let
every single app notify us every single time they want
our attention, we'll think about it. We won't have any
time in our days for anything else. And already we
notice this happening. Controls like this are letting us take
back the digital rains. And on that note, I've been
(03:35):
testing Google's new digital well Being feature in Android nine PI,
and it's really interesting because there's a lot of aspects
of this that I like. Because these phones are new,
all these notifications are new, we're still figuring out how
to deal with them in our everyday lives. So, for instance,
the do not Disturb feature in Pie literally takes away
any notifications on my screen while I'm sleeping.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Or if I'm out at night and I have it
turned on.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
And the neat thing about these notifications is when they're
out of sight, they're out of mind. You're not even
thinking to check them if you don't see them on
your screen personally. I've also set thirty minute timers on
all of my social media apps, so I get thirty
minutes to use Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter each day, and
you can set that number to whatever you want. I
just pick thirty. It was kind of arbitrary just to
see what it was, and I've been hitting my limit
(04:17):
mostly in the early evening, maybe five six o'clock, and
it's kind of liberating because that's the time I spend
out my kids. And once that happens, the app, like
my Twitter icon, is literally grade out and I cannot
use it. I can't open it, I can't see any
notifications from it until the next day. And sure I
can probably override the time out somehow by going into
the settings, but so far I haven't. I haven't even
(04:39):
felt the need to. You just sort of forget about
checking the app again. Until the morning when it's not
great out anymore, and you can use it again. So
I think that this is actually serving its purpose. The
other side effect is that I don't want to waste
time in these apps because I know that every minute
spent inside of them is precious and I might need
that time later on in the day to share something
or to comment on something, or do whatever inside Facebook,
(05:01):
Twitter or Instagram. Now for me, this is a little
bit complicated because part of my job relies on social media,
so I'm still figuring out.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
That and how to navigate that properly.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
But the bottom line is, Look, we're all spending wasted
time inside these apps, so I'm sure we can all
trim it just a little bit. Apple's also going to
introduce a similar feature in the next version of their
operating system iOS twelve.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Which is going to launch in a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And although all these limits seem counterintuitive to the businesses
that these tech companies have built, which are basically based
on grabbing our attention, in the end, they're seeing this
self regulation as a good first step.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
If you want links to more information on these YouTube
controls or digital wellbeing in general.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Go to my website.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
It's Rich on tech dot TV, or check the show notes.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I'm Rich Damiro. I'll talk to you real soon.
YouTube's new tools to help you keep tabs on how
much you watch.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
What's going on. I'm rich Demiro. This is Rich on tech.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
YouTube is introducing some new ways to help you stay
on a good digital diet. This is part of a
bigger trend we're seeing around digital wellness from big companies
including Google, Facebook, Apple, and more. Now YouTube's new tools
are in the mobile app. To get to them, just
open the app and then tap your profile picture. Usually
it's in the upper right hand corner. Then look for
the new section labeled time watched.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Once you open this up, you can immediately see your
viewing stats. You can see how much time you spent
watching today, yesterday, the past week, or your daily average.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
This can be a handyway for parents to check in
on their kids to see how much YouTube they're really
watching on a daily basis, But as a regular person,
you can also just see for yourself.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Am I watching too much YouTube?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
That I watch more or less than I thought over
the past couple of weeks. Down below this information are
some tools to help you manage your YouTube time, including
an option to remind you to take a break. You
can set this frequency as you like, whether it's every
fifteen minutes every hour, or really whatever you want. Once
you hit this time limit, you're gonna get a friendly
screen telling you to take a break. And yes, you
(01:13):
might be thinking yourself, Hey, rich this was already in
my app before.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Yes, you're right.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
This is a relatively new feature, but it has been
in the app for a little bit of time. But
now it's all under this new section labeled time watched.
Underneath the option to remind you to take a break
is a toggle to turn auto play off. AutoPlay is
one of the ways that YouTube gets us to watch
and watch and watch, So if you have this problem
where you keep watching you're spending too much mindless time
on the site, it's probably a good idea to turn
(01:39):
this off. And if you have kids that are watching YouTube,
like I talked about in a couple of episodes ago,
it's a good idea to turn off auto play because
you never know if that next video is going to
be appropriate for them. After this, the next two toggles
are very useful. The first is called Scheduled Digest. This
bundles all of your new subscription, video alerts and other
YouTube notifications to one giant notification at a specific time
(02:03):
now I definitely see the pros and cons of this one.
As a creator, you don't really want people turning this
on because they're not going to be immediately notified when
your next video drops. Plus, if your video notification is
bundled in with a bunch of other people's video notifications,
there's a.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Good chance that your video won't be watched.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Now, on the flip side, you do get to pick
the delivery time for your digest notification, so that means
you can choose a time when you know you're sitting
around or you know you're gonna have some free time
each day to catch up on your video subscription. So
for me personally, I get these little notifications from some
of the creators. I've turned on that bell for throughout
the day and I'm at work, I'm busy, and guess what,
I just swipe them away. Now, if I knew it,
(02:41):
let's say three PM, when I was sitting in front
of my TV, I was able to watch some of
these things and had some time, then perhaps I would
be more app to watching these videos. So it's definitely
a pro and con to that one. You can turn
it on if you find it useful. The final setting
is sort of a do not disturb, but just for YouTube.
You can silence notification during a timeframe that you specify.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
So if you don't want YouTube.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Nagging you while you're at work, you can set those
as your silent hours. Now, keep in mind this feature
might overlap with your standard do not disturb setting, so
keep that in mind when you're setting it up.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
But realistically it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
It's just for the app. You can set it as
you like. So why the big emphasis on digital wellness
right now? Well, it just seems like we're spending a
lot of time on our phones and if we let
every single app notify us every single time they want
our attention, we'll think about it. We won't have any
time in our days for anything else. And already we
notice this happening. Controls like this are letting us take
back the digital rains. And on that note, I've been
(03:35):
testing Google's new digital well Being feature in Android nine PI,
and it's really interesting because there's a lot of aspects
of this that I like. Because these phones are new,
all these notifications are new, we're still figuring out how
to deal with them in our everyday lives. So, for instance,
the do not Disturb feature in Pie literally takes away
any notifications on my screen while I'm sleeping.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Or if I'm out at night and I have it
turned on.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
And the neat thing about these notifications is when they're
out of sight, they're out of mind. You're not even
thinking to check them if you don't see them on
your screen personally. I've also set thirty minute timers on
all of my social media apps, so I get thirty
minutes to use Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter each day, and
you can set that number to whatever you want. I
just pick thirty. It was kind of arbitrary just to
see what it was, and I've been hitting my limit
(04:17):
mostly in the early evening, maybe five six o'clock, and
it's kind of liberating because that's the time I spend
out my kids. And once that happens, the app, like
my Twitter icon, is literally grade out and I cannot
use it. I can't open it, I can't see any
notifications from it until the next day. And sure I
can probably override the time out somehow by going into
the settings, but so far I haven't. I haven't even
(04:39):
felt the need to. You just sort of forget about
checking the app again. Until the morning when it's not
great out anymore, and you can use it again. So
I think that this is actually serving its purpose. The
other side effect is that I don't want to waste
time in these apps because I know that every minute
spent inside of them is precious and I might need
that time later on in the day to share something
or to comment on something, or do whatever inside Facebook,
(05:01):
Twitter or Instagram. Now for me, this is a little
bit complicated because part of my job relies on social media,
so I'm still figuring out.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
That and how to navigate that properly.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
But the bottom line is, Look, we're all spending wasted
time inside these apps, so I'm sure we can all
trim it just a little bit. Apple's also going to
introduce a similar feature in the next version of their
operating system iOS twelve.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Which is going to launch in a few weeks.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
And although all these limits seem counterintuitive to the businesses
that these tech companies have built, which are basically based
on grabbing our attention, in the end, they're seeing this
self regulation as a good first step.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
Thanks so much for listening.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
If you want links to more information on these YouTube
controls or digital wellbeing in general.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Go to my website.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
It's Rich on tech dot TV, or check the show notes.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I'm Rich Damiro. I'll talk to you real soon.
Host
Rich DeMuro
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