Facebook will help you spend less time on Facebook
What's the story
Following on the footsteps of Apple and Google, Facebook has now confirmed that it's bringing a feature akin to Apple's Screen Time and Google's Digital Wellbeing. First reported by TechCrunch, the new, under-development feature called "Your Time on Facebook" was uncovered by developer Jane Manchung Wong as a line of code in Facebook's app for Android. Here's what we know about it.
Twitter Post
Here's a sneak peek into the upcoming feature
Facebook is working on "Your Time on Facebook" which could help users to manage their time spent on Facebook app.
— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) June 22, 2018
Instagram is also working on helping users to improve their digital wellbeing: https://t.co/y38mV3RtqB
as previously spotted: https://t.co/D26M9RuSxG pic.twitter.com/YqSyH0fpII
The tool
What we know about the new tool
The new tool, once launched, will give users insights into how much time they spent on Facebook. Apart from data on average time spent on Facebook per day, the tool will also offer weekly data to users for comparison. It will also allow users to set time limits and get alerts when they exceed self-imposed limits.
Trends
Digital well-being is fast becoming an important tech concern
The move comes at a time when "time well spent" and "digital well-being" are fast becoming important topics in the tech world. Apple and Google have already announced products dedicated towards helping users self-police how much time they spend in the virtual world. Last week, Facebook-owned Instagram also announced the upcoming launch of a time well spent tool called Usage Insights.
Zuckerberg's views
Zuckerberg has long been stressing on quality over quantity
It might seem like Facebook's trying to ape others in the tech world, but in Mark Zuckerberg's defense, he has long been saying that he wants people's time on Facebook to be more meaningful. Following up on a post about the same, in an earnings call in late-January, Zuckerberg surprised everyone by saying that people spending less time on Facebook is a good thing.
Earlier changes
Facebook has already made changes to reduce usage time
Notably, Facebook has already made changes to its News Feed algorithm in a bid to reduce the presence of eye-catching, but ultimately meaningless viral videos. The changes led to Facebook's first-ever usage decline in North America, when, in Q4 2017, the social media platform lost 700,000 daily active users in the region, and daily time spent on Facebook reduced by 50 million hours.