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How your smartphone can help you disconnect digitally

All smartphones have built-in tools to help you limit your screen time if you feel it's getting too much.

Elias Nordling
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Iphone: If you have an iPhone, you can find these features under Settings/Screen Time. Here you can see how much time you use your phone over time, and how much time you spend with different apps, and you can set up restrictions for yourself. You can create schedules for or spontaneously turn on screen-free time. With this feature enabled, all apps are turned off except those you have specifically allowed and phone calls. You can also set a maximum time for each individual app that you can use per day.

Android: Under Settings, you will find a feature called Digital Wellbeing or something similar. Here you can see how much time you have spent with different apps, and you can set timers and time limits. The features available vary slightly depending on the manufacturer of the phone, but two additional features are Focus Mode, where you can set it so that only a limited number of apps are available while the rest do not disturb you, and Bedtime Mode. Bedtime Mode dims the screen and sets it to grayscale, both as a reminder that it's time to sleep and as a way to make the phone a bit more boring. Some manufacturers have additional features, and as an example, we can mention Oneplus Zen Space, which when enabled limits the phone in the ways you have chosen and encourages you by providing statistics on how much time you have used the phone in limited mode.

Of course, it is possible to bypass these limitations by going into the settings and changing them, but they can still serve as an aid and a reminder when you reflexively pick up your phone for the umpteenth time during the day.

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