A new iOS 12 feature named Screen Time will surprise iPhone owners with how much they use them, as even Apple CEO Tim Cook did not expect the numbers to be so high for him.
Apple has not yet rolled out iOS 12 to the general public, but the latest major version of the mobile operating system was showcased at WWDC 2018. For those who would like to access the Screen Time feature, the iOS 12 beta is now available for download.
Here's What The iOS 12 Screen Time Feature Will Show You
Screen Time, one of the new iOS 12 features, will be launched alongside the iOS 12 release this fall, It is a collection of data that monitors the user's usage of his or her iPhone, providing incredibly detailed information for an in-depth look on how people use their iPhones.
Screen Time is accessible through the Settings app, and its main page shows how much users spend on their iPhone each day. A bar also shows the apps that are used the most often, along with an arrow that represents whether the daily usage is higher or lower than average.
Going into more specific details, the Screen Time feature also reveals the full breakdown of all the apps used in the past 24 hours or seven days, how many times the iPhone has been picked up per hour and per day, and the number of notifications that the iPhone has displayed.
Do You Use Your iPhone Too Much?
The Screen Time feature does not provide any analysis or recommendations, as its purpose is to only provide people with data on how much they use their iPhone. The information, however, will likely surprise people, according to Business Insider's Kif Leswing.
Leswing shared that he picked up his iPhone at an average of about 248 times per day, and that he used his iPhone for over five hours each day. Leswing was not alone in being surprised with the statistics, though, as many attendees of WWDC 2018 were also shocked with the number after installing the iOS 12 beta. Even Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, was surprised with the information displayed by Screen Time.
"I've been using it and I have to tell you: I thought I was fairly disciplined about this. And I was wrong," Cook said to CNN. "When I began to get the data, I found I was spending a lot more time than I should."
There have been a lot of research on smartphone addiction, which a study says leads to teenage unhappiness, among many other things. Meanwhile, a heartbreaking homework from school revealed the effects of smartphone addiction on children, when a second grader wrote "I hate my mom's phone."
Screen Time will show users if they are addicted to the iPhones, which will hopefully lead to better decisions on their part on how much they use the devices.
