Google Designed an Envelope to Hide Your Phone
As part of its Digital Wellbeing initiative, Google launched three new experimental apps to help lessen your time on your phone. One of these enables you to seal your phone in a paper envelope built for the exact purpose. It’s similar to the ones used in concerts to minimize electronic disturbances.
If you’re trying the envelope technique, you can only try it with the Pixel 3A. It’s limited, but it’s likely going to expand to other Android-based devices in the future. If you have this Google phone, you can download the app from the Play Store called the Envelope.
Once done, you can get a PDF and print it out. Cut the template out then follow the instructions to make it. As soon as you’re done, you can put your phone inside the envelope and seal it using glue.
Do this only when you’re ready to take a break from your phone. After all, you need to open the Envelope app before sealing it in the envelope. Once inside, your phone will have limited functionalities like dialing phone numbers, using the speed dial or telling the time.
This idea is great since the pouches used in concerts can help you enjoy and focus on the show better. After all, it restricts your use of the phone, meaning you and the audience won’t get distracted by the device’s notifications and other offerings. That’s why it isn’t hard to see how the Envelope can become as useful.
The Envelope can help to give you a break from your phone while at home. Since the glue keeps the envelope together, the only way to gain the full functionality of your phone is to tear it off. It also means you’ll need a new envelope each time you use the app.
As for the Envelope app, Google open-sourced it on GitHub. That means if you want to make one that enables you to do other functionalities, you can tinker with the code. That way, you can make the app fit your needs more.
Another Android app you should try is the Activity Bubbles. This Google-made app puts a bubble on your phone’s wallpaper whenever you open it. The longer you spend time on it, the larger the bubbles become, meaning it’s time to get off your phone once it covers your entire home screen.
If you want a visual representation of the time you spent on your phone, try out Google’s Screen Stopwatch. It’s a living wallpaper that serves as a timer, counting the amount of time you spend your phone unlocked. It covers the number of hours as well as the minutes and seconds, updating it in real-time.
These applications are great in evaluating the amount of time you spend on your phone. If you’re looking for means on how to decrease your phone time, make sure to use these apps as a basis on what to do next. You can also search the Play Store for other apps released by Google under their Digital Wellbeing initiative for more information.
Founder, Editor-In-Chief // A native Angeleno. John studied engineering at UCLA; founded Schmoozd, an offline social tech networking event in LA with 30,000 subs; ran a startup accelerator (StartEngine). Worked for several major brands like Toyota, DIRECTV, Hitachi, ICANN, and Raytheon. A mentor at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) Entrepreneur School, Dr. David Choi. And advises a dozen local LA startups building amazing tech in various industries; and invested in some. // Let's Connect: john@lastartups.com
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