Facebook, Instagram to Track Time Spent on App for User Wellness

Social media addiction is real. In an attempt to counter it, tech companies have launched time tracking feature.

Avoid late night use of TVs, mobile phones and music.

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Just days after photo-messaging app Instagram rolled out the feature to track users' time spent on the app, Facebook has now released "Your Time on Facebook" tool that counts how many minutes people spend on the app.

The feature is designed to help users manage social networking by maintaining time spent per day on Facebook on a particular device for the past week and on an average, TechCrunch reported on Tuesday.

"Your Time on Facebook" tool will allow users to set a daily limit of app usage and receive a reminder to stop after that many minutes each day.

The tool also comes with shortcuts to notification, news feed and friend request settings.

“You can access it by going to Facebook’s ‘More’ tab, choose the ‘Settings and Privacy’ option and set ‘Your Time on Facebook’,” the report added.

Last week, Facebook-owned Instagram released its own "Your Activity" feature to track how much time users spent on the app.

The feature gives users more control over how they interact with social media that may be harmful to the mental health and well-being of the users if used excessively.

A similar feature called "Screen Time" has been introduced by Apple on its iOS, and with Google also releasing a "Digital Wellness" dashboard with Android 9.0, tech companies are thinking more about helping users better manage their time using apps, the report added.