Deep down, you probably know you’re spending too much time on social media, with particular emphasis on Facebook. Thankfully, Apple and Google will tell you exactly how much of your time goes to the Facebook app every day in future software updates, including iOS 12 and Android P, respectively.
However, Facebook could soon offer users stats about their time on the social network, which is quite surprising.
It’s one thing to see operating system makers come up with ways to monitor and limit screen time usage, particularly when it comes to managing smartphone time for children.
But the more time you spend on Facebook, the more money Facebook makes because all that scrolling comes nets Facebook plenty of ad impressions. That’s why it’s strange to see Facebook provide statistics that might convince you to ignore Facebook rather than commit more of your time to it.
On the other hand, Facebook already made changes to its News Feed, aiming to improve the overall user experience. The company even boasted that it lost some 700,000 daily users as a result.
The feature is called Your Time on Facebook, according to TechCrunch, and it resides in Facebook’s current Android app. The feature is not official yet, but once enabled it should tell you how much time you spent on Facebook on each of the past seven days, as well as your average time. Here’s what it’ll look like:
What’s even more interesting is that you can set limits and that will trigger a reminder whenever you pass those limits. The feature will also bring over a shortcut to let you change your Facebook notification settings. After all, it’s those pesky notifications that pull you back into Facebook all day long.
Facebook confirmed the feature to TechCrunch. “We’re always working on new ways to help make sure people’s time on Facebook is time well spent,” the company said. However, there’s no telling when the feature will be available on Android and iPhone.
