GoKawiilAn anti-doomscrolling feature is now built into Android. (Yes, things have gotten that bad.)
On Tuesday, Google announced Pause Point which is designed to keep users from engaging with addictive apps on Android, the mobile operating system that powers Google’s Pixel smartphones, Samsung devices, and others.
Pause Point works by requiring a 10-second pause after you open any app you’ve labeled for yourself as being a distraction. TikTok, Instagram, X, and even Google’s YouTube could be the kind of apps labeled as “distracting” by Android device owners worried about the power of time-sucking algorithms to eat away at their day.
Image Credits:Google
With the addition, Google isn’t only thinking of users’ well-being, of course.
It’s reacting to increasing regulatory pressure around social media harms and algorithmic dangers. Today, many countries and U.S. states have created laws to restrict or ban minors from using social media, as the impacts of these apps on young people’s mental well-being have become better understood.
Google can now point to a feature like Pause Point to claim it’s part of the solution, not the problem.
“Android is more capable than ever, but we also want to give you the tools to disconnect when you need to,” explained Dieter Bohn, previously Executive Editor at The Verge, now Director of Product Operations for Google’s Platforms & Ecosystems organization, in a press briefing about the Android 17 update.
“I think that we are all guilty of going into our phone and then opening some app and getting stuck on autopilot, and an hour has gone by,” he said.
To date, social media app makers, including YouTube, have turned to the idea of app timers as a way to remind you to take a break or stop scrolling. Pause Point flips that idea on its head, as it interrupts the app’s launch — and the dopamine flood that follows — to force you to stop and rethink whether this is what you actually want to do, or is just a habit you’d like to break.
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