Apple unveils ways to limit iPhone use — then sucks you back in
SAN JOSE – Apple unveiled new ways to limit your screen time on iPhones and other mobile gadgets at its annual developers conference here — and at the same time unleashed new ways to spend more time on its devices.
That seeming contradiction highlights the growing dilemma for Silicon Valley giants such as Apple, Facebook and Google as they pitch their ubiquitous products while acknowledging growing concerns about tech addiction and consumer privacy.
Apple tackled the latter with new settings in its Safari browser that allow users to limit Facebook and others apps from following their trails around the Web — a pointed knock against the social network, which fended off a new round of privacy breach allegations this weekend.
During a keynote that seemed more focused on solving users’ persistent problems rather than the more typical showcasing of cutting-edge features, Ap-
ple executives took the wraps off a suite of tools that responded to complaints by investors and former employees that smartphone design is creating a generation of device addicts.
The focus of the two-hour keynote was on iOS 12, the newest version of Apple’s software available this fall, which will bring updates to products dating to
2013’s iPhone 5s.
Apple senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi drew some polite applause from
6,000 developers assembled at McEnery Convention Center when he explained that users could now set limits for how much time is spent in any given app.
“Apps beg us to use our phone when we should be doing something else,” Federighi said. “Some of us, we might not recognize how distracted we’ve become.”
The suite of tech-monitoring tools includes a more targeted “Do Not Disturb” feature that during bedtime hours dims the display and hides all notifications on the lock screen, eliminating an accidental peek at night that can lead to full immersion.
Apple also unveiled ways to mute group notifications, such as a chatty group of texting friends.
But its Screen Time feature is what promises the possibility of helping tech users wean themselves off heavy device use. The feature will offer daily and weekly activity reports that reveal the total time spent in individual apps, usage across categories of apps, how many notifications are received and how often an iPhone or iPad are picked up.
Earlier this year, Apple had promised “more robust” parental controls after two large investors urged the tech giant to do more to combat smartphone over-use among children. Apple’s existing parental controls had notable failings: A parent could restrict the kind of content but not the length of time they used an app.
Apple on Monday said Screen Time would give parents access to their child’s Activity Report right from their own iOS devices using Family Sharing in iCloud and allows them to schedule times to limit when a child’s iOS device can be used, such as during bedtime. Said Federighi: “It empowers you with insight and control.”
But for every additional control that Apple introduced to help encourage a child or adult to ditch the phone, the company provided other updates that hue to the perennial goal of most tech companies: offering better and stickier ways for you to use their product.
These included changes to its video-conferencing app FaceTime that allow you to make calls with up to 32 people and a new augmented-reality feature called “Memojis” that creates animated emojis of yourself.
One of the most raucous responses during the keynote was reserved for Federighi’s announcement that the newest operating system would offer greater levels of security that “extends protection to your (computer’s) cameras and microphone, your mail database, message history and more.”
Some of the other more compelling iOS 12 changes include tweaks to Siri, the often-used (10 billion requests a month, Apple says) digital assistant that hasn’t fared well in comparison tests with Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant.
While Apple didn’t say anything about Siri getting smarter, the company did release Shortcuts, which are both suggested and customizable shortcuts that help Siri be more proactive.