Apple's i os restrictions aren't helping tech addiction

1. 6/8/2018 Apple's iOS Restrictions Aren't Helping Tech Addiction | WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/ios-restrictions-digital-wellness/ 1/11
06.03.18 07:00 AM
APPLE'S RESTRICTIONS AREN'T HELPING TECH
ADDICTION
WHEN APPLE KICKS off its Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, it’s
largely expected that Apple CEO Tim Cook will introduce a few new "digital
wellness" features for iOS, the iPhone's operating system. It would follow in
the footsteps of Google—which introduced its own suite of wellness tools for
Android last month—and a growing sentiment in Silicon Valley that we need
better tools to unglue ourselves from our phones.
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2. 6/8/2018 Apple's iOS Restrictions Aren't Helping Tech Addiction | WIRED
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On iPhones, though, building those tools hasn't been easy. A group of 20 app
developers and thought leaders in the “digital wellness” space—people like
Chris Dancy, author of Don't Unplug: Embracing Technology to Improve
Your Life, and Catherine Price, author of How to Break Up With Your Phone
—are now calling attention to the ways Apple's platform has historically
stood in the way of third-party digital wellness apps. In a petition to the
company, they're asking Apple to open up its software development kit and
give developers the ability to customize the iPhone's home screen, auto-
trigger Do Not Disturb mode, or provide richer insight into app usage.
“We have millions of iPhone supporters waiting for us to make our innovative
tools available to them,” the petition says, “but all we can do is offer
unsatisfactory products, or encourage them to switch to Android.”
It's a clear message to Apple: The digital wellness revolution is coming, and if
developers can’t make tools for your platform, you’re going to get left
behind.
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“If 70 percent of people really care about this, like Google announced a few
weeks ago, then Apple’s going to have to make some radical changes,” says
Andrew Dunn, the creator of Siempo, an Android launcher that changes the
homescreen to remove distractions and minimize app notifications. “There

3. 6/8/2018 Apple's iOS Restrictions Aren't Helping Tech Addiction | WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/ios-restrictions-digital-wellness/ 3/11
are all of these digital wellness developers that can do amazing things on
Android. But we really have our hands tied on iOS.”
Long before Google announced its “digital wellness” initiative, Android
developers were building tools to chip away at what seemed like a growing
attention crisis on smartphones. Some built Android launchers like Siempo,
which offers a distraction-free home screen; and Luna, which redesigns the
interface with kids in mind. Others created apps like Instant and Quality
Time, which track how long people spend looking at their screens and how
often they unlock their phones. Others emerged to help people make better
use of their time onscreen (like Buddhify, a digital meditation app) and help
people make better use of their time offscreen (like Flipd, which locks people
out of distracting apps during certain periods of the day).
The beauty of this ecosystem is the range of solutions. Anecdotally, most
people agree that they spend too much time staring at their phones, but the
remedies are not one-size-fits-all. Some people want a version of their phone
they feel good about giving to their kids; others want to enjoy all the spoils of
our connected world in their free time, but without the distractions at school
or work. Others just want a way to break the habit of instinctively swiping
their phone open and mindlessly scrolling through Instagram. On Android,
it's possible to piece together the phone experience that makes sense for you,
with as many or few limitations as you see fit.
But those options haven't always translated to iPhones. Take an app like
SPACE, available for both Android and iOS. The app offers a suite of tools like
usage monitoring and notification blocking to minimize distractions. The
most used feature on the Android version of SPACE lets users exclude certain
apps that they find purposeful. You might want to create some distance from
Instagram, Facebook, and Gmail, while keeping immediate access to Google
Maps and Evernote. “I had one use case of a girl excluding her Bible app,”
says Georgie Powell, SPACE’s creator. The iOS version doesn’t include the
option to “whitelist” those apps—or other features, like a notification
blocker, a breakdown of app usage, and unlock stats—because of Apple's
restrictions on third-party apps.

4. 6/8/2018 Apple's iOS Restrictions Aren't Helping Tech Addiction | WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/ios-restrictions-digital-wellness/ 4/11
The difference isn’t just that SPACE works better on Android phones than it
does on iPhones. It’s that users are more likely to change their behavior when
they have a whole suite of tools, says Powell. The Android version gets better
reviews, better user retention, and has better overall impact on its users.
Other “digital wellness” tools don’t work at all on iOS. Siempo and other
home-screen launchers only work on Android, because iOS doesn’t let
developers make changes to the iPhone’s home screen. “We’re also not able
to change anything about notifications or the icons,” says Dunn, Siempo’s
CEO.
Even if Apple rolls out a set of native features similar to the ones Google
announced—dashboards for tracking phone usage, app timers for setting
limits on certain apps, and more intuitive gestures to flip on Do Not Disturb
or night mode—most developers won’t be able to leverage them in their own
apps. Last year, Apple added a new option to activate Do Not Disturb mode
while driving. It prompts users to block incoming notifications as soon as
they get into a moving vehicle. But the feature doesn't work for scenarios
besides driving, and iOS developers can't incorporate it into their apps.
“Apple is holding this feature hostage,” says Alana Harvey, the co-founder
and CMO of Flipd. She'd like to see other apps, like the calendar, make use of
the Do Not Disturb function to minimize distractions during times that are
already marked as busy. Another feature she'd like to see made available to
developers is an auto-response, which would trigger an SMS reply to calls or
texts during a busy period—something that's already available on Android
devices, but not on iPhones. “I think it’s kind of silly that when we’re driving
is the only scenario where we’re going to want some sort of auto response
text message to go to someone to let them know we’re busy.”
It's possible that Apple could introduce all of this on the next version of iOS,
with built-in wellness capabilities. But these developers believe that Apple
only stands to gain from collaboration with its ecosystem of app developers
—especially the ones that have been working toward solutions for years.
“They need all the tools on hand, rather than [just the ones] hidden in their
settings,” says Powell. “Just as there is space for fitness apps in a world
where Apple's [Health Kit] exists, it is equally important that there is
innovation and personalization in the digital health space to support the
growing demand for tools like ours.”

5. 6/8/2018 Apple's iOS Restrictions Aren't Helping Tech Addiction | WIRED
https://www.wired.com/story/ios-restrictions-digital-wellness/ 5/11
More on Apple's Big Show
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The latest iPad is made for classrooms, a place where Apple has been
lagging
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