Pixel 3A: I tried Google’s latest digital wellness idea and only lasted 5 hours

So that I finished cutting and gluing the envelope together to end up enclosing my Pixel 3A, I was hopeful. Besides being an average phone user, I have been reviewing and reporting on phones for years. Spending time on the phones and getting paid for it, then turning around and doing the exact opposite, would be new to me, and I was amused to get started.

Of electronic lock boxes For minimalist phones, the efforts that people make – or rather those that companies hope for – to get drug free from their phones have always intrigued me. On the one hand, these intentions come from a good place; we could all bear spending less time on our phones. But the marketing behind these solutions often involves a whiff of privileges. After all, customers they want to attract and who are “overwhelmed” by their phone are also more likely to spend time away from them; they could afford to buy this sophisticated lock cabinet or a secondary phone whose main selling point is that it does nothing.

So when Experiences with Google, The collection of projects from external Google developers, presented in January a low-tech project calledEnvelopewhich aims to help users reduce phone use by means of a physical barrier, I was even more curious. It needed an application (of course), but also just a pair of scissors, glue and a paper print. It was created by a London-based design studio Special projects, and he challenged users to seal their phones in a paper envelope and, you know, live life or whatever.

The concept basically amazes a phone (in this case, it only works with the Pixel 3A, a slightly less efficient and cheaper version of the Pixel 3, rumor has it that Google is suing the Pixel 4A in 2020), so that it only makes and receives calls and shows the time. Other than that, a 0.1mm sheet of paper would be between me and messaging, Chrome, YouTube, Maps, a camera, Instagram, and everything else I like my phone for.

I planned to last at least 24 hours, in order to completely limit the use of my phone. But as I realized later, I was unfortunately ill prepared and had to lower my ambitions quickly.

Desire for Detoxification

The envelope works by replacing the default Pixel 3A phone call app with hers, one that is simple and crisp, in black and white. After going through a getting started guide, the app gave me 10 seconds to drag my Pixel 3A into my fully assembled envelope.

On Monday January 28 at 2:30 p.m., I sealed the Pixel 3A. Once inside, I only had access to the standard four-row dialer, a call button and a clock button. When I had to dial a number, the call button turned green, then turned red when a call was active. To indicate the time, the composer’s digits illuminated each hour digit sequentially, while a calm four-note melody was played. Watching time go through the paper like that has unexpectedly become my favorite part of the app.

Because my friends and I mainly chat via Facebook Messenger and almost no one is called these days, I easily spent the working day checking messages and listening to music on my computer. When I got home, I assumed things would be that easy. Unless there is a fantastic event that would justify me tearing the envelope to take a photo, I can easily leave my phone in my room for hours while cooking, eating and watching Netflix in another room. The only temptation I could imagine was to check Twitter before bed, but it would be fairly easy to resist overnight.

Later that evening, I was invited to dinner at the last minute and needed directions to get to a friend’s house. In the end, it wasn’t an addiction to Twitter or Instagram that made me, but Google Maps. And because I didn’t want to look down at the handwritten instructions at night while driving, I felt comfortable ending my experience at 7:30 p.m.

Because the purpose of the envelope was to reduce the time spent scrolling through my phone without thinking and not to completely eliminate phone use, however, I was curious to continue. At this point, I decided to use a second phone to navigate the directions and keep the Pixel 3A sealed. Don’t get me wrong – I admit that without the second phone I would have turned off completely after five hours. I admit that I could not last 24 hours with my main pilot inside the envelope. But I still wanted to see how long I could continue.

Over the next 24 hours, I spoke on the phone with my brother through the envelope (the call quality was a bit muffled, but surprisingly, my facial oil left no visible residue on the paper), i tried to avoid the rain (it turns out, the paper doesn’t go so well with the water) and checked the time a dozen times (again, it was a delicious thing).

But after three more cases of using my second phone, I finally stopped it. Without a bedside clock, I used it to set a wake-up alarm. I used it again at the cinema to call a confirmation code sent by email. Finally, when it was late at night, I had to check out a public transit app and the time of the next bus because I wanted to stay inside a nearby store instead of waiting lazily outside. at a bus stop alone.

It was three strikes and I was absent (four if you plan to sail to my friend’s house). Before starting the experience, I imagined myself breaking the seal when I was in a peaceful state of mind, completely rested and relaxed, and ready to enter digital life. But things did not go so idyllically. Wednesday evening, January 1, after 48 hours of sealing my Pixel 3A and a little stress, I cut the envelope with a paring knife.

Allow yourself to disconnect

Over the past two years, several studies have focused on the insidious dangers of spending too much time on your phone. It can play with your sleep, make you eat without knowing it and even accelerate blindness. The hours spent browsing social media apps can have a negative impact on your mental health.

In response, phone manufacturers have started to include software that gives you information about the time you spend on your device and limits usage time on certain apps. Apple at Screen Time, Google at Digital Wellbeing and OnePlus at Zen Mode. Third-party applications and launchers such as Siempo, Space and Flipd also help digital detoxification.

The idea of ​​sealing your phone is not unique to Envelope. Yondr, for example, was founded in 2014 and works with schools and concert halls to store phones in pockets. “Anti” smartphones with light features such as Punkt, Light and Palm has been around for years and costs around $ 350.

But what attracted me to the Envelope was that it was both physical and free. This is because it is not quite a real product – just a well thought out concept that was created for the Pixel 3A, submitted to, and then picked up by Google.

“I wish we could do it for each phone!” Special Projects co-founder Adrian Westaway said in an email to CNET. “We have chosen to make the code open-source and free to modify it so that the community can, hopefully, modify and evolve it, and make it more accessible to other phone users.”

When Punkt launched its minimalist MP01 phone three years ago, its slogan was “Offline as the new luxury,” and CEO and founder Petter Neby listed typical Punkt customers as “architects, lawyers, bankers, and the like.” Silicon Valley “, in an interview in 2017 with CNET.

But many of us, myself included, are not architects, lawyers or bankers. And the fact that my last use of a smartphone was due to a concern for personal safety is worth noting. As mentioned earlier, peddling the need to get out of the gate carries a thin veil of indulgence. Many cannot afford to disconnect simply because their work, education or well-being depend on constant access to a phone. As a 5 foot woman who is breathless after a flight of stairs, I was not going to make myself more vulnerable than I was already alone at a bus stop for the purpose of detoxification.

Although it is limited to Pixel 3A, I hope others will take Westaway’s suggestion and extend it to other devices (it is available on GitHub) and try to live it for yourself, if only for a few hours.

In the meantime, the desire to be more attentive and less connected to your phone is still an admirable ambition, albeit from the first world. Although I consider myself decent to avoid unnecessary screen time, I was still discouraged by all the small but vital tasks for which I use my phone. I was particularly surprised to see how these characteristics had implications for my personal safety, even with my own privilege as a valid person. In reality, taking time to live your life should not be an extravagance reserved for a few. And while the Envelope certainly doesn’t solve these gender issues, it requires at least very little – just a sheet of paper, a stick of glue, and a pair of scissors.