We now spend most of our lives in front of the screen of our mobile phone, to the point of not realizing the passage of time or the people who try to call us or speak while we do other things. All this is very sad, since in fact it transforms us into zombies completely dependent on our mobile devices, of which we can no longer do without. To regain some control of our life and see how many times we use the mobile phone (also checking for possible uses at pathological levels), in this guide we will show you how to use the control modes integrated on the iPhone, and the weather statistics apps. use for Android, in order to monitor how much time we spend in front of the smartphone.
How to see how many times you check your cell phone
On the iPhone there is a dedicated menu to check when we spend time in front of the smartphone, with the possibility of also setting limits (especially useful for minors or for people pathologically linked to the mobile phone). For Android devices, we will report the battery control menu plus some apps that perform a similar function, so you can check the time spent in front of the phone.Check usage time on iPhone
If we own an iPhone with iOS 12 or later, we can edit how many times we control the mobile phone using the Usage time menu, present in the Settings app.
From this screen we can check the use time of our smartphone and the average calculated on today's day and on the days of the week, with an estimate on the use time compared to last week; to get more information just press on the item View all activities, so as to check the most used apps, the total time in front of the screen, the screen activation time and the number of notifications received, both on a daily and weekly basis.
If we think that the iPhone in question is used excessively (for example in the hands of minors), we can set a pause of use by going back to the Usage time menu, pressing down on Use code "Usage time", setting a PIN of your choice and, returning to the previous screen, pressing Pause use .
In the screen that will open, enable the Pause button, choose whether to apply the pause every day or on specific days of the week, choose the time slot and activate the Block item at the beginning of the pause, so that we can impose limits on precise use when we do not want to use the iPhone or we need to "disconnect" from the compulsive control of every message and every notification received on our smartphone.
Check usage time on Android
On Android devices there is no menu similar to that visible on the iPhone, but we can still realize the time spent in front of the smartphone by the battery data. To get this information, open the Settings app, then go to the Battery -> Consumption (or similar) menu.
From this screen we can access two tabs, Applications and Hardware, able to show us the consumption of the active apps in memory (in particular by checking the CPU data in the foreground ) and to indicate briefly how long we kept the screen on (parameter Screen ) . Obviously the information is highly empirical, but they can still give us an indication on which app has kept us most attached to the smartphone.
Android app for mobile phone usage statistics
1) To obtain a more effective monitoring on Android, we can rely on some third-party apps such as Statistics of the app, available for Android.
This app actually adds the iPhone usage time to any Android smartphone, so you can see how many times we check the phone during the day, with a daily and weekly average.
2) An app similar but more beautiful to look at and with more features is StayFree . This application allows you to see how much time you spend on your smartphone and also statistics on how much your favorite apps are used. You can then set usage limits for apps and receive alerts when you exceed these set limits.
3) A simpler and more immediate application is instead distributed by Google in the Play Store and is called Unlock Clock . Once the application is installed, the home screen wallpaper is changed to a dynamic wallpaper which shows how many times the smartphone has been unlocked (and therefore used) during a day. To work, you need to install the Google Wallpapers app first.
3 BIS) Also from Google, there is also the Screen Stopwatch app which is very similar to Unlock Clock, only showing the time of use of the smartphone against the background of the main Android screen.
3 TRIS) A third application, Activity Bubbles, Google changes the phone's background to a dynamic one that adds a bubble every time you unlock your phone. If at the end of the day, the background of the phone becomes full of bubbles, then it means that we have used the phone too many times.
4) Alternatively we can use the free app for Android App Usage - Manage / Track Usage, which works in a similar way to the time of use of the iPhone.
Once installed, just leave it active in memory, so you can get valuable information on the apps launched on the phone, on the time spent with the screen on and on the amount of notifications that we have received.
5) ScreenTime for Android allows you to understand if we have a mobile addiction, checking usage statistics and counting the time and times when the mobile phone is unlocked. Screen Time then shows a detailed screen showing statistics on the daily use of the mobile phone, for each hour, and counting which apps have been opened.
6) Another valid alternative to the reported apps is FamiSafe, a parental control app available for Android and iOS / iPadOS.
With this type of app we can monitor the open apps, decide the time of use of a specific app or category of apps and also choose when to impose a break (very useful with minors).
If we are interested in parental apps to exercise this type of control, we recommend you read our Parental Control and Family Filter guides on PC and the Internet: 5 ways to keep children safe and Parental Control on their children's mobile with Google Family Link and similar apps .
Conclusions
Becoming addicted and addicted to the smartphone can ruin our social relationships and turn us into zombies that no longer connect with reality, as already seen in our in-depth analysis How much you are dependent on your mobile phone "> check and limit the time spent on Facebook directly from the app itself on Android and iPhone.If the problem concerns our children who spend a lot of time on the computer, we recommend you read our guide If your child is always on the computer: how to control and limit him . To apply good parental control to your computer, we recommend you read our article on How to control how children use the PC and the Internet with a Windows Family account .
