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Facebook announces Screen Time style tools for main app and Instagram

Facebook has announced Screen Time style tools to help people monitor and control their usage of both the main Facebook app and Instagram

Today we are announcing new tools to help people manage their time on Facebook and Instagram: an activity dashboard, a daily reminder and a new way to limit notifications. We developed these tools based on collaboration and inspiration from leading mental health experts and organizations, academics, our own extensive research and feedback from our community. We want the time people spend on Facebook and Instagram to be intentional, positive and inspiring. Our hope is that these tools give people more control over the time they spend on our platforms and also foster conversations between parents and teens about the online habits that are right for them.

The activity dashboard shows you bar-charts of the time spent in each app, along with a daily average. The daily reminder lets you choose a time-limit for each app, and be sent an alert when you hit it. You will, however, be able to dismiss the alert and continue to use the app.

Finally, you can mute notifications for periods ranging from 15 minutes to eight hours, to reduce the likelihood of being pulled back into the apps.

To access the new tools:

  • Facebook: Settings > Your Time on Facebook
  • Instagram: Settings > Your Activity

Below the bar chart are the options to Manage Your Time and Manage Your Notifications.

The company says that the new features will be rolling out ‘soon’ to both apps. Facebook usually performs silent updates in the background, adding a note to your feed when it has been updated.

Facebook and Instagram are both free downloads from the App Store.


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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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