Implicit Smartphone Use Interventions to Promote Life-Technology Balance: An App-Market Survey, Design Space and the Case of Life-Relaunched

Abstract

The increasing emphasis on digital wellbeing (DW) underscores the significance of balancing technology use with other aspects of life. However, it remains unclear to what extent mobile DW apps support this balance by incorporating the life component. We conducted a systematic review of 152 mobile apps available on Google’s Playstore and found that current DW apps mainly focus on digital-centric actions, such as monitoring screen time and setting app limits, while overlooking everyday life activities that occur outside the smartphone. To address this limitation, we created Life-Relaunched, a smartphone launcher that adapts to users’ real-life contexts and activities implicitly. We then performed a preliminary study to examine the opportunities and challenges of incorporating implicit features into DW apps. The results of our study indicate that integrating implicit features can be advantageous in facilitating a balance between life and smartphone use. Nonetheless, it also emphasizes the challenges of user burden in establishing usage contexts initially.