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‘Take a break’ wellbeing initiative now rolling out w/ YouTube for Android update

On stage at I/O 2018, Google announced its digital wellbeing initiative to help people better understand their digital habits. One addition unveiled as part of this initiative was a self-set timer within YouTube to help users from spending too long watching videos. This feature is now live.

After updating to version 13.18.54 of YouTube for Android, we spotted a new “Remind me to take a break” option. As you can see from the screenshots below, you can have YouTube remind you to stop watching every 15, 30, 60, 90, or 180 minutes. You can find this setting by tapping on your profile pic and then going to Settings > General > Remind me to take a break.

When you have reached that cutoff point, a friendly reminder will pause your video and show an image of a monkey asking if you want to take a break. You can either dismiss the reminder and go along with your life or head into the settings to adjust the reminder. YouTube won’t actually stop you from continuing to watch videos.

Looking at the digital wellbeing website, it seems like Google plans to include an entire menu to break down how much time you’ve spent in the app. At this time, though, it appears that Google is only ready to roll out the “Remind me to take a break” feature.

If you don’t want to wait for the update to automatically come to your phone, you can download the latest version of YouTube from APKMirror. Make sure you check out this Android Basics tutorial if you need help sideloading APKs.


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Avatar for Justin Duino Justin Duino

I’m a writer for 9to5Google with a background in IT and Android development. Follow me on Twitter to read my ramblings about tech and email me at justin@jaduino.com. Tips are always welcome.