Facebook Inc has launched a feature that allows you to know how many minutes you use on Facebook and Instagram. You can access your screen-time on Facebook and Instagram via a dashboard. Presently, this is available to users in the US but will be rolled out to other countries in the coming weeks. (Update: Now available in most countries).
According to the update posted on August 1, 2018 on Instagram’s info center, Facebook Inc is providing new tools that you can use to manage your time on Instagram and Facebook. The tool is an activity dashboard, a daily reminder, and a new way to limit notifications.
The tools were developed based on collaboration and inspiration from leading mental health experts and organizations, academics, Facebook Inc’s own extensive research and feedback from the Facebook and Instagram community.
How Many Minutes Do You Use on Facebook and Instagram
To access the tools, go to the settings page on either app. On Instagram, tap “Your Activity,” and on Facebook, tap “Your Time on Facebook.”.
At the top, you’ll see a dashboard showing your average time for that app on that device. Tap any bar to see your total time for that day. Below the dashboard, you can set a daily reminder to give yourself an alert when you’ve reached the amount of time you want to spend on that app for that day. You can change or cancel the reminder at any time.
You can also tap on “Notification Settings” to quickly access the new “Mute Push Notifications” setting. This will limit your Instagram or Facebook notifications for a period of time when you need to focus.
Image source: Instagram info center
However, you’ll only see info about your usage on the mobile app on that device. It won’t include your minutes spent on desktop or tablet or info about your usage across the Facebook family of apps.
Remember, these tools are created to help you manage your time effectively however they won’t stop you from using Facebook or Instagram. You need a stronger willpower to be able to follow through with the setting you configured on the dashboard.
As this is just version 1.0, I expect further improvements on the dashboard so as to really help in managing my time spent on Facebook and Instagram.
