Exclude neutral apps from Screen Time on Profile Tab

[Andy_C]

UPDATE: You can exclude apps from screen time calculation by setting them to NEUTRAL right from the Opal home.

You can tap on any app and edit wether you think this app is Productive, Neutral or Distracting. Hit Save, and your score and chart will update.

Productive: Apps that help your Focus

Distracting: Apps that hurt your Focus.

Neutral: Apps that neither hurt not help your focus. They are not counted towards your screen time. You can use this for example for apps you use in the background like Google Maps or audio like Spotify.

It’s up to you to decide!

PS if you don’t see the new Opal home, don’t forgot to update your Opal app!

–

I don’t consider navigation, music, meditation, audiobook, or other passive consumption apps as “screen time.” I’d like to be able to exclude them from my total time.

[Cyanxd]

Why does productive apps ever count as screen time?
Please add an option to remove it.

[Sarah_K]

hey there @Cyanxd,

You can remove apps from your screen time calculation on your Home tab by setting them as “neutral”. You can do that by following the instructions here:

Opal FAQ | What is Focus Score® and how do I use it?

All the best,
Team Opal

[veGem]

Currently we can only set an app’s score to neutral to make it not count to overall screentime, but given how the score is a gauge over productivity, it’d be fair if our most productive apps could actually be not counted to screentime, rather than make it neutral.

For example I use timer apps such as Forest, and it doesn’t make sense how using that labels me with a high screen time (or like I used my phone too much), when I was just working with a timer. And if I set that to neutral to not count it then what’s the point of the productivity score?

I really appreciate the app but it does cost somewhat higher on the budget, and this has been a concern for me for quite some time, since I started using the app. With the higher price I’d like to expect some more changes and fixes. But overall the app is good.

Thanks

[Sarah_K]

Hey @veGem,

Thanks for the feedback! I’m afraid currently the only way to exclude an app from your Focus Score on your home tab is by setting it to Neutral, and we don’t currently plan to change it so that both productive and Neutral apps are not counted. That said, I’ve passed this suggestion along to our engineers to consider as we continue to upgrade the app. Stay tuned!

All the best,
Team Opal

[Mael]

Overall I like the app, but there is one element that’s a huge problem for me. On the home page, when I categorize an app as “neutral”, the screentime is not counted - great. However, on my profile page, the app does count the amount of time spent on an “neutral”. This is a problem because the apps that I put on neutral are those that run in the background - for example I use a pomodoro app that helps me keep track of the time that I spent studying. So in my weekly count, the hours spent on my screen is much higher than it should be and it’s really discouraging when I know that this portrayal is not accurate since these hours were spent studying and not on my phone

[fin_k]

This doesn’t remove it from your screen time calculation just your ‘focus score’

[fin_k]

Ditto! It looks like people ask about this issue a lot and they don’t have any plans to fix it. Seems like a pretty basic feature for a screentime app to get right…