Improve Focus Score: Customize App Ratings / Choose which apps are distracting or productive

[kenneth]

Short term fix: We just made Spotify (and other popular Music apps) neutral for Focus score so this won’t happen after our next update. Thank you for sharing!

[kenneth]

@Dan_Thompson

To sum up, I think that the best feature is you could add in the short term are things that make it easier for the user to create blocks. In the medium term, I think the best features would help the user understand what apps are making them lose focus, what patterns are emerging on their phone usage, and how they could be more productive. Like what interventions, focus sessions, and blocks they could use. Long-term, I think that it makes sense to try to pull in data from all the users’ devices and do use AI to help people get nudged in the right direction to be more productive and understand which patterns lead to productive days.

Dan, this is really aligned with our vision. Really love your ideas and how you articulated them.

[flappyemeraldfroggy]

I agree with this! Safari I think is also marked unproductive, and so are Messages, Slack and GroupMe, all of which I use for school and work communication. Audiobooks (Libby and Audible), music, photos, and my watch settings app are all marked unproductive. This makes me think that the score is rather inaccurate for how productive I am feeling.

I feel like being able to customize which apps are unproductive vs productive for you individually would be very helpful!

For example, I have a virtual aquarium app that is a “game” but I find to be very relaxing and helps me to decompress. Also, since I’m autistic sometimes games on my phone are a very helpful way of regulating when I feel overwhelmed.

[Dan_Thompson]

I’m glad to hear that that was useful in some way.

This might be presumptuous, but Im a software/ML engineer, now working on a couple of my own AI product ideas. If you already have AI talent on your team, I’m sure you’re totally fine. But if you don’t, I know how hard it can be to come up with an AI strategy / build an AI team. I have some practical ideas for how you could implement some of this. I’d be happy to talk with you if you think that would be useful. Absolutely no pressure whatsoever of course :).

[its_patch]

I think you should be able to set some apps which are used for focus such as study aids. This should not impact your focus levels and instead show you are on task

[Maggie77]

Hello!

I love this app, it has helped me tremendously with my ADHD. One suggestion, could we allow unlimited use of certain apps without the screen time being affected? I drive 6-8 hours a day and use my phones GPS. My screen time is always so high because of this and I’ve never been able to get an accurate number.

Thanks!

Maggie

[swifera]

I 100% agree with this thread
The focus score at the moment is not accurate. We should definitely be allowed to at the very least omit some apps from the Focus Score, or even better, set some apps as ‘productive’, and possibly remove some apps from the ‘productivity’ tab as well (e.g., Mail is considered productive but I actually kind of want to cut down on the time I read emails).

One of the biggest issues with the built-in Screen Time app is that the app categories aren’t accurate at all, and also counts all screen time indiscriminately, productive or not, so there is huge potential in the app to fix this problem by allowing users to adjust the app categories/productive score themselves. Otherwise the focus score is just a fancier but just as inaccurate version of the ‘total screen time’ counter on the Screen Time app.

I want this feature so much that I made an acc just to write this here

[ckret2]

I agree particularly with the folks requesting that we custom-assign which apps are productive and which aren’t. There’s never going to be an app or site that you can safely universally call “unproductive” for everyone.

Twitter or Facebook—maybe the user is a business’s social media manager and posting & engaging with customers is their job, and they use Opal to not listen to podcasts & watch Youtube during work hours.

Podcasts & Youtube—maybe the user is a college student whose professors post class lectures as podcasts or videos, and they use Opal to not get distracted by phone games while studying.

Games—maybe the user writes indie game reviews, and they use Opal to not get distracted by Facebook/Twitter when they’re trying to analyze a new mobile game release.

Even something as obvious as “adult sites”—maybe it’s a nonprofit reaching out to sex workers. Productivity is relative.

Right now, the only thing my focus score tells me is when I’m using my phone. It doesn’t tell me how focused I am.

[cola]

Agreed. To pile on here, I use a sleep tracking app all night long, which as you can imagine, has a huge negative impact on my focus score as the app is today. It renders the focus score useless and dissuades me from using my sleep-tracking app. I’m confident the developers can get this rolling soon enough

[arrabiatta112]

Please make the focus score customizable!! @kenneth

[kenneth]

Update @here , we are working on this feature currently and except to be able to ship it this month! Thank you to everyone who contributed here. We will need everyone to test once it’s ready and provide feedback. Looking forward!

[Hudson]

Would be great to be able to not count some apps in usage time such as maps - I use it via my car for personal and work but I wouldn’t count that as me being on my phone. Also music apps playing in the background wouldn’t class as usage of phone so ability to discount them would be useful!

[Ashley_5]

Whenever I see my screen time is high, it seems to count my pomodoro app and listening to lofi music on my phone. It would be cool if certain apps that help me focus weren’t counted. Being able to select “safe” apps might be cool.

[kenneth]

Totally agree! we’re working on this, will be available this month.

[kenneth]

Totally agree! we’re working on this, will be available this month.

[Josh_Mixon]

I love the app as it’s helped me really be more productive during the work day and drastic sleeping improvements but I would like to see Maps and Spotify negatively effecting my score.

[kenneth]

Thank you we are working on this at the moment, will be available by end of the month.

[Lauren_Richmond]

Example is:
I work remote and use Teams, outlook, zendesk, etc. from my phone.

I would like to not be able to access certain apps while getting a more accurate reading of how focused I actually was.

[kenneth]

Totally clear. This feature is coming in next week’s update!

[kenneth]

This is now live! @here
With the latest app release, you can now edit your Focus Score and Decide which apps distract you and which help you be productive..
Here is a little preview

Introducing Persona Focus Score on Opal iPhone app - #1 Screen Time App

To access this screen - make sure you have updated your Opal app (v.3.16), go to the Score tab, and hit Edit on the top menu bar.

You will be able to choose which apps are distracting or productive, and it will be reflected in your score.
Also, we’ve addressed Exclude apps from screen time calculation - Google Maps, Spotify, audiobooks. (make them not count) . If you label an app as “Neutral”, it won’t count in your Screen Time total (for example a music or podcast app, or google maps / waze).