Inaccurate App Screen Times

Feedback 💡
#1

I love the app, but I’m noticing a lot of inaccurate screen times is a common issue, largely overestimating how much I actually have apps open on my screen.

I have a habit tracker app ‘Atoms’ where I measure three habits (two daily, one weekly). I opened it this morning, logged a habit as completed, turned my phone off and put my phone away to start work. About 15 seconds of total use time. When I checked the screen time this morning (after receiving a weekly report notification from Opal) It says that my screen time for the habit app today was over an hour. It’s 9AM.

I use the ‘Hue’ app to turn on and off my lights. Yesterday it says my screen time for the ‘Hue’ app was over 2 hours. I promise I was not staring at my light switch for hours yesterday.

Another week my alarm app said that I used it for several hours in a day. There’s just no way.

While I think the estimates are high across many apps like social etc, I know for certain the use times for these minimally used apps are inaccurate.

Is there a way to not count the apps like above in my total screen time?

#2

Hey there,

Sorry for the trouble! It sounds like two things might be going on here. First up, it sounds like your screen time settings might need to be reset. To do that, please take every single step outlined here:

Otherwise, it sounds like you would benefit from changing your focus score on the apps you’ve detailed above. The TLDR version is: if you set apps as Neutral, Slightly Productive, Productive, or Very Productive, they won’t count in your screen time calculation displayed in your Profile and shared with Friends or on the Leaderboard:

All that said, if you’ve run through the steps listed in the first link and adjusted your focus scores and something still appears to be truly amiss with your screen time, please let us know and we’d be happy to help troubleshoot further.

All the best,
Sarah @ Opal