I would really like to have an option to view Blocked App Time Use instead of Screen Time Today on the Home Screen. Or maybe an option to choose which shows up on the Home Screen. The total time is not helpful to me because I use my phone for hourly reminders and time tracking. The current assumption of Opal is that limiting Total Screen Time is a high value. For me, it is all about regulating use of only a handful of apps. That’s the total I want to track. I also don’t want to compare myself to others. I rely on my phone all day to keep reminding me to stay focused. This means I have 100% greater phone use than average each day. It’s discouraging to see this every day as though it’s a failing on my part.
Currently, to see the total time I spend on blocked apps, I need to add up each individual app use time each day. I would like the app to do that. Doesn’t it already do that to generate the Focus Score? Can you just give the time used to create the Focus Score instead of the Score?
Thank you for a great and very functional way to block app usage. It helps me a lot!
Totally hear you! So there is a way to do this, but it takes a minute to set up: you can exclude all “good” apps you don’t want to count by setting them as Neutral. Here’s how:
You can tap on any app and edit wether you think this app is Productive 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.
Thank you, Kenneth! I really appreciate your message! I had Opal already set up to do what you suggested. For some reason, I didn’t realize that the time on the main screen was directly related to my customized settings. I am glad to learn about this! Opal has been well worth the price even without the time reporting but this is a good new element for me.
What I most appreciate about Opal is how reliable it is to snooze and then resume blocking. Other apps I’ve tried are not. I have Opal running on my phone 24 hours a day. It really helps me contain screen time use.
Thank you for a great app and for active dialogue with users!
