In my own life, I’ve never been acutely aware of so-called notification fatigue; the beeps and hums from my devices are just part of the daily background noise. Even so, the Gmail icon on my iPad Air shows a five-digit unread count (we get a lot of emails at AP), and even though my Nest Hub has been reminding me for the past few days that my dad’s birthday is coming up, I’m still Didn’t make any plans with him (don’t worry, I will). No kidding, as I write this, the Echo Show 15 behind me reminds me to review recent Amazon purchases (which I probably won’t).I may not Feel It’s like my notifications are getting out of hand, but they’re apparently no longer forcing me to actually do anything a lot of the time.
ANDROIDPOLICE video of the day
A few years ago, Google appeared to be investing in solving such problems, at least on Android, which it called Digital Wellbeing. The program, along with the app of the same name, is designed to help us deal with the constant stream of notifications and reduce unnecessary phone use. The service, which debuted in Android 9 Pie in 2018, features features like a timer that tells you how much time you spend in each app and mode to help you cut back on your electronics at the end of the day and stay at work Time to reduce distracting notifications (or any time). It hasn’t changed much since then. Nearly four years later, it’s still in official beta.
A design study by Google and industrial design consultancy Map Project Office, Little Signals, appears to be a natural evolution of Digital Wellbeing. The project includes six objects that convey information in unconventional ways – physical movement, ambient light, and even a puff of air. None of the items looked particularly techy; they looked more like fashion gadgets, or even toys, than smart home gadgets.
I think this is a brilliant idea. Google is a bit vague about the specific features it’s designed for each Little Signal – I think it’s intentional, since each can serve multiple purposes. For example, the small cylindrical robot Tap seen in the video above taps a medicine bottle, which can also tap your desk to remind you to get up and stretch every now and then. The Air draws your attention by blowing a stream of air to gently move nearby objects, and it can be configured to remind you to water your plants (make them move around!).
Dancing houseplants probably won’t help me master my emails, but I think getting notifications out of their normal environment, out of the screen and into the physical environment, makes me think about them differently and pay more attention. A sports model with a piston-like moving peg would be hard to ignore—as a bonus, the peg acts as a button, so it doubles as a centralized smart light switch.
Unfortunately, Google doesn’t actually sell any of these devices. They’re all part of the company’s experiments, which means they’ll likely never see a commercial version — though the project’s idea could become a future product. I sincerely hope they do, but anyway, digital health As a concept that has a lot of potential beyond our current devices, I’m glad to see Google still thinking creatively about how to solve some of the problems caused by the systems it helps shape.
If you’re as interested in the concept of Little Signals as I am, you can actually build a basic version of the Air yourself. Instructions are available on the Little Signals website.
The next budget OnePlus phone has a 120Hz display, but there’s one bright spot
Read next
About the author
