App Limits Bar: A Progress of App Limits for Overcoming Smartphone Overuse

TL;DR

This paper introduces App Limits Bar (ALB), an improved app limiting tool designed to reduce negative feelings and better manage smartphone overuse, validated through a three-phase user study.

Contribution

The paper proposes ALB as an advancement over traditional App Limits, aiming to improve user experience and effectiveness in reducing smartphone overuse.

Findings

ALB increases user satisfaction with app limits.

ALB reduces usage time and open frequency of addictive apps.

ALB outperforms traditional App Limits in user engagement and control.

Abstract

Smartphone overuse has many negative effects on human beings. The function App Limits in our phones, which belongs to behavior reinforcement strategies for overcoming problematic smartphone overuse, constrains users by shutting them completely out of an app after a certain period of time. While it has the effectiveness to some extent, lacking procedural detection of problematic behavior always brings about anxiety and depression for users. We proposed App Limits Bar (ALB) to progress the traditional App Limits, aiming to mitigate the negative feelings about using App Limits and enhance users' abilities to manage their time on addictive apps. Meanwhile, we took a three-phase user study to answer whether ALB helps users be more content with using the app limits function and whether ALB performs better than traditional App Limits in terms of reducing usage time and open times on addictive apps. Future work will study the best shape of the edge screen for visualization when the front screen faces us.