Google’s Android 9.0 Pie is one of the biggest software news of the year to break the internet. It brings in the new gesture system, improved UI, new APIs and much more. The update is rolling out to Pixel and Essential smartphones and might take months for manufacturers to roll out the update to their products. One of the Pie features that got many one’s attention is the Digital Health Wellbeing.

Wellbeing feature includes a Dashboard’ that will help you better understand your phone usage, app usage timers giving you a chance to limit your usage. It also has an improved Do Not Disturb (DND) feature which mutes both audio and visual interruptions, the App Timer feature allows you to set daily timers to limit the usage of apps individually. The feature in many ways is similar to Apple’s iOS screen-time dashboard. It also includes an enhanced night mode. The Wind-down functionality lets you set times where your phone will automatically enter Do not disturb, turn on the grayscale display and enables nightlight.

As for the Digital Wellbeing, it is currently available in beta for Pixel smartphones, but since Google expanded the beta testing of Pie to more devices it is possible to install Digital Health Wellbeing on other smartphones running on Pie. In this article, we will take a closer look at how you can install the feature. Let’s get started.

Note: Since it is in beta, the app might have bugs or crashes. Also, it might require root access on certain devices, so if you are against the idea of rooting, this might not be for you. Let’s get started.

How to Get Digital Wellbeing on Android devices running on Pie – Root Method:

  1. Since we mentioned root method, the device needs to have unlocked the bootloader, having TWRP custom recovery, and Magisk.
  2. To get Digital Wellbeing on your Android device, you have to download the APK first. Download: Digital Wellbeing.
  3. Once downloaded, install the APK by enabling ‘Unknown source’ option from Security option in the settings.
  4. Now you have to download the Digital Wellbeing Enabler for Android Pie to enable the Wellbeing feature to function. Download: Wellbeing Enabler for Android Pie.
  5. Once you have downloaded that, open the Magisk app from the app drawer, tap on the hamburger menu button. Here, select “Modules.“
  6. Now, tap on the ‘+’ icon bottom, and navigate to the ‘Digital Wellbeing Enabler’ file that you have downloaded earlier. The file should be found in the downloads folder.
  7. Once you select the Zip file, Magisk will automatically install it on your Android device.
  8. Once the installation is done, simply tap on the “Reboot.” That’s it. Once the reboot is done, you can find the Wellbeing app in your settings menu.

How to Get Digital Wellbeing on Android devices running on Pie – Non-Root Method:

  1. Firstly, you need to have the Wellbeing APK, so go ahead and download the APK from the above link.
  2. Once downloaded, install it by granting ‘unknown sources’ permission. After installing, head over to setting> then to apps> now you will find ‘Digital Wellbeing’ app present. Open it and tap on permissions. Enable all the permissions you see there.
  3. After granting permissions, in the setting page search for ‘Usage Access’ and there enable Digital Wellbeing.
  4. Despite doing everything, you won’t find the Wellbeing app in your app drawer. For that follow the below steps.
  5. Now, go to PlayStore and install the Pixel Shortcuts: Launcher/Digital Wellbeing helper. Install Here.
  6. After installing, open the app and enable ‘Launcher’ and scroll down until you see ‘Wellbeing’ and then enable it as well.
  7. Now, wait for a couple of seconds and now you will see the ‘Digital Wellbeing’ shortcut in the app drawer.
  8. Open the Wellbeing app, and enable ‘Show in App List’ option which is present right on the main screen.
  9. Now you will see two instances of ‘Digital Wellbeing’ app in the app drawer. What you need to do is uninstall (from the app setting) the instance that is created by the ‘Pixel shortcuts’ app which we have created in Step 6.  That’s it, now customize the Wellbeing app the way you want.

Nokia 7 which was also a part of the Pie beta program becomes the first Android phone (besides Pixel) running on Pie to get the ‘Digital Wellbeing’ update directly from Play Store. This makes it easy for the users of the device to use the Pie exclusive feature.

Conclusion: Both these methods bring the Digital Wellbeing to Android devices running on Android 9.0 Pie. Our initial impressions of the app are super positive as they offer a lot of insights about our usage habits. Beware, that some of the stats might scare you, so we hope you can have a proper balance between your smartphone usage and social life in the real world. So, do try out the Wellbeing app and let us know what do you think about this Google’s feature.

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