By Tripp Mickle
Apple Inc. on Monday unveiled new controls to help people curb
the amount of time they spend on iPhones and iPads, as well as
allow parents to remotely track and limit their children's use of
those devices -- a response to growing societal concern that adults
and children are too focused on phones.
The company said a new app it will release in September called
"Screen Time" will provide users with weekly reports of the apps
they use and allow them to set time limits for their use of those
apps. Parents will be able to use the system to remotely monitor
the apps their children use and limit their time on devices.
The new features played a central role at Apple's annual
Worldwide Developers Conference, a gathering of about 6,000
developers who create the apps for the iPhone, iPad and Mac
computers. The event is designed to show off Apple's latest
software -- including the newest features to further integrate into
people's digital lives.
Those new features include a new Shortcuts app that will connect
the Siri voice command with certain apps -- for instance, Siri
could state flight and hotel information from the Kayak app with a
voice command. Apple also introduced new augmented technology, such
as a Measure app to capture the dimensions of objects, as well as
group video chat on FaceTime.
In the middle of all these announcements to drive interactivity,
Apple's software chief, Craig Federighi, paused to talk about ways
to "prevent distractions" and limit device use. Apple has been
under pressure this year to address those issues. In January, the
company received a letter from activist investor Jana Partners LLC
and the California State Teachers' Retirement System, or Calstrs,
which control about $2 billion of Apple shares. The letter urged
the tech giant to develop new software tools that would help
parents control and limit phone use more easily, and to study the
impact of overuse on mental health.
On Monday, Jana and Calstrs sent a new letter to Apple to
commend the moves, but also sought to continue pressing the company
to work with experts in studying the impacts of phone usage.
"This must be an ongoing effort," they wrote, according to a
copy reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, adding the "ethical
leadership" will create long term stock value.
Kevin Holesh, a founder of the app Moment, which helps people
track their device usage, said Apple's moves were "a good first
step" and overdue. But he questioned whether setting limits on
usage actually works. Among the 5.5 million users who have
downloaded Moments and used the app's own limits function, their
time was only reduced by two minutes on average a day on the iPhone
and iPad, he said.
"Limits are easy to turn off, and it doesn't solve the
underlying reason of why you're picking up the phone or an app to
begin with such as boredom or loneliness," Mr. Holesh said.
The amount of time people spend on mobile devices has increased
by more than an hour over the past five years to 3.3 hours a day,
according to research by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. A
survey sponsored by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that promotes
responsible media and technology use for children, found about half
of 620 families in 2016 said they felt addicted to their
smartphones, and several studies have found smartphones can
increase anxiety.
The findings have fostered concern that smartphones could
trigger a mental-health crisis for youth growing up with the
device. It has also stoked worries, including among some iPhone
creators, that adults are spending too much time on their devices
and not being present enough in the everyday world.
The concerns have created a predicament for leading smartphone
software developers Apple and Alphabet Inc.'s Google. They're now
trying to strike a balance between releasing exciting features that
make smartphones and tablets more useful for users, potentially
increasing the time they spend on those devices, with new tools
that empower them to control how much they use the devices.
Google responded last month by announcing its Android mobile
operating system, which has an 85% market share world-wide,
according to International Data Corp., would add a new dashboard
that allows users to set time limits for apps and make the screen
automatically turn gray when they're ready for bed. The company
already offers a system called Family Link that allows parents to
remotely track their children's screen time.
Though Apple has offered parental controls for years, analysts
say the system only allows parents to set limits on their
children's device use -- not monitor it on a continuing basis. The
new "Screen Time" feature changes that by giving parents those same
capabilities.
A new Reports feature will detail how users spend time with the
iPhone and iPad, including how often per hour they look at their
devices, when they are using particular apps and what apps are
sending the most notifications.
"If Apple leads the way and we do a good job of educating
parents and the public about using the tools, this could be a major
step forward in addressing the challenges of attention, addiction
and distraction," said Jim Steyer, founder of Common Sense
Media.
Among the new software features for the company's new mobile
software, known as iOS 12, the Shortcuts app for Siri is among the
most important strategically for Apple. Siri, which made its debut
in 2011, has lost ground to Alexa and Google Assistant as those
rival systems opened up to third-party developers, allowing users
to verbally order pizza or play trivia.
Shortcuts is designed to improve Siri's capabilities by allowing
users to program their phone for specific actions. For example, a
user could program a setting called "Heading Home," and when the
user says those words using Siri, it would automatically pull up
National Public Radio and provide a traffic report for the drive
home from work.
The custom tools show the company is in the earliest phases of a
transition, seeing Siri as a platform for users rather than just
another feature on its devices, said Carolina Milanesi, a
technology analyst with Creative Strategies. "Until they change the
way they look at Siri, it will never be able to compete with Google
and Alexa," she said.
Siri's limitations contributed to some negative reviews of
Apple's smart speaker, the HomePod, which launched earlier this
year and was faulted by reviewers for being largely limited to
playing music at a time when devices like the Amazon Echo could be
used to answer questions and order products like paper towels.
"Apple felt the urgency a year ago and a year later it has
become even more urgent for it to catch up in this field in a
decisive manner," said Werner Goertz, a technology research
director with Gartner, Inc.
Write to Tripp Mickle at Tripp.Mickle@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 04, 2018 18:29 ET (22:29 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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