TikTok plans to roll out new features to encourage users to take a break from endlessly scrolling short-form videos on the platform amid public pressure for tech firms to address excessive social media usage.
The short-video app TikTok said in a blog post Thursday that it will introduce a new option in the coming weeks for users to set custom time limits for how much uninterrupted time they want to spend using the app. The post follows an announcement earlier this month that the app would limit its users to 90 minutes per day of use, although it didn’t give details about how this would work. Previously, TikTok allowed users to get notified if they spent more than 40, 60, 90 or 120 minutes on the app per day.
“These prompts will remind individuals to enjoy some time off after a specific measure of continuous screen time, which they can set as they pick,” Jordan Furlong, an item director of computerized prosperity at TikTok, said in the blog entry. As per the organization, the brief will peruse: “Break updates assist you with feeling more careful and adjusted on TikTok.”
Another screen time dashboard will likewise give clients information about how long they are spending on TikTok, including rundowns of their everyday time spent on the stage, the times they opened the application and a breakdown of daytime and evening utilization. Clients can select in for week by week notices to survey their screen time dashboard.
The organization likewise said it will give clients between the ages of 13 and 17 “computerized prosperity prompts” when they have utilized the application for over 100 minutes in a solitary day. The prompts will “help them to remember our screen time limit device the following time they open the application,” Furlong composed. (It’s hazy the way in which TikTok settled on 100 minutes as the limit for screen time mediation for teenagers. TikTok didn’t promptly answer a solicitation for input.)
The updates come following quite a while of strain via web-based entertainment organizations to accomplish other things to help clients’ prosperity in the computerized age, and as legislators and promoters progressively examine stages’ emotional wellness influences on more youthful clients. Leaders from TikTok, YouTube and Snap were barbecued by Senators before the end of last year about the means their foundation were taking to safeguard adolescents.
Other online entertainment stages have recently declared comparable drives. Instagram sent off its “Have some time off” apparatus in December of a year ago.
