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Easily monitor your phone usage throughout the day with the new Usage Assistant notification.
What you need to know
- ActionDash 3.0 is pushing out today.
- The update includes Focus mode, app time limits and Usage Assistant.
- Usage Assistant is a persistent notification to help show usage details as you use your phone.
ActionDash, by Action Launcher developer Chris Lacy, is Digital Wellbeing for the rest of us who don't have a Android Pie device with it. Since it first debuted back in January, it's been steadily improving, and with today's 3.0 update, it gains many of the features Digital Wellbeing is slated to receive this fall — like Focus mode. App time limits, a new persistent notification feature, and a hex black dark theme are among the other improvements included with the update.
The new persistent notification feature — a beta feature called Usage Assistant — allows you to pull down your notification shade and get an ongoing peek of your screen-on time so far and how long you've used the current app today, something that I will begin using to shame myself about my Twitter and Reddit usage immediately.
Focus mode prevents you from opening certain apps while it's turned on, something you can toggle on and off from the Quick Settings panel for easy activation when you need to quit procrastinating and get your work done. While Focus mode doesn't look quite the same in the launcher with the greyed out icons, it does prevent you from opening the app instead of displaying a cute GIF politely reminding you to avoid temptation and stay true to your goals.
The update is rolling out starting today, June 28, through Google Play. With this update, the dark grey theme that was previously Premium-only becomes available to all users, while the new AMOLED black theme is Premium-only instead.
