How to see the usage time of Android apps

Are you perhaps looking for how to see Android phone usage time ? Here’s a guide to see the most used apps and how to manage them.

Every day we use smartphones, tablets and Android devices for several hours, often experiencing visual fatigue, headaches and above all losing a lot of time for other more productive activities. Although electronic devices are an indispensable tool for everyday life, monitoring their usage time can be very useful to you.

Android operating systems allow you to monitor the usage time of each application, giving you a daily overview of how many hours you spend in front of your device’s screen. Today, specifically, we will examine how to see Android usage time , moving from Apps to data connections.

  • How to see the usage time of Android Apps
    • Digital wellbeing and parental controls
    • How to limit app use with Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls
    • Digital Management
    • Battery life analysis
    • Data connection and WiFi
  • How to see Android usage time with third-party apps
    • App Usage
    • Stay Free
    • Simple Time Tracker
    • Usage time + Limits

How to see the usage time of Android Apps

How to see the usage time of Android Apps

Your Android smartphone has several integrated tools that allow you to monitor the usage time of the installed applications , but we can identify the main ones as: Digital well-being and parental control , Battery life analysis and Data connection and WiFi .

This is the most used tool in Android operating systems, it allows you to have a timely analysis of all the applications you have started during the day , with their respective usage times . In reality it is also present in the variants for Windows PC and iPhone , but we will not delve into them in this guide.

To access the Digital Wellbeing section , unlock your device screen and go to Settings . From here, scroll down and select Digital Wellbeing and Parental (or Parental ) Controls.

Right away you can see the most used categories today (e.g. Social, Productivity & Finance, Audio, Video, etc.). At the bottom you will find the most used applications , Screen usage time goal to manage times and set limits and the Application timer to manage those applications you use the most.

The Parental Control section is also very convenient , with Google’s Family Link , to add content restrictions and set limitations to balance the child’s screen time.

By tapping on the histogram graph at the top right, a page will open where you can see a graph that generically shows the use of the Apps and the average daily screen use time .

By tapping on a single app (for example WhatsApp ) you will see not only its weekly but also daily usage with Application Timer Notification Settings and total unlocks.

However, the integrated tool is not limited only to the last 7 days of monitoring , but also extends to the previous weeks. To check the time of the Apps, simply swipe from left to right and you will view the graph of the previous week .

How to limit app use with Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls

After checking how many hours you spend in front of the display or simply how much time you spend on social networks, do you feel the need to stop? Then you can limit the use of applications by choosing them individually. For example, if you want to limit TikTok because it wastes too much of your time, you can do so within the Digital Wellbeing tool. 

Scrolling down the page, in the Application Timers section , tap on Set Timer for the most used app. In the following screen, in addition to the selected app, you can add all the apps whose use you want to limit and then press on Set timer . Specify hours and minutes for each day of the week and you’re done.

By returning to this section, you can deactivate these settings at any time.

Although the Android operating system is the basis from which many smartphone manufacturers start, this is often modified to optimize their ecosystem. For example, Samsung , Huawei , Xiaomi and many other companies integrate Android as the basis for their operating systems, but change some functions to customize them.

Digital Management

There is no Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls tool on a Huawei device , but it is called Digital Management . To access it, go to Settings and immediately after Digital Management and Get Started . Just like in the standard Android version, Huawei also integrates application time monitoring and limit customization into its tool. In the latter case, however, the No distractions option is not present , but Limit Apps .

The same goes for other brands, such as Xiaomi , OnePlus or Samsung , which add or remove some features. On Samsung devices, the tool is still called Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls , but adds: app timer, Focus Mode , and Sleep Mode .

So, whether you have a Xiaomi , OnePlus or another brand mobile device, if it has an Android operating system you will find the Digital well-being and parental control function within the Settings , perhaps with a different nomenclature and a few more functions.

Battery life analysis

In addition to Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls , another tool also lets you take a look at app usage time: Battery Life . A real tool for managing Android activities with which you can view how much energy a particular App consumes, limiting its operation in the background or deactivating it completely .

To take a look at this application, simply access Settings and tap on the Battery item . A new screen will open containing a graph with the battery discharge trend . Scroll down the page to the Battery Usage section and immediately below the graph, tap one of the apps that used high battery.

You will be shown total usage times , system resource usage and wireless communication in hours and minutes . At the end of the page, you can decide to limit its use in the background by activating the item: Limits for background use .

Data connection and WiFi

This is a further method that allows you to discover, in addition to the percentage of use, also the data usage Android , i.e. how many megabytes it consumes or has consumed for downloads and updates.

To access this section, go to Settings , Connections (or Mobile network/Internet network) and press on Data usage . A page will open with a graph very similar to the one already highlighted in Digital well-being , with the daily and weekly consumption of your data network . To find out individually how much the Apps consume, tap on Data connection usage or on Wi-Fi data usage . Right below the graph you will see the most used apps in GB per week. For each app, in addition to viewing its usage details, you can activate/deactivate the items: Allow data use in background and Allow data use with data saver activated .

How to see Android usage time with third-party apps

Digital well-being and parental controls , battery life analysis and data and WiFi connection analysis are very useful tools already integrated into Android , but if you were looking for a little more you could opt for third-party applications. There are so many applications that monitor smartphone usage time on the Play Store , which ones to choose?

App Usage

Among the most interesting alternatives there is certainly App Usage , which as you can deduce from the name has the task of monitoring the use of applications on your Android device . There are so many features, but here are the main ones: application usage history smartphone usage history , activity history , notification history and reminders about excessive use of the device . Graphically it is particularly attractive as well as functional for the purpose of time analysis.

Stay Free

Owners of a device with the Android operating system also rely on Stay Free to monitor their phone usage for free and accurately. Specifically, the App allows you to view both the minutes of use of the applications and their percentage . Its main function, however, is Limit use , with which you can choose the Apps that are most distracting. To do this, launch the App, press Menu and then Add usage l

Simple Time Tracker

Simple Time Tracker app is great for tracking the time you spend on Android applications every day. It has an intuitive interface and unlike previous solutions it has night mode , widgets and above all backups useful for saving information. You can download it from the Play Store for free.

Usage time + Limits

The last app that we recommend, but not least, is Screen Time + Limits . It allows you to activate all the functions already present in Digital Wellbeing, but also adds a tool to find out how many videos you view every day on YouTube and how much you have played games with your smartphone.