Digital Wellbeing on OnePlus: Where to Find It and How to Use It

Where Digital Wellbeing is on a OnePlus phone

OnePlus phones come with Google's Digital Wellbeing built into the system settings. In OnePlus's own user manuals, for example for the OnePlus 9RT and the OnePlus 11, the section is called Digital Wellbeing & parental controls. Google's help page notes that some steps may vary based on your device, so the exact wording can differ a little between models and software versions.

If you can't find it, type "wellbeing" into the search bar at the top of Settings. The first time you open it, Google asks you to set up your profile.

1. Open Settings. Open the Settings app from your app drawer or home screen.
2. Open Digital Wellbeing & parental controls. Scroll down and tap Digital Wellbeing & parental controls. If it isn't where you expect it, use the search bar at the top of Settings.
3. Add an icon if you want one. Turn on Show icon in the app list. Digital Wellbeing then appears in your app drawer like a normal app, so you can open it in one tap.

Check your screen time on OnePlus

The top of Digital Wellbeing shows your day at a glance. According to the OnePlus 11 manual, it lists how often the screen was woken today, how many times you unlocked the phone and how many notifications you received. Tap the chart to open the dashboard, where you can sort your apps by screen time, notifications received and times opened.

The most useful number is usually not the total but the top two or three apps. If one app takes most of the time, a timer for that one app does more than a general goal to use the phone less. For a deeper look at reading these numbers, see how to check screen time on Android.

Set an app timer

App timers are the main limit tool. In the dashboard, tap the timer icon to the right of an app's name, or go to App timers and tap Set timer next to the app, choose a time and tap OK.

When the time is used up, the app is paused for the rest of the day. The OnePlus manual describes a pop-up saying that the app is paused because its timer ran out and that it will start again tomorrow. Google's help page adds that the app's icon dims and that timers reset at midnight. If you need the app before then, you can delete the timer through Settings in that pop-up.

That last part matters: the timer is easy to switch off, so it works best as a reminder, not a lock. It is good for apps you want less of overall. It is less good for apps you need for other things, such as Instagram for messages, because the timer pauses the whole app, not only the part that eats your time.

Focus mode and Bedtime mode

Focus mode

Focus mode pauses the apps you pick while it is on. You can't open them and you get no notifications from them. In Digital Wellbeing, tap Focus mode, choose the apps and tap Turn on now, or use Set a schedule so it starts on its own, for example during work hours. If you need one of the apps for a moment, Take a break unpauses them for a time you choose.

Bedtime mode

Bedtime mode is meant to keep the phone quiet and dull at night. The OnePlus manual describes it this way: when it starts, grayscale removes the color from the screen and Do Not Disturb mutes sounds so calls and notifications don't wake you, and when it ends the phone goes back to its usual settings. Google's help page lists more screen options on recent versions, such as dimming the wallpaper and keeping the screen dark, and you can start Bedtime mode on a schedule or while the phone is charging.

Grayscale is worth trying even outside bedtime. A colorless feed is simply less attractive, which is one of the tips in how to stop scrolling.

Other wellbeing tools in the same menu

• Manage notifications: turn notifications off app by app. Fewer pings means fewer moments that pull you back to the phone.
• Do Not Disturb: on OnePlus it lives under Settings, Sound & vibration, Do Not Disturb, according to the OnePlus 11 manual.
• Heads Up: reminds you to look up if you use the phone while walking. It uses physical activity and, optionally, location permission. The manual warns that it doesn't replace paying attention.
• Parental controls: add content restrictions and other limits to help children balance their screen time.
• Kid Space: a separate OnePlus feature described in the OnePlus 11 manual. It gives a child a home screen with only the apps you add, screen time limits, and a message when the room light is too dark for their eyes.
• Work Life Balance: also from the OnePlus 11 manual. It switches between a work mode and a life mode based on location, Wi-Fi or time, and lets only the notifications you chose through in each mode.

Zen Mode and Zen Space: OnePlus's hard break

Zen Mode is OnePlus's own answer to phone overuse, and it works very differently from app timers. According to the OnePlus manuals, once a session starts it can't be canceled. Notifications are muted, every app except the camera is locked, and you can still take phone calls and make emergency calls. You start it from the notification panel or from an icon you drag to the home screen, pick a duration and a theme, and tap start. In its settings you can change the default duration and set a daily reminder. Group Zen lets you create a room and invite friends, and the manual says this isn't limited to OnePlus phones.

On newer phones the app is called Zen Space. Android Authority reported in April 2023 that OnePlus had quietly renamed Zen Mode and added a second mode. Deep Zen is the classic lockdown described above. Light Zen keeps the apps you choose usable, with presets for work and study, and unlike Deep Zen you can leave it to reach other apps. The update also brought a weekly stats dashboard. Which version you have depends on your phone and software, so go by the names you see on your device.

Use Zen Mode or Deep Zen when you want to be unreachable for a while: a study block, a dinner, the first hour of the morning. Use Digital Wellbeing when you want to keep using the phone normally but spend less time in a few apps.

When the time goes to Shorts, Reels and TikTok

For many people the screen time chart points to the same thing: YouTube, Instagram or TikTok at the top, mostly spent swiping through short videos. The built-in tools handle this in a blunt way. An app timer pauses the whole app, so you also lose messages, search and the videos you actually wanted to watch. Zen Mode locks everything. Both are fine choices if that is what you want.

If you would rather keep the apps and lose only the endless feed, Dam It! does that one job: it blocks the swipe to the next video in YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok and TikTok Lite, while a video you open on purpose from a link, a notification or a thumbnail still plays. It doesn't count screen time, doesn't block whole apps and isn't available on iPhone, so it complements Digital Wellbeing rather than replacing it. The two are compared in detail in Dam It! vs Digital Wellbeing.

Apps like this run in the background through Android's Accessibility Service, and OnePlus's battery management can switch such services off. If that happens, the steps in the Oppo and OnePlus accessibility fix keep it running.