Chris Lacy, a developer behind an extremely popular Android launcher called “Action Launcher”, amongst other apps, has just announced a new app called “ActionDash”. Mr. Lacy teased the arrival of this app quite recently, while he mentioned that he started developing this app a long time ago.
ActionDash is an app that has a similar purpose as Google’s Digital Wellbeing app which was introduced along with Android 9 Pie, it’s supposed to help you manage your smartphone use… to be more clear, it is supposed to help you use your smartphones less, as many people are more or less addicted to smartphones these days. It’s debatable whether you need or want such an app, but if you do, well, here it is.
In the blog announcement, Mr. Lacy mentions that Google’s Digital Wellbeing app is currently unavailable to the vast majority of Android users, and he’s right, which is where ActionDash comes in, as not only is it an alternative to Digital Wellbeing, but it also offers a number of additional features.
ActionDash comes with more usage insights than Google’s Digital Wellbeing application, and it doesn’t really hide stats when it comes to system apps, which is not the case with Digital wellbeing. It also offers some backup options, and more history info than Digital Wellbeing. In fact, the developer released an infographic, comparing ActionDash to Digital Wellbeing, just to show you the advantages of its application over Google’s solution, and that infographic is included in the gallery down below.
In addition to what we’ve already mentioned, this application also comes with a really nice-looking UI, not to mention that it packs in a dark theme out of the box, which is something many of you will probably appreciate. ActionDash can push out a daily notification to you, sharing your daily usage report, while you can also access detailed device unlock and session length stats. You can even include apps like Pixel Launcher and Digital Wellbeing in usage stats, if you want.
Now, for those of you who use Action Launcher, you’re in luck, as ActionDash comes with Action Launcher integration. ActionDash fits on the custom search box in Action Launcher, as shown in the GIF image down below, so that it’s non-intrusive, and yet easily accessible. At the very end of his blog post, Mr. Lacy once again reiterated that its apps do not collect your data, your data does not leave your device in that sense.
This application is now available in the Google Play Store, and it’s free to use, though ads are included in the experience. It seems like people are having some issues with the app, though most of those seem connected to some initial bugs, as a number of them reported that some apps are not being tracked properly, and stuff like that. The developer will hopefully amend most of those issues via an update, soon, but it is worth saying that the app is currently holding a 4.0-star rating in the Play Store, after over 300 reviews. If you would like to try it out, follow the link down below.
