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Addicted to Facebook? You'll Soon Find Out

Facebook is working on a new tech addiction feature that will tell you how much time you spend on Facebook each day, and let you set reminders to take breaks.

 & Michael Kan Principal Reporter

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Facebook is tackling tech addiction with a new feature that'll tell you how much time you're spending/wasting on the platform.

The test feature, called "Your Time Spent on Facebook," is actually buried in the company's Android app, according to developer Jane Manchun Wong, who was digging into the software's code. On Friday, she tweeted out a screenshot of the upcoming tool.

Facebook Time Spent

The functions are pretty straightforward; they'll show you the number of minutes you spend on Facebook each day during the last week, and calculate the overall daily average.

To help pry you away from the Facebook app, the feature also lets you set daily reminders that'll pop up when you reach a certain time limit.

Facebook confirmed the feature was in development to TechCrunch. "We're always working on new ways to help make sure people's time on Facebook is time well spent," a company spokesperson told the publication.

Other companies are also trying to address tech addiction. Google and Apple are adding time management features to Android P and iOS 12, respectively, that'll show you detailed statistics on your phone usage and and let you restrict app usage. YouTube has also added new "Take a break" reminder that can be accessed in the app's settings, under the "general" tab.

In the case of Facebook, the company has been focusing on a new metric, called "time well spent," following criticisms that the social network is bad for society. In January, it made a major change to its New Feed to reduce content from media organizations and businesses in favor of posts from friends and family.

"Helping people connect is more important than maximizing the time they spend on Facebook," CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors earlier this year.

When the new feature will arrive isn't clear. But Facebook-owned Instagram is also working on a similar time management function called "Usage Insights," which was spotted by Wong last month.

About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

  • My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
  • I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
  • The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
  • Xbox 360 FTW
  • The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
  • The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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