A lot of big-brained thinkers like to tout that the role of technology is often to do what humans cannot do, or at least cannot do alone. This, apparently, includes remembering to look up from your phone while you walk around, so Android is coming out with a new “Heads Up” feature so that we don’t even have to think about it. Thanks, Android.
Heads Up, brains down
XDA Developers reports that “Heads Up” will join Andorid’s Digital Wellbeing service. XDA Developers caught wind of the feature via some code in a beta version of the Digital Wellbeing app, and even managed to manually enable it so that we could catch a glimpse of how it works.
The set-up page reads “Watch your step with Heads Up”, urging caution while walking and adding the all-important disclaimer, “Heads Up doesn’t replace paying attention”. Hitting the “Next” icon will let you set up the feature, and then you’re good to go. Your phone will begin to remind you to look up every so often if you’re walking around with your phone on.
And if you get annoyed with your phone nagging you like an exasperated parent that’s just trying to do what’s best for you, you an just toggle the feature off.
Heads Up hasn’t been rolled out just yet, but XDA Developers thinks it looks pretty much ready to go, so Android users might see it pop up soon. We’re really not sure whether the implementation of the feature is hilarious, ridiculous, or just plain sad. Probably a healthy mix of all three.
There might be some deep, introspective metaphor here about people’s absolute need to be online all the time, some message for us to take home and mull over, reconsider our priorities in life. But it’s more likely that Android is just trying to look out for the least self-aware people in its user base. Probably that.
