App statistics: App Usage

About App statistics: App Usage

My manager kept hinting that project updates were slow. I was sure I was working constantly, but I had this nagging feeling the day was just slipping away between messages and switching apps. I needed hard data, not a guess. I went looking for a free usage tracker on my Galaxy A54, fully expecting to hit a paywall after the first basic chart. I found App statistics: App Usage by hhll tools. The 4.5-star rating and “free” price tag made me skeptical, but I figured I had nothing to lose except maybe my illusion of productivity.

Features & Highlights

The main thing this app does is put a stopwatch on everything. It sounds simple, but seeing the numbers is different. On Wednesday, I discovered I’d spent 1 hour and 43 minutes just in Microsoft Teams. Not even in meetings, just sitting in the app, waiting for replies or getting distracted by channels. The category view was the real kicker. It lumped Teams, Gmail, and Slack into “Communication,” and that category was a whopping 60% of my phone use. I thought I was working, but the app called it what it was: mostly talking about work, not doing it. I immediately set a 2-hour daily limit on that whole category. The app also sends a weekly email summary. Getting that first one and seeing a giant blue bar for “Communication” was a real wake-up call.

User Experience

Setting it up was a bit scary. It asks for this big “Usage Access” permission, which made me pause. I read a bunch of Play Store reviews first to see if people complained about spam. They didn’t, so I hit okay. After that, it just runs in the background. The home screen is plain but clear. Your top three time-wasters are right there, big and bold. I checked it at 3 PM on my first day and my number one app was Chrome. I had it open for “research,” which apparently meant 45 minutes of reading news. The break reminders are quiet, just a little notification that says you’ve used an app for a long stretch. They’re helpful. My only real annoyance is the little timer on the app icon. It’s supposed to show your total daily use, but on my phone, it vanishes sometimes and only comes back if I open the app again.

Pricing

This is where the app really won me over. It’s free. No “pro trial,” no begging for a subscription, no core features locked away. There are small banner ads at the bottom of the screens, but they’ve never jumped in my face or played a video. For a tool that gave me the exact evidence I needed for a conversation with my boss, paying nothing feels almost wrong. I’ve been burned by “freemium” apps before, so I kept waiting for the catch. After three days of poking at every feature, I’m convinced there isn’t one. It does the one job it promises without asking for money.

Updates & Support

I haven’t had to contact support because, honestly, the app just worked on my A54. Looking at the reviews on the Play Store, some people have had minor bugs after big Android updates. The developer, hhll tools, seems to reply to those comments within a few days, which is decent for a free app. The app itself updated once right after I installed it. The changelog just said “bug fixes and performance improvements,” which is fine by me. I don’t need flashy new features every week; I just need the timer to keep counting accurately.

Security & Privacy

The permission it needs is serious. It can see every app you open and for how long. That’s the whole point, but it’s also a lot of trust to put in a developer. Their privacy policy states clearly that all this data stays on your phone. It doesn’t get uploaded to any cloud server. Everything is processed locally. That was the final thing that made me comfortable keeping it installed. My phone usage feels like private information, and I’m glad the app treats it that way.