Avoid Digital Eye Strain With These Web And Mobile Eye Protection Apps

Got tired eyes because of long hours working in front of the computer? You probably didn’t notice that you’re pushing yourself too far and now you’re feeling its negative impact on your eyesight and health.

Gadgets like a laptop or any smartphone emit a blue light that could permanently damage retinal cells with too much exposure, leading to blurry vision, eye strain, dry eyes, and to others, sleep issues.

Limiting your screen time during non-work hours or positioning the monitor at least 20 inches from your eyes or about your arm’s length can help minimise the harmful effects of blue light. Most devices don’t have a special eye protection feature and it is highly recommended to keep their brightness low during nighttime.

Moreover, there are no smartphones designed to be eye-friendly but there are a lot of eye care mobile apps you can download for free. Here’s our pick of some top-rated apps you might want to try.

Rest for the Eyes: Gymnastics for the Eyes

This eye protection app works as an eye gymnastics manager, providing exercises and a timer. With an aim to significantly relieve eye strain, the mobile app introduces an “eye fatigue scale” that will remind you when your eyes are already tired.

Using the simulation settings, you can choose what type of eye exercise you want depending on your health and comfort (including the speed and execution). Each exercise is designed to promote eye movement, blinking to moisten your eyes, and other eye rest tools.

Available for download via Play Store only.

Eye and Neck Training

Eye and Neck Training is an eye protection app created to prevent the harmful effects of a sedentary lifestyle of less-frequent blinking and constant neck tension. This everyday habit may trigger headaches or worse, lead to visual impairment.

This app is very easy to use as it features short exercises for the eyes and neck. The five-minute eye training involves blinking and looking from left to right and up and down, while the duration for neck exercise lasts about nine minutes and 30 seconds.

Available for download via Play Store only.

Eye Care 20 20 20

Another eye protection mobile app that will look after your eyes when they get dry is the Eye Care 20 20 20.

Named after the popular 20-20-20 rule, this mobile app helps you to practice resting your eyes every 20 minutes, take a break from the computer for at least 20 seconds, and look at objects that are 20 feet away.

The app is also user-friendly as it works like an alarm that will notify you every 20 minutes to rest once you click start. It will also send a notification once it’s time to look away from the computer for about 20 seconds. If you’re done for the day, just click stop.

You can personalise the settings if you want to get notifications only at work hours, a reminder to start the app, or manually start and stop the timer.

Download via the App Store and Play Store.

Time Out - Break Reminders

Time Out believes that everyone deserves a break, especially your eyes! This mobile app offers flexible customisation to gently remind you on taking a break regularly. It offers two kinds of breaks: normal and micro-break.

The normal break occurs for 10 minutes every hour while the micro-break lets you take a quick pause of about 15 seconds for every 15 minutes. You can choose other options like lunch or afternoon breaks with your preferred duration.

Your break progress is displayed on the bar long before it is over. Users can also customise the app themes using standard HTML, display a notification, play a sound, speak some text, and more.

Available for download via the App Store and Setapp