Why it matters: After a number of Pixel owners, particularly the Pixel 3, reported performance improvements after disabling the device's Digital Wellbeing app, Google launched an investigation into the issue and has finally come up with an answer: There are no performance issues associated with the feature but some unrelated changes that will soon roll out to Pixel devices to make them better.
A couple of weeks ago, it was reported that Google's Digital Wellbeing feature was causing speed and stuttering issues on some Pixel devices. One Pixel 3 owner mentioned a "night and day" difference after disabling the service.
The user complaints prompted a 'thorough analysis' from the company after which it took to its official account on Reddit, where initial accusations had emerged, and commented on its findings.
"Thank you for bringing this to our attention and sharing bug reports with us. We're committed to continually improving Pixel based on user feedback."
"We conducted a thorough analysis based on the bug reports and internal testing, and have found no performance issues associated with the Digital Wellbeing app on Pixel. During the investigation, we identified changes unrelated to the bug reports for improving performance, and we are in the process of rolling out those changes to make your Pixel device better. As always if you experience issues related to performance or any other aspect of Pixel, please review the troubleshooting steps in our online support tool or reach out to customer service."
It looks like Digital Wellbeing is in the clear but the company did acknowledge finding problems, unrelated to user bug reports, that were impacting the phone's performance. For now, users will have to wait for the fixes included in an upcoming update. We'll get to know soon enough whether or not they make a difference.