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Add an Option to Disable Automatic Game Activity Tracking

šŸ“Š šŸ“‹ Summary

Add an option to LaunchBox for Android that prevents game launches from automatically updating play statistics and activity history.


ā— Problem

LaunchBox automatically records activity whenever a game is launched, including:

  • Play Count

  • Last Played

  • Play Time

  • Play-session history

Not every user wants this information tracked.

Launching a game for testing, adjusting emulator settings, or allowing another person to play can also affect statistics that users want to keep accurate.

Some users may prefer to rely on playtime imported from storefronts or achievement services, while others do not use activity-based features at all.


šŸ’” Proposal

Add a Track Game Activity setting that users can disable.

When disabled, launching or closing a game would not automatically update:

  • Play Count

  • Last Played

  • Play Time

  • Play-session history

Existing statistics should remain intact, and users should still be able to edit them manually.

Re-enabling the setting would resume tracking from that point without attempting to reconstruct activity that occurred while tracking was disabled.


🧩 Use Cases

  • Keep emulator testing from affecting play statistics

  • Prevent other people’s sessions from appearing in a personal history

  • Use storefront or achievement-service playtime instead of LaunchBox tracking

  • Run LaunchBox on a shared, kiosk, or arcade device without recording activity

  • Avoid tracking activity for users who do not use statistics or recap features

  • Reduce unnecessary metadata updates on storage-constrained devices


šŸ“¦ Benefits

  • Gives users control over whether their activity is recorded

  • Keeps play statistics more meaningful

  • Supports shared and specialist Android setups

  • Provides a clear privacy choice

  • Avoids requiring users to repeatedly reset unwanted statistics


āš ļø Considerations

The setting should clearly explain that disabling activity tracking may affect:

  • Recently Played and Continue Playing sections

  • Playtime and play-count statistics

  • Automatic progress features

  • Activity feeds

  • Gaming recaps and history-based recommendations

  • Statistics synchronization across devices

This option would stop game activity from updating the affected fields. It should not claim to prevent every storage write made by LaunchBox or Android, since settings, logs, media, caches, and other application data may still be written.

Status: Open To Community1 comment

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Comments1

  • AstroBob changed status to Open To Community
    Team•

    Oct 25

    Pinned

    Hi there!

    Thanks so much for submitting this request and for taking the time to explain your use case — that context is always super helpful.

    I’ve gone ahead and fleshed out the main idea using the info you provided, and I’m opening it up to the community for further discussion and feedback. Please let me know if this fleshed-out version doesn’t match your original intended request.

    Feel free to let me know if you have any extra thoughts, examples, or edge cases you think might be relevant!

    Cheers,
    The LaunchBox team