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[APP] Smart Cover (turn screen on and off with proximity sensor)

Hi XDA,
I thought I'd create a thread to share a useful app (at least for myself) that I came across recently. I did not create this app, nor am I in any way affiliated with the creator.
It's called "Smart Cover".
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=smart.cover&hl=en
What it does is turn your screen off when it detects something blocking the proximity sensor. As soon as the obstruction is removed, your screen turns back on.
Why would this be useful? Well if you're concerned about your power button wearing out, using this app would definitely minimize your total number of power button actuations.
In my day-to-day usage over the past week or so, I've found it incredibly useful to have my phone turn on as soon as I take it out of my pocket, and shut off as soon as I put it back. Also, when at my desk I now just need to turn my phone face down.
I should note that if the screen times out by itself, or you turn your screen off manually (i.e. without interacting with the sensor), then to turn your screen back on, you just need to wave over the proximity sensor with your hand/finger. For those who are unaware, the proximity sensor on the Nexus S is directly above the screen, on the left.
This app provides the option to disable itself while in landscape mode, to avoid accidentally shutting off the screen while typing, playing games, watching movies, etc.
Of course, it's important to realize that since this app uses the prox. sensor constantly, it will have an effect on battery life. From my experiences though, it's drain has been minimal. Inspection of processor state with "CPU Spy" shows that the NS is still able to reach the Deep Sleep state with this app enabled.
Probably not everyone will enjoy this app however. The first day or so of using it was a bit tricky, as it forced me to use my device differently. I have since gotten used to it. Anyways, I recommend you check this app out.
EDIT:
After searching around there appear to be a number of similar apps on the Play Store, each with different options/features. Here are some others:
(I have not tried any of these yet).
Proximity Screen Off https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.itsme4ucz.screenoff&feature=search_result
Tap Tap App https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.maicas.android.wsleep&feature=related_apps#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEwOSwibmV0Lm1haWNhcy5hbmRyb2lkLndzbGVlcCJd
Smart Screen Off https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=it.android.smartscreenoffpro&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsIml0LmFuZHJvaWQuc21hcnRzY3JlZW5vZmZwcm8iXQ..
This one looks interesting as it combines both the proximity sensor and light sensor. Battery drain would probably be higher though.
Feel free to share your experiences with any of these apps, or post if you discover better ones.

Taptap seems to work best for me

Having this constantly running and using constant hardware I'd imagine this drains quite a bit of battery.

are you seeing any dramatic saving in battery? or does running the program kill batt life?

mauiyob said:
are you seeing any dramatic saving in battery? or does running the program kill batt life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
??
This app does not save any battery life.
At the end of each day, I find that the app uses about 5% of my battery.

developersdevelopers said:
??
This app does not save any battery life.
At the end of each day, I find that the app uses about 5% of my battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not a battery saver app. it's a feature app, I personal don't like hitting the power then slide to unlock. When i take it out of belt clip it turns on.
that's the feature.. worth 5% [imhp]. using Smart cover and working good.
Thinking only useful feature if you have a clip.

I'm using Tap Tap App
Tap Tap App is great. It just does what I need.
No need of Power button

[Q] Active Display turns on when phone is moved.

This might seem like a dumb question but whenever I set my phone down and it is moved even in the slightest the Active Display lockscreen turns on. Is there anyway possible to disable that?

That's the cool thing about this phone. Don't worry about it

Chronos300 said:
This might seem like a dumb question but whenever I set my phone down and it is moved even in the slightest the Active Display lockscreen turns on. Is there anyway possible to disable that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You will get used to it and come to love it. the great thing is that it doesn't adversely effect your battery, it uses the special built in processors. I thought it was weird at first but now I just tap my phone or bump the table to see my notifications.

I love it because I never have to push the power button to turn my device on. This is a great way to save wear and tear on your power button. A lot of devices that rely on one button all the time (power button) end up with that button not working anymore. If I didn't have this option I would be using my volume rocker to power up my phone.
Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

This is easily my favorite feature about the Moto X. All I gotta do is pick up my phone and it automagically shows me any notifications and is ready to be unlocked. Power button? What's that?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

I like this feature. I usually tap my finger on the screen or press off to one side so the phone rocks slightly on the curved back to get the display to come on. As someone else said, it saves a lot of wear on the power button. I can't tell you how often I clicked my Razr Maxx on just to see what time it was, and clicked it off again immediately. The button never wore out, but it's nice not having to do it at all.
I do have a question though. I got the phone on Wednesday and didn't notice this at all until this morning, and I don't know if it's normal or not. While getting ready for work this morning I noticed the Active Display fire on and off a few times in a row. I thought since it was right at 7am that I may have gotten a few emails close together or something, and didn't worry about it.
When I got to work I set my phone on my desk and was reading emails and such and I noticed the display puling on and off about every 5-6 seconds. It fades in, holds for maybe 1 second and fades out. It only had one notification, for Plume (Twitter), which only polls every 15 minutes in the background, so I knew it wasn't getting new notifications repeatedly.
I can't remember if this was happening yesterday and I just opened it up right away to see what it was for, or if something actually changed. I disabled Plume from the Active Display list, which didn't change anything, I got the same result for email (Maildroid) and Snapchat.
I guess it kind of makes sense that it repeats, as there is no LED on the phone, but it seems a little excessive. I don't know how much power is saved by using white on black in the small area of the screen, but it's bugging me a little because I don't remember it doing this before.
Thanks for any input anyone has on this...

fury683 said:
I guess it kind of makes sense that it repeats, as there is no LED on the phone, but it seems a little excessive. I don't know how much power is saved by using white on black in the small area of the screen, but it's bugging me a little because I don't remember it doing this before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's normal. When you have a notification, the screen pulses instead of having a notification LED.
I haven't measured it, but it's my impression that it slows down the pulsing if the phone sits quietly for a while after the notification happens (I seem to notice that, if I ignore the notification, I don't see it as much). It really uses almost no battery, though, so don't worry about it.

Does the phone always light up when driving? I don't remember it happening on my old X but it's lights up at every bump on my new X.
Thinking I've frozen something I shouldn't have. Did not use assist on either phone.

binary visions said:
It's normal. When you have a notification, the screen pulses instead of having a notification LED.
I haven't measured it, but it's my impression that it slows down the pulsing if the phone sits quietly for a while after the notification happens (I seem to notice that, if I ignore the notification, I don't see it as much). It really uses almost no battery, though, so don't worry about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the quick reply. I'm guessing yesterday I either cleared them quickly, or they were present long enough to go slower and I didn't notice the repetition.
I will have to play around with what I actually want notifications for. Plume (Twitter) is the worst, followed by email. I wish I could turn on different channels for Plume so that Mentions/DMs could go to Active Display, but regular tweets didn't, but still have it do all in the notification shade. I might have to just settle for not getting a notification for all new tweets. Or increase my poll time...
Email might get shut off too. I get too much spam to care, and rarely get any emails that are urgent enough to warrant it.

Yes, mine lights up when driving Lol. The second I press on the gas it lights up, tripped me out the first few days owning the device, but I'm used to it now.
Sent from my XT1058 using xda app-developers app

Latest update nuked my watch ???

I have an LG G Watch R.
immediately after this update about 1.5 weeks ago that I installed my watch no longer functions as it functioned before.
I no longer get call notifications on the watch. previously when a call came in the watch would start vibrating the caller image would appear and I could answer or ignore from the watch.
this no longer occurs (HUGE functionality loss for me)
also "always on" no longer works. it always turns off VERY rapidly after a few short seconds and you can only turn it on again by pressing the button. no "ambient" mode any more.
and of course since ambient is off (I assume) twist to full on does not work anymore
touch will not wake it up twist will not wake it up ONLY pressing the button.
suggestions? these are simply massively functionality losses to me I flat out would not have bought it if it functioned this way when I got it. what's the point?
I am hoping this is something I can fix. yes I checked android wear no joy. I uncheck and recheck always on and the watch comes on for a second and then goes off again. still have to press the button to make it live again.

Cinema mode activated?
Sent from my SGP611 using XDA Free mobile app

What is that? I do not see anything called cinema mode anywhere?

On active screen swipe down from the top and then wipe left. You will see Cinema mode and Sunlight boost.

Tonio78370 said:
On active screen swipe down from the top and then wipe left. You will see Cinema mode and Sunlight boost.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That, or you can push the button twice really fast. Does the same thing, just quicker...

Thank you so much both of you that was exactly the problem watch is working normally now double tap and I noticed there was a tiny little icon in the middle of the screen look kind of like a little microphone icon the line through it very tiny but now I know what to look for if it happens again again thank you

[Q] Screen doesn't stay on anymore

When I bought the watch back in November, the screen would stay ON all the time. I know it to be a fact because I used to leave it on a desk without ever touching it (for hours) and it would always display the time (it was like having a desk clock, for when I would rather not wear it to have more comfortable wrists while writing or that sort of things).
Also in the train (I used to travel a lot in that period) I would leave the watch hung on the wall while sleeping (at night) and it would not turn itself off, so I could check the time in case I woke up in the middle of the night, without neededing to reach for the watch.
Recently (it was January) I noticed that it does not work like that anymore. After a very short time, the watch screen goes off. It is still in standby: it goes back on if I touch it or press the button.....but I want it to stay on 'without limits' (in dimmed mode). It was like that before.
Somehow this is the behaviour of the 'keep screen always ON' setting.....but in fact, that setting is already set to 'ON'.
So is there some kind of firmware update that changed this behaviour? I would like the clock to not go off when it is not on my wrist, sometimes I just need to keep track of time AND have my wrists free....and it is not possible anymore.

nothing?
It is actually a key feature....no point in having a watch that doesn't show the time unless you touch it (if you leave it on a desk or simply hung on a wall at night). Also I wonder why it changed (did not do this last year so I thought it must be some update but could not find anything in the changelogs about this).

You have the Setting enabled in Android Wear for keeping the screen Always On?
My screen only goes out when on the charger. When I had a Samsung Gear Live, it would stay on while on the charger, via the Developer Setting on the watch to keep the screen on while charging. But that has never worked for me on the "R", not even last year.

The screen of the watch goes off while charging (although I remember it being different back in October...).
The settting for 'screen always on' is activated. I activated from the watch, from the phone, restarted the watch, nothing worked. The screen goes off after a while IF I DO NOT wear the watch.
No problem if I wear it....that means there is some connection between the screen going off and the accelerometer :-/
But as I said, I need the watch to stay on even if I am not wearing it (working at a desk or similar when I can't wear the watch, I would look at the time at the watch lying on the table). I am sure 1000% it did not turn off before (started in January, or at least I noticed it in January). I read all the changelogs for all the updates and I did not find anything about this.
Can someone also try? My brother has the same watch and his also goes off if he does not wear it. I find this really unneeded. At least they should have put a setting available.

You best option is Wear Charging Widget. It will keep the screen on when charging. Although it does dim a bit, like a night clock in a mostly dark room. It is the only option I've found that works.
I wanted the "R" to work like my old Gear Live and keep the screen on when charging and even when not wearing it. But I've never found a means for that to happen short of Wear Charging Widget.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

Darnell_Chat_TN said:
You best option is Wear Charging Widget. It will keep the screen on when charging. Although it does dim a bit, like a night clock in a mostly dark room. It is the only option I've found that works.
I wanted the "R" to work like my old Gear Live and keep the screen on when charging and even when not wearing it. But I've never found a means for that to happen short of Wear Charging Widget.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
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Yes it looks it is like that now. Maybe you bought the watch after the two last updates (501 / 502) ?
Would be nice if somebody else, besides me, could confirm that in fact the watch was staying on (dimmed mode) all the time even without wearing it in the previous months (release date to December).

rogermorse said:
Yes it looks it is like that now. Maybe you bought the watch after the two last updates (501 / 502) ?
Would be nice if somebody else, besides me, could confirm that in fact the watch was staying on (dimmed mode) all the time even without wearing it in the previous months (release date to December).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had my "R" since last year, before v5 came out for the watches. And the "R" never kept the screen on while charging. I never noticed it involved simply not wearing it. Since when I'm not wearing, I'm charging.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

Screen shuts off completely
The screen on my GWR has started shutting off, completely dark not dim. I checked the settings and it is set to "Always on screen": ON.
This is a fairly new problem, it did not used to behave this way, I could see the screen dim, and move my wrist and it would go bright and display "OK Google".
Any ideas on how to fix this bug? Or do I/we need to wait for a software update/fix? Current software version: 5.0.2
Watch is not very useful if I can't see the time without having to push the crown/button.
Anyone else having this issue?

Screen is working again.
Had some time to try some options, did a "Reset Device" and the screen came back.
Lost all the apps I had loaded on the watch, not a big deal, wasn't using many of them.
Guess I can just download them again from the play store, if I want them back. Something I loaded onto the watch may have caused the loss of the screen.
Last couple of apps I downloaded were CompassX and a charging app that shows charging progress while charging.
Glad to have the watch face back.

I'm having the same problem as you. The ambient mode won't come on. Instead of dimming to ambient mode it now just goes dark completely (like when it is charging). I would love another fix before I have to reset the watch. Any ideas?

2leaponover1 said:
I'm having the same problem as you. The ambient mode won't come on. Instead of dimming to ambient mode it now just goes dark completely (like when it is charging). I would love another fix before I have to reset the watch. Any ideas?
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Click to collapse
Bumping this. I reset the watch. Went about two weeks and now back to the same problem. Ambient mode has disappeared. It's just black all the time until i turn it back on.

2leaponover1 said:
Bumping this. I reset the watch. Went about two weeks and now back to the same problem. Ambient mode has disappeared. It's just black all the time until i turn it back on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The user support for this watch is non-existent Still no help with this problem

2leaponover1 said:
The user support for this watch is non-existent Still no help with this problem
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I confirm that I have this trouble also in normal use, previously it worked fine and would stay on all the time if that's what I wanted.
Am very tempted to reset the watch after backing up.

I have nearly the same problem. For months now, when my screen dims, it goes to a very dark/dim red. I've removed all programs from my phone and did a factory reset on the watch three times. I'm not sure what else to try. Is there a way to flash the memory? It seems like a setting is stuck in the non-volatile memory.

I was having the same problem and found that I had theater mode set on. Switched to off and now works great.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Check your theater mode setting.
Turning mine off worked.

extrabilly said:
Anyone else having this issue?
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Click to collapse
I'm experiencing the same. On my watch it seems to be somehow related to accelometer. Almost everytime, when using LG G Watch R in golfing, it starts to shut down the screen. It doesn't wakeup even when tapping the screen.
I haven't found other solution than resetting the device

Same issue with 5.1.1
I had this issue with 5.0.2 and hoped that the next update would solve it but sadly it persists in 5.1.1 .
Theatre mode is off, Always on is on but still the screen blanks, showing the ambient mode screen briefly before blanking.
I've reset multiple times, occasionally Always On comes back but only for a short while.
Always on is a feature I really like

Fixed it on mine
I had to turn wrist gestures on. With it off screen on doesn't work.

I have the exact problem on my GWAR, software version 5.1.1. I bought my in December and it never happened until now. It started happening yesterday all of a sudden. I tried factory reseting it through bootloader, throught settings, uninstalling the Wear app, uninstalling the watchface i was using, and still nothing.
Here is what I did to fix it (and i know its overkill): Uninstall Wear app, clear google play services data and reset the device through settings. Now it's finaly working.

Sleep mode even with Battery Exclusion enabled

No matter what I do my Verizon LG V40 goes to sleep mode while watching prime video or netflix, etc. The screen dims, then goes to screen lock.
yes I have disabled adaptive battery, and added prime video to the exclusions list, yet it still goes to sleep while watching video. Anyone else getting this behavior after the pie Update?
I'm not liking how they took away the menu button, and the button to bring up the floating apps drawer is now just gone too? For a minute there I felt like an iPhone lamer because they took away so many features.

Sounds like a couple settings just got glitched during the install.
Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk