Feature request: turn screen off when face-down

[Torben Gundtofte-Bruun]

Sleep as Android is by far the best of its kind on Android, and I love it (and I just bought the full version!). There is only one thing I really miss from Sleep Cycle that I previously used on iPhone: 

Request:

During sleep tracking, turn off the screen when the phone is face-down. 

Just like during a phone call, the proximity sensor can be used to detect this (or the orientation sensor).

Reasons:

• If I let Sleep run with the screen on, I find the screen too bright even on the lowest brightness setting and using the "dim screen" app setting. The problem is that the screen's background illumination doesn't go low enough. 
  
• If I turn the screen off manually (after starting sleep tracking), then I must unlock the phone before I can view the app, and that's inconvenient in the middle of the night.

Device:

I'm using a Nexus 4 running version 4.4.3.

Another very elegant detail with Sleep Cycle is that once it has been tracking sleep for a few minutes, it changes the screen to only show the current time and the smart alarm time range (see this screenshot). This is all that one really needs to know in the middle of the night, and very easy on sleepy eyes. Coupled with the feature I requested above, it's supremely elegant because the phone is all dark and only gives me the essential information. If I tap the screen, the normal sleep-tracking screen appears again.

[Torben Gundtofte-Bruun]

Update to the above, because it apparently can't be edited:

Regarding the screen-off, I found a reset feature in the advanced settings, so now the screen-off works on my device. 

But it's a "hard off" and the screen-unlock issue mentioned above remains. 

[Petr Nalevka]

Petr replied Jul 12 17:50 Hello , thank You very much for Your feedback. In fact you can control the screen behavior in a simialr way. You can enable screen dimming - screen turns black (not off) after 20 seconds and if configured shows the clock. Screen off (if supported by your device) is done by the system based on your device's overall screen timeout settings. What do you mean with hard off and unlock issue? Could you elaborate on that a bit? Thank you very much. Best regards, Petr Nalevka Urbandroid Team sleep-as...@googlegroups.com replied Cc: sleep-as...@googlegroups.com Jul 10 15:19

Update to the above, because it apparently can't be edited: Regarding the screen-off, I found a reset feature in the advanced settings, so now the screen-off works on my device. But it's a "hard off" and the screen-unlock issue mentioned above remains.

-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sleep as Android" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sleep-as-an-droid unsub...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. Conversation started by sleep-as...@googlegroups.com Cc: sleep-as...@googlegroups.com Jul 10 11:32

-- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sleep as Android" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sleep-as-an-dr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. {#HS:37204297-1193#} Powered by Help Scout

[Torben Gundtofte-Bruun]

Apologies for the late reply; busy with Real Life.

On Saturday, July 12, 2014 5:50:32 PM UTC+2, Petr Nalevka wrote:

In fact you can control the screen behavior in a similar way. You can enable screen dimming - screen turns black (not off) after 20 seconds and if configured shows the clock. Screen off (if supported by your device) is done by the system based on your device's overall screen timeout settings.

Yes, the screen turns black, but the screen's built-in background light still shines through and that's too bright even at its lowest setting. Remember, it's lying right next to my pillow. So I need the screen "really off", not just black. For this "really off" screen, the automatic "screen off" feature is useful -- but at least on my Nexus 4 (running stock Jelly Bean 4.4.4) that feature needs to be "reset" frequently using the advanced settings; I don't know why it doesn't consistently work. 

Because of this, I need to turn the screen off myself (short press on the power button; this is what I mean by "hard off").

The problem is that in either case (automatic screen off as well as manual screen off), the device is now in normal stand-by mode so when I power-on the screen, I need to unlock the screen (Android OS's built-in "swipe to unlock", or whatever screen lock the user might have configured). Here's where my feature suggestion comes in, because if the app could turn off the display when the proximity sensor is triggered, the screen could instantly turn on again directly to the app when the proximity sensor is no longer triggered, without needing the "slide to unlock".

Let me know if you need more information; I'll be happy to help.

[Petr Nalevka]

Petr replied Jul 20 16:29 Hello, Thanks for your email. Unfortunately, about a half of the Android phones does not support gathering accelerometric data (sleep tracking) with screen-off. You could try the following: 1) Go to settings misc. 2) See what does the option "Screen-off tracking" say. 3) You can try to reset this option by clicking on it and confirming. 4) Then turn off the screen, wait for ~3 minutes and turn it back on. 5) See what does the option say now. If it says the screen-off tracking is supported, the next tracking you run should automatically turn off the screen. If it, on the other hand, says it is not supported, then your phone likely does not allow sleep tracking with screen off. You can try to use an option lower in the menu "Force screen-off tracking", but beware it may result in sleep tracking and smart wake up malfunctioning.

Thank you very much. Best regards, Petr Nalevka Urbandroid Team

sleep-as...@googlegroups.com replied Cc: sleep-as...@googlegroups.com Jul 15 21:09

Apologies for the late reply; busy with Real Life. > > >

> In fact you can control the screen behavior in a similar way. You > can enable screen dimming - screen turns black (not off) after 20 seconds > and if configured shows the clock. Screen off (if supported by your device) > is done by the system based on your device's overall screen timeout > settings. > Yes, the screen turns black, but the screen's built-in background light still shines through and that's too bright even at its lowest setting. Remember, it's lying right next to my pillow. So I need the screen "really off", not just black. For this "really off" screen, the automatic "screen off" feature is useful -- but at least on my Nexus 4 (running stock Jelly

Bean 4.4.4) that *feature needs to be "reset" frequently using the advanced settings;* I don't know why it doesn't consistently work.

Because of this, I need to turn the screen off myself (short press on the

power button; this is *what I mean by "hard off"*).

The problem is that in either case (automatic screen off as well as manual screen off), the device is now in normal stand-by mode so when I power-on the screen, I need to unlock the screen (Android OS's built-in "swipe to

unlock", or whatever screen lock the user might have configured). *Here's where my feature suggestion comes in, *because if the app could turn off

the display when the proximity sensor is triggered, the screen could instantly turn on again directly to the app when the proximity sensor is no longer triggered, without needing the "slide to unlock". Let me know if you need more information; I'll be happy to help.