I love that my Android phone has an always-on display. it’s one of my favorite features since switching from an iPhone. But it doesn’t need to be on while I’m sleeping so can I switch if off at certain times and save battery power?
While I appreciate that battery life is a constant hassle for us smartphone owners, it is rather inexplicable that Apple still hasn’t offered some sort of always-on display feature similar to almost all Android phones. It’s a feature you can enable or disable entirely, of course, but if you do appreciate being able to have your phone double as a handy clock it’s nice to have the option.
In terms of how much battery power it really uses, that’s an interesting question. On Android Central, users say “I get virtually the same battery life with it on or off. Of course it lasts a little bit longer with it off, but it’s not substantial enough for me to keep it off…” and point out that for most Android phones if you put if screen-down on the table, the always on display (or AOD in Android parlance) is automatically disabled anyway. Which means that’s an easy way to have it off at night; just make sure you put your phone screen-down by your bedside.
But there’s a feature in the always-on display that can help you out anyway. Let’s have a look.
As always, start by going into Settings and tap on the magnifying glass icon, then type in a word or two that describes the setting you seek. In this case, just use “always”:
You can see that the one choice that pops up is exactly the setting we seek; “Always-on display”. Tap on it…
You can see that all the features are in one convenient spot. Enable AOD by tapping on the switch on the very top, and change exactly what’s displayed by tapping on the gear icon adjacent to the “Content” area (or use the default as I do).
The Advanced section below that is what you want in this instance, however: Daily timeout is the name of the feature that turns off the always on display. Tap to the right to enable it, then tap on the “•••” to adjust the time settings to your preference:
Tap on “Save” and you’re good to go. Now your display will either be as shown, or off to save battery:
And remember, flip the phone screen down and it’ll disable AOD too.
Pro Tip: while you’re here, please do check out our extensive Android help area. It’ll definitely be worth your while 🙂