How to Enable ‘Always on Display’ on your Android and Google phones

That’s One Cool Feature:

Always on Display is this really cool feature that allows some information to be displayed on the phone even when the phone is powered off. AMOLED (Active matrix organic light emitting diode) is the technology that enables this display. It keeps a certain portion of the screen on even during sleep mode. Mostly it shows the date and time, battery status or certain notifications. Nokia Lumia used this technology for the first time in 2013, and it was then used on LG and Motorola phones.

This technology has recently gained quite a lot of popularity and is being used in many applications these days primarily in smartphones. Samsung is using it in latest Galaxy S7, S7 edge and Note 7. Other companies like Microsoft, Huawei, Sony, and Motorola are also using it in their products. Apple is using it in MacBook and Smartwatch.

FOR THE ANDROID USERS:

If you are really impressed with this latest always-on display feature but do not have a Galaxy S7 or LG G5, no worries! We got you covered.

You Need to have:

However, you need to have a device with AMOLED display. That is because the widget displayed will be white on a black background, and an AMOLED screen will use battery only for the white pixels. Whereas the LCD display devices will use the entire panel for displaying text which will consume a lot of battery and is therefore not recommended.

Let’s Get Going:

• All you need to do to do to get the ‘Always on Display’ feature without killing your battery, is to install the ‘Glance Plus’ app that is available freely in Play store. It is available at this link.
• When you start the app, it will ask you permission to modify system settings. Enable it.
• Go to the app and turn it on through the toggle button. It will give a message, ‘Glance Plus is on”.
• In the Settings section, you can customize the details of your ‘Always on Display’ screen, such as the font, size, and color of text. you can choose between analog and digital clock. You can choose whether you want to display notifications for unread messages and calls using the ‘Show notification’ option. You can choose whether you want to display battery related information. You can choose the style of calendar, you can add a background image.
• Set Position to “Random” to avoid screen burn-in.
• In the features section, you can adjust the battery saving options.
• According to the default settings, Glance Plus fades away 2 minutes after your screen is turned off. You can change this as you like.
• Using Settings menu, you can choose to display the ‘Always on Display’ function either when you pull out your phone from your pocket, using the Detect phone in pocket option, or display it as soon as the screen is turned off, using the show glance after screen off option.

FOR THE GOOGLE PHONE USERS:

Now for the ones with Google phones. Google has enabled this functionality in their new Pixel 2 as well as Pixel 2 XL, whereas the older devices such Google Pixel and Nexus 6P don’t have this functionality.

However not to worry if you are a Google Pixel or Nexus 6P user! Read this article to get this display without much effort:

You Need to have:

• A phone with AMOLED display.
• You should have Google Android 8.1 Developer preview running on your phone.
• Let’s get going:
• Firstly, download and setup Substratum and Andromeda Plugin.
• Go to Google Play store and download ‘Always on Enabler’ for Substratum. Following is the link to it.

Download QR-Code

[Substratum] Always On Enabler

Developer: Substratum Themers Collective

Price: Free

• Open Substratum. Choose ‘Always on Enabler’, then choose “select to toggle all overlays”.
• Click on floating paint roller button and then choose “Build & Enable”.
• Reboot your device.
• Go to Settings, go to Display, go to Advanced, go to Ambient Display.
• Re-enable the “Always on” Toggle.
• And its done!