Screen Awake Toggle Widget

Keep your device display awake effortlessly with virtually zero battery impact. Screen Awake Widget gives you instant, one-tap control over your screen timeout directly from your Home Screen widgets, Quick Settings tile, or notification bar.

1. Home Screen Widgets (Zero Idle Battery Drain)

Choose from three tailored widget layouts to fit your home screen setup:

• 1x1 Compact Tile: A minimalist icon showing current status (ON / OFF). Tap anywhere on the widget to toggle immediately.

• 2x1 Horizontal Bar: Displays screen status alongside an integrated shortcut to app Settings. Tap the left toggle area to switch states; tap the gear icon to open preferences.

• 1x2 Vertical Pill: Designed for vertical home screen columns, featuring quick toggle on top and settings access below.

Visual Color Feedback:

• Teal / Accent Color: Screen Awake is ACTIVE (screen stays on for your selected Long Timeout).

• Dark Slate / Neutral: Screen Awake is INACTIVE (standard power-saving Short Timeout is active, 0% background CPU usage).

• Amber / Yellow Warning: Action required on the widget label or gear icon. Tap to review missing permissions or recommended settings.

2. Quick Settings Tile

• Toggle awake mode from inside any app (such as a PDF reader, browser, or cooking app) without returning to your home screen:

• Swipe down twice from the top of your screen to open the Quick Settings panel.

• Tap the Edit (Pencil) icon.

• Drag the Screen Awake tile into your active tiles list.

• Single tap to toggle awake mode ON or OFF anytime.

• Long-press the tile to jump directly into the app Settings.

3. Persistent Notification & Smart Power-Button Off

• Notification Controls: When awake mode is active, an ongoing notification appears in your status bar allowing you to tap Turn Off or Settings at any time.

• Smart Physical Lock Detection: If you press your phone's physical side power button to lock the screen and put it in your pocket, Screen Awake automatically turns OFF and restores your normal timeout to prevent accidental battery drain.

• Reboot Protection: If your phone restarts, the widget safely defaults back to OFF.

4. Hybrid Engine & OEM Compatibility (Samsung, Xiaomi, etc.)

• On stock Android devices, a standard WakeLock is sufficient to keep the screen on. However, manufacturers like Samsung and Xiaomi enforce a strict 10-minute hardware cutoff on background WakeLocks.

• By granting the Display Overlay ("Display over other apps") permission in Settings, Screen Awake projects a completely invisible, non-touchable 1x1 pixel in the top corner while ON. This safely instructs the Android WindowManager to keep the display on across all apps without forcing CPU WakeLocks. Zero screen content is ever read or captured.

• Note on Android System Notification: For security transparency, Android may show a system notification stating that Screen Awake is displaying over other apps while the widget is ON. This is normal and disappears automatically when you turn the widget OFF.

Open the app or tap any widget gear icon to configure:

• Language (Always First with Globe Icon): Switch between System Default and 22 supported languages. Both the Language row and the "Reset to Defaults" button feature bilingual English labels so you can always navigate back if you select an unfamiliar script.

• Theme: System Default, Light, or Dark mode.

• Short Timeout (Power Saving): Select 15s, 30s, 1m, 2m, 5m, 10m, or 30m. If your device hardware caps system timeouts at 10 minutes, the app automatically detects it and notifies you.

• Long Timeout (Awake Mode): Select 1 hour, 2 hours (Default), 6 hours, or Infinite (Never turn off).

Mandatory Permission

• Modify System Settings (WRITE_SETTINGS)

  • Why it is needed: The primary purpose of this app is to control how long your screen stays illuminated before turning off.

  • How we use it: Android strictly protects the system timeout property (Settings.System.SCREEN_OFF_TIMEOUT). Granting this permission allows the app to read and restore your chosen short timeout (power saving) and manage long timeout sessions (awake mode).

  • What happens if denied: The app cannot modify screen timeout settings. Widgets and tiles will display a warning state ("CHECK") and direct you to system settings.

System Optimizations & Recommended Permissions

• Display Over Other Apps / Overlay (SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW)

  • Why it is needed: Many device manufacturers (such as Xiaomi/HyperOS, Samsung One UI, and Huawei EMUI) impose a strict 10-minute hardware cutoff that overrides standard background WakeLocks and turns the screen off prematurely.

  • How we use it: While Awake mode is ON, our Hybrid Engine projects a completely invisible, non-touchable 1x1 pixel window holding the standard Android keep-screen-on flag. This guarantees your display stays illuminated across any app (PDFs, maps, browsers, recipes) for hours without forcing heavy CPU locks.

  • Privacy & transparency guarantee: Zero screen content or user touches are ever read, captured, or recorded. For your security, Android may show a system notification confirming that the overlay is active alongside the app's own control notification; both disappear immediately when Awake mode is turned off.

  • What happens if denied: The app automatically falls back to the standard WakeLock and system timeout engine, which works normally on stock Android devices but may be capped at 10–30 minutes on restrictive OEMs.

• Display WakeLock & Foreground Service (WAKE_LOCK, FOREGROUND_SERVICE)

  • Why it is needed: Required by Android to run an active session timer (1 hour, 2 hours, 6 hours, or Infinite) in the background and to provide fallback keep-screen-on support on devices where Display Overlay is not enabled.

  • How we use it: A lightweight foreground service manages your active countdown and automatically turns off Awake mode when your timer expires or the moment you lock your phone using the physical side power button.

  • Privacy & battery guarantee: The service and lock are immediately released when you tap "Turn Off", lock the screen, or when the timer ends. When OFF, the app remains 100% dormant with 0% CPU and zero background battery drain.

• Notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS — Android 13+)

  • Why it is needed: Android requires active foreground services keeping the screen awake to display an ongoing notification.

  • How we use it: This notification provides immediate visual feedback that your screen will stay on and offers a one-tap "Turn Off" button so you never drain your battery accidentally.

  • What happens if denied: The awake function still works, but Android will hide the status notification and quick controls from your lock screen and top bar.

• Battery Optimization Exemption (Doze Mode)

  • Why it is needed: Modern Android devices aggressively put background services into deep sleep ("Doze").

  • How we use it: Excluding the app from battery optimization ensures that widgets respond instantly when tapped and that timed awake sessions are not killed prematurely while ON. Disabling this restriction does NOT increase battery usage when the widget is OFF (0% idle consumption).

• App Hibernation Exemption (Android 11+)

  • Why it is needed: If you primarily toggle the screen via widgets or Quick Settings without opening the app’s main interface for months, Android may flag the app as "unused" and auto-revoke its permissions.

  • How we use it: Disabling hibernation prevents Android from revoking your permissions silently.

• Autostart & OEM Background Management (Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Huawei)

  • Why it is needed: Custom Android skins include proprietary task killers that can freeze home screen widgets, preventing them from updating their colors or receiving taps.

  • How we use it: Whitelisting the app in your device manufacturer's autostart manager allows widgets to remain 100% responsive at all times.

The app is available in the following languages (AI managed):

English (default)

Albanian

Arabic

Chinese (Simplified)

Chinese (Traditional - Taiwan)

Czech

Danish

Dutch

Finnish

French

German

Greek

Hebrew

Hindi

Hungarian

Indonesian

Italian

Japanese

Korean

Norwegian

Polish

Portuguese

Romanian

Russian

Slovak

Spanish

Swahili

Swedish

Thai

Turkish

Ukrainian

Vietnamese

v. 1.3

• Optimizations and bug fixing. 

v. 1.2

• Language addition: Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovak, Swedish

• UI improvements

v. 1.1

• Hybrid Engine (Display Overlay + WakeLock): Bypasses the 10-minute hardware screen cutoff on Samsung, Xiaomi, and other restrictive OEMs. 

• Smart Power-Button Off. - Ultra-Low Battery Architecture: 0% background CPU and battery consumption when widgets are OFF. 

• Preset Timeouts: Quick selection for Short (15s–30m) and Long (1h, 2h, 6h, Infinite) timeouts. 

• Improved UI & Fail-Safe Bilingual Controls. 

v. 1.0 

First release

Privacy Policy for Screen Awake WidgetEffective Date: October 2026

SstarSoft ("we," "our," or "us") built the Screen Awake Widget app as a Free application. This SERVICE is provided by SstarSoft at no cost and is intended for use as is.

This page informs website visitors and app users regarding our policies on the collection, use, and disclosure of Personal Information.

1. Information Collection and Use (Zero Data Collection)

We follow a strict privacy-first philosophy. Screen Awake Widget does not collect, store, share, or transmit any personal data, screen content, user behavior, or analytics.

• All operations and preferences (such as theme, language, and timeout durations) are stored and executed 100% locally on your device.

• The app does not request the INTERNET permission for data transmission and does not connect to any external servers.

2. Permissions We Request and Why

To provide its core hardware utility, the app requests specific Android permissions that operate strictly locally on your device:

• Modify System Settings (android.permission.WRITE_SETTINGS): Mandatory permission required to read and restore your standard power-saving screen timeout (SCREEN_OFF_TIMEOUT).

• Display Over Other Apps / Overlay (android.permission.SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW): Strongly recommended permission used by our Hybrid Engine. While Awake mode is ON, the app projects an invisible, non-interactive 1x1 pixel window holding the FLAG_KEEP_SCREEN_ON attribute to bypass the 10-minute hardware cutoff enforced by certain manufacturers (e.g., Samsung, Xiaomi). The app never reads, captures, records, or intercepts any screen content or user touches.

• Foreground Service & WakeLock (android.permission.FOREGROUND_SERVICE, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_SPECIAL_USE, WAKE_LOCK): Used only while Awake mode is actively turned ON by the user to run the session countdown timer and provide fallback keep-screen-on support on devices where Display Overlay is not enabled.

• Notifications (android.permission.POST_NOTIFICATIONS): Used solely to display the ongoing status notification with one-tap "Turn Off" controls while Awake mode is active, and to alert you if mandatory permissions are missing.

3. Third-Party Services & Voluntary In-App Donations

The app is 100% free and contains no advertisements, no third-party analytics, and no tracking SDKs.

It includes an optional feature for voluntary developer support ("Support the Developer"). All transactions are processed securely and exclusively by Google Play Billing. SstarSoft never accesses, collects, or stores your credit card details, billing address, or financial information. Please refer to the Google Privacy Policy for details on how Google handles payment processing.

4. Children’s Privacy

Our Services do not address anyone under the age of 13, and we do not collect any personal information from any users, including children.

5. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. You are advised to review this page periodically for any changes. Changes are effective immediately after they are posted on this page.

6. Contact Us

If you have any questions or suggestions about our Privacy Policy, please contact us at: sstarsoft2026@gmail.com