Stop from Samsung Galaxy S4 turning on when receiving text message

Question

Summary: Is there a way to stop the Samsung Galaxy S4 screen from turning on when receiving text messages (without disabling the notification light)?

Details:

I've got a Samsung Galaxy S4 on Verizon. I've noticed that sometimes when it's in my pocket that it will turn on and access apps, etc. (for example one time I saw it had posted something to Facebook).

I think that the problem is when I receive a text message that the phone turns on and then from there the touch screen might do whatever it wants. The reason I think the phone screen turns on when I receive a text message is I've noticed that happen sometimes.

So really what I want to do is prevent the phone from turning on in my pocket, but I don't think that is an actual option. But I thought there should be a way to stop incoming text messages from turning on the screen, while still allowing the notification light to flash. But I haven't found an option that does that.

Answer 1

It looks like having the screen turn on when SMS messages arrive is a stock feature of the Samsung Galaxy S4 on Verzion (possibly applies to other models and carriers as well). I saw threads here and here discussing the problem. There is no setting to disable only the screen turning on.

The workaround that I ended up using is as follows:

1) Disable notification in the stock app: go to settings and scroll down to Notification settings and unselect "Notifications".

2) Install SMS Popup.

3) Enable SMS Popup. Then go to Addition Settings and disable "Screen on for Popup".

Maybe someday Samsung/Verizon will fix the problem, but for now this workaround seems to work for me.

Answer 2

In the galaxy S4 SMS application, go to Settings and there is an option called "Screen On". Untick this option and you should be able to do what you want.