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I look for an app/a setting that allows me to cancel/revert (automatic) standby more easily than by pressing the power button.

I think of something like turning off the screen for a few seconds before standby, so i can cancel it by tapping the screen. Similar like the lock screen kicks in only a few secs after standby.

WHY? When reading eg. webpages, automatic standby can be annoying. I need to press power, thats annoying. I don't want to change the standby timeout either.

I don't want an app that permanently allows wake by tap/shake/proximity, as this potentially eats battery and unwanted wakeups. Also, an app to disable the auto standby is not good, i want the standby to still kick in, eg. If i fall asleep.

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  • The only phone(s) with that are Samsung, they detect if your eye is looking at the screen and don't lock if you are looking at it. Outside of just changing the timeout to 10 minutes or similar I can't see what you can do without getting an app, but even then the timeout is probably easier. – RossC Aug 21 '14 at 8:09
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If what you want is to keep the screen on while a certain app is running in foreground, there are several apps around which can help you out. I personally use for this (ever since I bought the app years ago) successfully with a recipe that rawly reads:

  • Condition: App (select the apps concerned)
  • Task: Display timeout (set higher, or disable it completely)

Done. While my default timeout is something like 1 minute, whenever e.g. I read my RSS feeds it kicks in only after 5 minutes – which is perfectly fine, as if I didn't touch the screen within that time I'm not really reading ;)

If you don't feel like buying Tasker for 5 bucks (it's definitely worth the price: just follow the tag link to see what other uses it might have. Sometimes it feels like every second question here can be answered with "Tasker!"), there are plenty of apps specialized on this, usually having "Keep Screen" in their names.

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    Note to Sjharrison: No exit task needed. Tasker automatically reverts to the "before state" whenever the condition is no longer met – unless the trigger was an "event". App in foreground is a "state" AFAIK. – Izzy♦ Aug 21 '14 at 15:58
  • Thanks @Izzy for your reply, I wasn't aware of this as always implemented a exit task, saves a lot of reverse tasks! – Sjharrison Aug 22 '14 at 8:20
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    Exactly! Rule of thumb: First try without, add later only when needed :) Sometimes it makes sense nevertheless, especially when you have "overlapping" tasks dealing with the same settings. Example: "0am to 6am: turn WiFi off" and "at home: turn WiFi on" – works as expected when you're always home before 0am. But one day you come home at 1am, and WiFi might not turn on again at 6am as it was off to begin with (or rather stay on from the moment you come home). But no such overlapping to expect in our case here, as long as you don't have another task tampering with "screen timeout". – Izzy♦ Aug 22 '14 at 10:56
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Your demands are too much for one app or phone to fulfill, but there is this feature in almost every android phone (which i've used) they turn their brightness to minimum before going to sleep. So if your screen timeout is set to 1min, they will go to minimum brightness(dim display) for a few seconds before and then turn off the screen. I think this is exactly what you're asking for, very dim display saves the battery and you can tap the display to bring it back to the set brightness. So it should be already there in your phone, if not then you're going to have a hard time finding a solution for that. [I use Nexus 5 and it has this feature, and before that Xperia S, that too had this dim the display before going to sleep feature]. Hope this helped.

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Well, I would say there isn't any app available over the market which can help you in keeping the device display on while your are reading the book. But I would say you can find this feature over the samsung smartphone particularly in S4, it has the feature named smart stay. I would say if that is too much important for you and as you stated above you don't what to change settings, then why don't you try purchasing a S3,S4,S5.

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  • No? 19303 results for "keep screen on" – also see my answer. And while you have to pay several hundred bucks for those Sammy-devices, Tasker is available for just 5 bucks – much cheaper :) – Izzy♦ Aug 21 '14 at 9:31
  • Well, I would say that is just a good thing ! I am sure your post can help user out as well as for me too, as this time I have came to know something new. But I was wondering that it do results in higher battery consumption. And what if I fall sleep while reading the book which I usually ran onto most of the time. – Peter Carlos Aug 21 '14 at 10:00
  • See my approach. I don't turn the timeout off completely, but just set it reasonably high when a corresponding app is running in foreground. So in case I "fall asleep", the screen turns off as usual – just a bit later. Keeping it on permanently might be useful though for e.g. navigation apps – but those usually take care for that themselves with wakelocks. – Izzy♦ Aug 21 '14 at 10:35

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