Do you use it? iPhone Always-On Screen Popular, But Not Universal - TidBITS (2024)

Remarkable answers

1. If I had an iPhone that could do this, I would much prefer the ability to put it on standby, but otherwise have it turned off. It seems like such an obvious choice that I don't understand why Apple doesn't already allow this.

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2. My objection to Always On is that it's not always on (at least not on the iPhone 15 Pro, which I've had for about a day and a half now).

   I noticed this last night when I put the phone on a stand across the room and the screen turned off after about two minutes. I woke up the phone, locked the screen, walked away and the same thing happened. This continued through several restarts and settings changes.

   In the Always On Display section of Settings there is a note saying the phone turns itself off to save power, which I find contradictory and confusing: it's always on or it's not, right? Apple has onesupport docfor Always On on iPhone 14 (not yet 15 as far as I can find), which listed a number of circ*mstances where Always On would be disabled - none of these applied. It also said that a disabled Always On would automatically restore itself if a connected Apple Watch came close, which didn't happen in my case.

   There have been a few complaints about Always On actually being on sometimes, or being on most of the time, with several people associating this problem with dark rooms. I tested this by turning on a bright light on the phone and sure enough, Always On stayed on as long as I had the light on.

   In the time it took me to write this, with the phone on a table next to me in a room with the blinds open on an overcast day, the screen turned off after the first paragraph or so; I picked it up, locked it, put it back and it's still on.

   I would like to know what other people's experiences are: is your screen always on, usually on, or only on occasionally?

3. There is a switch for Always on under Settings - Standby. It's called "When Always On is enabled, the screen will intelligently turn off when not in use."

   Does anyone understand exactly what that means? It seems that if you enable Always On, the screen does the exact opposite and turns itself off. Does this mean that if you want the screen to always be on in Standby, you actually have to disable Always On?

   The Standby setting for Always On has no apparent relationship to the Always On setting under Display & Brightness.

4. I like Always On, but I notice an impact on battery life. My solution is to place the phone face down when I don't need the screen. Not only is the amount of distraction eliminated, but Always On is turned off due to the lack of light, saving my battery.
   I've been experimenting with how my phone's battery performs with Always On enabled and disabled, and there is a noticeable difference. I have the same experience with my S7 watch. With the watch I realized that I don't need the face when I'm not looking at it. The Always On feature on the Apple Watch is, IMHO, purely an exercise in vanity so that other people can see your watch face.
   I think a lot of the complaints about the iPhone 14/15 Pro battery life have to do with people using their devices more often because of the Always On feature. I try to reduce my screen time by not holding the screen face down.

5. I always understood that Always On turns off when you are not around. While I haven't tested this scientifically, I have noticed that when my iPhone is on the desk while I'm working, the screen is on but dimmed. I can still look at it for the time and other information. When I picked it up it would light up and reveal the text of any notifications. If I leave the room and come back a while later (maybe 10 minutes?), the screen is black.

   Maybe the people complaining about Always On affecting their battery life are too close to their phone so it's always on light mode? Or are they sitting on a desk that wobbles a little and their movements make the phone vibrate so it thinks you've moved it?

   I've never noticed any battery impact on mine - I don't think I've ever run my Max below 30% on a normal day. It has a long battery life. Most days it's over 50% when I go to bed. (The caveat is that I use my iPad to talk to friends. Playing it on my phone gives me terrible battery life. It's a battery hog, which is crazy for what should be a simple game.)

6. Schrödinger's phone turns off when you don't look at it

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7. It always seemed like a terrible idea to me.

8. I might be more interested in AOD if I could actually read the widgets I put there. But since Apple limits me to a series of widgets with incredibly small fonts, I can't read this most of the time anyway, so the only thing I end up checking is if there's time (large font, yay!) so I don't have to do it all the time . Ironically, swiping right from the Springboard reveals both the battery and weather widgets, which are much larger and easier to read, but I can't get them on my lock screen.

   I understand, Apple is trying to keep a large portion of the lock screen clear of notifications. I realize everyone loves notifications and being entertained by their phone constantly beeping about new incoming, super important social media updates, but I really don't. I prefer to have just a few pieces of information that I define and expect in one easily accessible place so I can actually read them. Oh yeah.

   I can't read any of these:
   

   But this works fine:
   

9. Oh well, I turned off the always-on display on my Apple Watch 8. The battery therefore lasts much longer and I don't really notice it at all. Every time I look at my watch it's on.

   I think the one that always shows up on the iPhone 14 Pro is probably similar. I mean, every time I look at my iPhone 12 and the screen is on. Who else is going to see it? The fact that ⅓ of respondents take the time and effort to complete the survey says something about howusablethis function is.

   What stinks in my opinion is the fact that standby mode is not enabled unless you have an always-on display and you keep it on.THE MOUNTED PHONE IS CONNECTED!!!The battery will not run out. Grrrr!

   I have an old program called Nightstand Central. I got 4 days back on my iPhone. It still works, but is no longer available in the App Store. I use this as a time display when I'm in bed. Unlike Stand By, it does not close automatically.

10. Personally, I wish Apple would keep both the watch and the iPhone always on when it's on a charger. Bed mode would be great if it just showed the time, and if the iPhone's screen stayed on overnight when it's on the charger, that would be great. I can't find any settings that can do this either, which seems like a real oversight on Apple's part.

11. You'd probably get burn-in if your screen was on that much, which would be one reason why Apple doesn't allow this.

12. I often want the same thing when I'm driving (where my phone is always plugged in).

    When I use Maps navigation or have Maps centered on my location, this prevents the screen from going to sleep. But sometimes I prefer to use other navigation apps and then the phone goes into sleep mode after 5 minutes unless I touch it, which of course is not allowed while driving.
    (By the way, what about the 5 minute maximum? Why do only iPads have longer options? Can I please assess my own battery requirements?)

    Now, of course, I could turn off the auto-lock completely, but that's not what I want once I arrive and put my phone back in my pocket. So great, it's 2023 and yet every time I get out I have to remind myself to go to Settings > Display & Brightness and reset the auto-lock to 5 minutes.

13. Agreed. And I've asked Apple about it many times. Android has had this feature (one of their "developer" options) for years.

    Apple should have an option for "Do not lock screen when connected to power".

    I can (and do) manually lock the screen with the side button when it's on and I don't want it on, like when I go to bed.

    I wonder if this is an app problem? When I used Google Maps, the phone stayed on by itself while navigating. But it's been a few years since I've used Google Maps, so I don't know if that's still the case.

    I will send feedback to the developer of the problematic navigation apps to see if they can fix this.

14. I agree with that. It's definitely an app problem. But unfortunately it's more than just one app and I've sent feedback to everyone asking about the options, but no luck so far. Some of these apps haven't been updated in a while. But even if they're no longer actively developed and improved, they're still good, so I'm not too keen on giving them up entirely. A system-wide option would be a simple solution.

15. With my use of the iPhone, the issues with Always-On being distracting aren't really a factor. My iPhone stays in my pocket unless I'm using it. I rarely have to take it out of my pocket unless I need to use it for something my Apple Watch can't handle. So the display option is largely irrelevant. But when the phone is out of my pocket for an extended period of time, I prefer to have Always On enabled. I like being able to see the basics at a glance without having to press an extra button or touch the screen.

16. Never heard of the feature before reading this article :)

17. I finally got to I like AOD, but only for now, no screenshot or notifications and such@whshep.shopI REALLY want m/b to be ALWAYS on and live up to its name!

    Another crazy thing is that it seems to be a reality that when you talk to Siri via AirPods Pro 2nd Generation, if the phone is not awake, Siri will not listen, forcing you to take the phone out of your pocket! Really tickle tickle. When I have the buttons on, Siri listens b/w, period.

    Previously, when I had the APP on when walking the dog, I could say "Siri read me my messages" (SUPER helpful) but now it doesn't seem to work all or most of the time; It's unclear to me if there are different levels of "awake". When I take the phone out and wake it up with a tap or Face ID, it works.