The simplest features are often the best, and my favorite New iPhone feature in iOS 17 isn’t the most advanced, but it’s one I use every day: StandBy.
It’s such an obvious benefit that I’m surprised we had to wait until the 17th generation of iOS to get this simple watch screen saver.
I’m equally surprised that there isn’t an Android equivalent on every new Galaxy and Pixel that’s come out since the iPhone 15. Fortunately, StandBy Mode Pro, an app available on the Google Play Store, fills the gap nicely in a very Android way.
I love StandBy Mode Pro because it makes my phone useful when I’m not using it. It provides me with a desk clock at work, a nice bedside clock at night, and a travel clock in between.
I get a digital photo frame when I’m in the office and a constant weather report when I’m home and the dog is bothering me to go outside.
If you are an Android owner, I recommend downloading this app right away and even paying a small fee for the ad-free version. In classic Android style, it takes a simple feature that iPhone fans enjoy, but ultimately makes it customizable, giving you many more options and features than you’ll find on the iPhone.
This is part of a regular series of articles exploring the apps we couldn’t live without. Read them all here.
Before we get into the Android app, let’s explain how StandBy works on iPhones. When you charge an iPhone, either wired or wirelessly and also place the iPhone on its side in landscape orientation, the iPhone will go into standby mode.
The screen darkens and two square widgets appear side by side. You can use any widget you want, and of course clock and calendar are just the most obvious choices.
On Android, StandBy Mode Pro works the same way. You get square widgets side by side and can choose from any widget on the phone. That gives Android an early advantage. Widgets are fairly new to iOS and iPhone, but Android has been offering widgets since the earliest versions of the operating system.
Same as StandBy on iPhone but with more Android
On the iPhone, StandBy mode is completely automated, and the StandBy Mode Pro app for Android, in true Android style, gives you different levels of control so it can activate automatically or only in certain charging situations. StandBy Mode Pro will activate when your phone is charging and you can set the app to launch only when your phone is charging wirelessly.
The app is also smart enough to disable standby mode when you place the phone in portrait orientation. You can wake the app like any regular app – just tap the app icon – but it’s smart enough to add a button on the lock screen if you want to go straight to standby mode.
StandBy Mode Pro gives you the best features of the iPhone’s StandBy mode, with even more customization options, just the way Android fans like it.
On the iPhone, StandBy will turn red at night so as not to ruin your night vision. With StandBy Mode Pro on Android, you can not only set the watch to red, but you can also set the brightness for night mode and even adjust the redness saturation in case it looks too red for your taste.
The app has been updated fairly regularly and has over half a million downloads, so hopefully, it won’t be abandoned anytime soon. There’s even a Labs section in Settings for features that are still in the works.
If you don’t feel like setting up widgets, there are also some full-screen modes available, like StandBy on the iPhone. If you swipe left, you can turn StandBy Mode Pro into a digital photo frame for your Android phone. You can also dedicate the entire screen to simply checking the weather or playing audio from your favorite media player app.
And the app continues to improve.
Since I started using StandBy Mode Pro a few months ago, the developer, Zetabit Tecnologia, has added a fun little Lo-Fi Vibe mode, which features a cool screen of an animated person petting a cat while a hip-hop beat plays. Lo-Fi hop. Alternatively, you can play calm instrumental music while watching an endless loop of swimming jellyfish.
Sure, the developer is being a bit cheeky by simply taking the same name as Apple‘s feature, but where is StandBy mode on my favorite Android phones? StandBy Mode Pro gives me StandBy on all my non-iPhone devices, with plenty of customization options and even experimentation that makes Android cooler than iOS.
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