High Brightness Mode

flar2

About this app

Can't see your screen in the bright sunshine?

This app triggers an extra high brightness mode that is built in to many phones with AMOLED screens, including most Samsung, Motorola and OnePlus phones. See below for a list of devices with high brightness mode (HBM) capability.

Even if your phone does not have the special HBM hardware setting, this app will force maximum screen brightness, which is really handy when you are outside in the sun.

HBM does not require root on Samsung devices, but the screen can will be brighter if your device is rooted. With root, this app can force maximum brightness beyond what is available in system settings.

HBM now requires root on OnePlus devices!

HBM requires root on the Nexus 6/6P, Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2 and Motorola phones. Root is required because HBM is a special hardware setting, it does NOT simply increase your brightness slider to max. This is significantly brighter than max brightness on compatible devices.

Four ways to activate high brightness mode:
-Auto mode, which turns high brightness mode on or off depending on ambient lighting
-Widget for your homescreen
-Quick Settings tile (Android Nougat or later)
-Manually in the app


Compatible devices:
-Most Samsung phones, including Galaxy S6/S7/S8 and Note 6/7/8. Works without root on Samsung phones, but will get brighter on rooted devices
-Most Motorola phones with AMOLED screens. Requires root.
-Nexus 6. Requires root for HBM hardware setting
-Nexus 6P, Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2XL, Pixel 3, Pixel 3XL, Pixel 3a, Pixel 3a XL: Requires a custom kernel such as ElementalX or Kirisakura and root.
-OnePlus 3/3T/5/5T/6/6T/7: requires root

On phones with the HBM hardware setting, this app can make your screen up to 20% brighter than the highest brightness setting. High Brightness Mode Widget uses a hidden hardware setting to unleash the full potential of your AMOLED screen.

Auto mode will automatically turn high brightness mode on or off depending on the brightness (ambient light) of your surroundings. You can adjust the threshold for triggering high brightness mode and set auto mode using either the app, widget or quick settings tile.

This app can maintain high brightness mode even if you turn your screen off and on (and even across reboots!)

For Samsung and OnePlus phones, it is recommended to select the "Disable autobrightness when HBM is on" option if you use the system's auto brightness. This setting will prevent the system from turning off HBM if you enable it, but still allow you to use auto brightness the rest of the time.


Tasker integration with these intents:
flar2.hbmwidget.TOGGLE_HBM (this toggles high brightness mode)
flar2.hbmwidget.HBM_ON (turns on high brightness mode)
flar2.hbmwidget.HBM_OFF (turns off high brightness mode)

Ratings and reviews

This solved a HUGE problem for me. With my Android phones, if I have the brightness turned down while indoors, the screen becomes completely unreadable when I go outdoors into bright sunlight. I can't even see the brightness slider in order to make the screen visible. But you can set this app so that when you turn your phone back on, the screen is set to maximum brightness. You'll never have to run under a tree or go into a building's shadow, or even go back indoors, to see your screen.

Updated review 5 years later - the developer updated the app to work on my new Pixel 6 Pro, and solved one of the only problems I had with it - a slightly too dim display in certain conditions. With the quick settings toggle and features of the app, it's amazing. I had problems years ago with using this app on an offline device I had due to secret online licence checks, but that hasn't been an issue for me for years.

Since going from a Galaxy J337V with outdoor mode to an A03s with adaptive brightener, I could not see my camera screen when trying to take photos outside. This app made a world of difference. Still not quite as good as my old phone in outdoor mode, but a thousand times better with this app. Good job, it makes my life easier.

What's new

-Supports Pixel 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 series (requires root)
-Supports OnePlus 5, 6, 7 and 8 series (and maybe later) (requires root)
-Supports most (not all) Samsung devices without root
-Other devices do not have High Brightness Mode! This app will only set the display to max brightness, no extra brightness. Still useful if you want to force maximum brightness

Version 6.02:
-update for new devices
-bug fixes and improvements