WaveUp

juanitobananas

About this app

WaveUp is an app that wakes up your phone - switches the screen on - when you wave over the proximity sensor.

I have developed this app because I wanted to avoid pressing the power button just to take a look at the watch - which I happen to do a lot on my phone. There are already other apps that do exactly this - and even more. I was inspired by Gravity Screen On/Off, which is a great app. However, I am a huge fan of open source software and try to install free software (free as in freedom, not only free as in free beer) on my phone if possible. I wasn't able to find an open source app that did this so I just did it myself. If you're interested, you can take a look at the code:
https://gitlab.com/juanitobananas/wave-up

Just wave your hand over the proximity sensor of your phone to turn the screen on. This is called wave mode and can be disabled in the settings screen in order to avoid accidental switching on of your screen.

It will also turn on the screen when you take your smartphone out of your pocket or purse. This is called pocket mode and can also be disabled in the settings screen.

Both of these modes are enabled by default.

It also locks your phone and turns off the screen if you cover the proximity sensor for one second (or a specified time). This does not have a special name but can nonetheless be changed in the settings screen too. This is not enabled by default.

For those who have never heard proximity sensor before: it is a small thingie that is somewhere near where you put your ear when you speak on the phone. You practically can't see it and it is responsible for telling your phone to switch off the screen when you're on a call.

Uninstall

This app uses the Device Administrator permission. Therefore you cannot uninstall WaveUp 'normally'.

To uninstall it, just open it and use the 'Uninstall WaveUp' button at the bottom of the menu.

Known issues

Unfortunately, some smartphones let the CPU on while listening to the proximity sensor. This is called a wake lock and causes considerable battery drain. This isn't my fault and I cannot do anything to change this. Other phones will "go to sleep" when the screen is turned off while still listening to the proximity sensor. In this case, the battery drain is practically zero.

Required Android Permissions:

▸ WAKE_LOCK to turn on the screen
▸ USES_POLICY_FORCE_LOCK to lock the device
▸ RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED to automatically startup on boot if selected
▸ READ_PHONE_STATE to suspend WaveUp while on a call

Miscellaneous notes

This is the first Android app I have ever written, so beware!

This is also my first small contribution to the open source world. Finally!

I would love if you could give me feedback of any kind or contribute in any way!

Thanks for reading!

Open source rocks!!!

Translations

It would be really cool if you could help translate WaveUp to your language (even the English version could probably be revised).
It's available for translation as two projects on Transifex: https://www.transifex.com/juanitobananas/waveup/ and https://www.transifex.com/juanitobananas/libcommon/.

Acknowledgments

My special thanks to:

See: https://gitlab.com/juanitobananas/wave-up/#acknowledgments

Ratings and reviews

Wave Up is a simple app, but very handy. Turns on screen every time without using any buttons. My only issue is "lock screen" kicks in too soon, (max 5 seconds), even locks the screen when booting my phone. And "lock screen" kicks in even when I haven't checked the "lock screen" setting. Possibly the Cover time before locking could be made more flexible, letting the user determine the number of seconds. Or maybe a new setting could be added. If I didn't have this issue, I would rate 5 Stars 😀

I found this app when I switched phones - the previous one had a "wave to wake" feature and the new one didn't. Several phones later I have been a VERY happy user! Unfortunately I just got a Samsung Galaxy S22 running Android 12 and for whatever reason, it no longer works :*( I'm going to keep it installed just in case there's an update that fixes this!

My first choice on my Android 8 Oreo phones for waking phone to check driving progress. Lots of options and it works reliably and is easy to stop once I'm done with it. If this had an option to sleep screen WITHOUT disabling fingerprint scanner I'd give it five stars. Other apps do this by temporarily setting screen timeout to 15 seconds, which doesn't administrator lock phone and disable fingerprint reader. Update: On my Android 11 phone it's not able to wake without requiring fingerprint/PIN, even when the screen goes off due to normal timeout. Pocket Lock doesn't have this issue and will wake the phone to whatever you were doing (that app appears in Security->Device admin apps).

What's new

New in 3.2.10
★ Update some translations.
★ Upgrade some dependencies.

New in 3.2.9
★ Update some translations.
★ Fix small Android 11 compatibility bugs.

New in 3.2.8
★ Update some translations.
★ Small bug fix (MainActivity leak).