# FakeStandby blacks out the screen with an overlay and calls it a power saving

> FakeStandby is an Android app that draws a black overlay over the foreground app using an accessibility service, so apps keep running, including foreground jobs, while the display shows nothing. It is most useful on OLED panels, and the README is blunt about the power saving being modest.

**JonasBernard/FakeStandby** — An Android app for turning the screen off while keeping apps running.

- Repository: https://github.com/JonasBernard/FakeStandby
- Website: https://fakestandby.jonasbernard.de
- Stars: 559 · Forks: 37
- Language: Java
- License: GPL-3.0
- Published: 2026-10-22 · Updated: 2026-10-22 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/jonasbernard-fakestandby

## The pitch is one more hour of battery

FakeStandby is described as an Android app for turning the screen off while keeping apps running, and the README states the problem in plain terms.

Most smartphones have long lasting batteries, but the argument runs, why not have your phone last for just an hour more. While using an app you might not need your display. Up to 20 percent of your battery power is consumed by the display. So the question the README asks is why not turn off all the pixels on it, and it adds a second reason: the app can help prevent burn-in caused by statically displayed images and text.

That framing is honest about what the tool is. It is not a battery profiler and it is not a power management feature. It is a way to blank the screen while a job keeps running, and the stated benefit of that is both the extra hour and the protection against a static image left on an OLED panel for hours.

The use cases the README lists are all cases where a phone is doing work that does not need a screen. Listening to music on YouTube, staying online in text messengers, running a game, listening to podcasts. Two user reports are included as well: keeping GPS tracking alive in a navigation app while the phone is in a pocket, and using it while driving so a video call is one directional and the driver is not distracted.

The primary language of the repository is Java, the homepage is fakestandby.jonasbernard.de, and the licence is GPL-3.0.

## A black canvas over the foreground app, driven by an accessibility service

The How does it work section is the shortest and most important part of the README.

This app displays an overlay over the foreground app using Android's accessibility services. All it renders on the overlay is a black canvas, effectively turning your pixels off. And the reason the apps you are using will not notice is that technically your phone is turned on.

That is the entire mechanism, and it explains both the appeal and the constraint. Nothing is suspended, no process is frozen and no job is killed. The display simply shows black because something opaque is drawn over everything.

The accessibility service is doing two things at once: it detects which app is in the foreground so the overlay can be drawn over the right thing, and it keeps the overlay above other windows. The README does not describe the service configuration or the permission list in detail, and it does not document whether the overlay survives a screen rotation, a notification shade pull or a system dialog.

Accessibility services are a privileged Android capability. A service with that permission can read screen content and interact with other apps, and the platform prompts the user accordingly at install time. That is a reasonable trade for a tool whose entire job is to draw a rectangle over everything else, but it does mean the app asks for a fairly broad permission, and it is the reason the mechanism is a bit of a hack rather than a clean API.

The alternative would be to actually turn the display off, which Android does not let a third party app do while keeping the foreground app running. The overlay is the workaround for that constraint.

## The disclaimer: LCD panels will not save you much

The README has a Disclaimer section and it is the most important text in the document for anyone deciding whether to install this.

Some smartphones have LCD displays with background lighting that only turns off when you actually press the power button to lock your phone. The concept of this app works better with OLED or AMOLED displays, where turning pixels black is identical to turning pixels off. And then the line that matters most: you should not expect huge power saving effects on any device, especially on devices with LCD displays.

So there are two separate limits. The first is the display technology. On an OLED panel, the pixels are genuinely off when they are black, so the display stops drawing power. On an LCD, the backlight stays on, and you have a black screen that is still lit, which saves less than the 20 percent of battery the display was consuming in the first place.

The second limit applies everywhere. The app does not claim to be a power saving tool. The 20 percent figure is about how much of your battery the display consumes, not a promise of what you will get back.

The burn-in argument does not have the same caveat. The reason the screen is black rather than showing a static interface is exactly the reason OLED panels suffer burn-in, so on an OLED phone the overlay prevents the problem it is also nominally solving for power reasons.

If your phone has an LCD, and you are not using it for long unattended stretches, this app is unlikely to earn its accessibility permission.

## Installing it: F-Droid, the releases page, or a build from source

The README does not give an install command, and for an Android app that is normal. There are three routes, and the badges in the README point at each of them.

The first is F-Droid, with a Get it on F-Droid badge linking to the package listing under the android.jonas.fakestandby package identifier. The second is the GitHub releases page, and the recent release tags in the project metadata are described as auto-releases of the adfree APK, with v1.4.0 and v1.3.6 both dated 2023-03-20 and v1.3.5 from February 2023. The third is building from source, and the repository is a Gradle project with build.gradle, settings.gradle, gradle.properties, the gradlew wrapper and an app/ directory.

The choice between F-Droid and the GitHub APK is the one to think about. The release tags describe themselves as ad-free builds, which suggests the store and the F-Droid build carry advertising and the APK releases do not. The F-Droid route also means the build comes from a signed, reproducible source rather than an artefact uploaded by a person, and for an app that requests an accessibility service, that provenance difference is worth having.

The project publishes more than a build. There is a F-Droid metadata repository, a drone pipeline badge for continuous integration, a GitHub Actions workflow for the Android build, a CII Best Practices badge, and a fastlane/ directory in the repository, which is the usual toolchain for automating store submissions and release metadata.

The source tree also has a Gemfile, a package.json and a pull_contributors.js script at the top level, which is the contributor list tooling rather than the app itself, and a PROJECT_AIMS.md file that the README does not describe but that is likely where the project's goals are written down.

## A small Java project with a full release pipeline

The repository layout tells you this is a well equipped small project rather than a weekend hack.

There is a .drone.yml at the top for the drone pipeline, a .github/ directory with the Android workflow, a .idea/ directory for the IDE configuration, and a ci/ directory. The app/ directory holds the Android application, branding/ holds the icon assets, doc/ holds documentation, and there is a gradle/ directory with the wrapper alongside the gradlew and gradlew.bat scripts.

The JavaScript in the repository is not application code. The package.json declares the license as GPL-3.0 and a dependency set made of @octokit/rest, fs-extra, node-poeditor, nunjucks and an fs shim. That is a contributor tooling stack: Octokit to talk to the GitHub API, nunjucks as a template engine, and poeditor, which is a translation management service, for the localised strings.

So the app's translations are managed through poeditor and the contributor list is generated from the GitHub API by pull_contributors.js, using a CONTRIBORS.template.md as the template and writing to CONTRIBUTORS.md. The README credits all contributors in that file and asks people to look at CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md and CONTRIBUTING.md before contributing, and there is a maintenance badge in the Contribute section that carries a year.

The primary language of the repository is listed as Java, the default branch is master, and the recent releases are ad-free APKs from 2023.

## Where FakeStandby is the wrong choice

Three cases, and each one is stated in the README rather than inferred.

The first is an LCD display, covered above. The app's own disclaimer says the concept works better with OLED or AMOLED and that you should not expect huge power saving effects on any device. An LCD user with a notification-light or a media-key workflow is better served by the system's own standby and quick settings controls.

The second is anything that needs the screen genuinely off. The overlay is a black canvas drawn on top of the foreground app, and the phone is technically still on. If your goal is to stop the display from being a target for a shoulder surfer, to stop the screen waking in a pocket, or to pass a device policy that checks whether the screen is actually lit, an overlay does not satisfy it. The README is explicit that the apps will not notice because technically your phone is turned on, which is a feature for background work and a limitation for everything else.

The third is the accessibility permission itself. Android grants accessibility services broad access, and a user granting it to a screen blanking app is granting a capability that is usually reserved for automation tools. That is a real decision for a personal device and a harder one on a managed or family device, and if you are installing on a phone with sensitive data, that is the part to think about.

On maintenance, the picture is mixed. The repository is not archived and the last push was on 2026-07-11, so the source is being touched. The newest release tag, v1.4.0, is from 2023-03-20, so a user installing from the releases page is getting a build that predates the most recent commits by a wide margin.

## Conclusion

Adopt FakeStandby if you need a navigation, music or chat app to keep running on an OLED phone while the display is off, and you accept that it is a workaround rather than a power management feature. Do not adopt it expecting a large battery saving, since the README says the opposite, and do not expect it to work well on an LCD panel, where the backlight only goes off when the phone is actually locked. Before you install, check that your display is OLED or AMOLED, read the accessibility permission prompt carefully, and pick the F-Droid build over the ad-free APK releases if you want an install without a second source.

## FAQ

### What does FakeStandby do?

It displays a black overlay over the foreground app using Android's accessibility services, which effectively turns the pixels off while apps keep running, including foreground jobs. The apps do not notice because technically the phone is still on.

### Does FakeStandby save a lot of battery?

The README says not to expect huge power saving effects on any device, especially on devices with LCD displays, because some LCD backlights only turn off when the phone is actually locked. The concept works better with OLED and AMOLED panels, where turning pixels black is the same as turning them off.

### How do I install FakeStandby?

The README links an F-Droid listing for the package android.jonas.fakestandby, a GitHub releases page whose recent tags are described as auto-releases of the adfree APK, and the source repository is a Gradle project with build.gradle and the gradlew wrapper.

### What can you keep running with FakeStandby?

The README lists listening to music on YouTube, staying online in text messengers, running a game and listening to podcasts. A user report also describes keeping GPS tracking alive in a navigation app while the phone is in a pocket, and using it while driving for a one directional video call.

## Sources

- [JonasBernard/FakeStandby on GitHub](https://github.com/JonasBernard/FakeStandby)
- [License: GPL-3.0](https://github.com/JonasBernard/FakeStandby/blob/master/LICENSE)
- [Project website](https://fakestandby.jonasbernard.de)
- [README](https://github.com/JonasBernard/FakeStandby/blob/master/README.md)
- [Releases](https://github.com/JonasBernard/FakeStandby/releases)

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Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/jonasbernard-fakestandby