While the battery life of smartphones is continuously improving, the amount of things that you can do on the phone and, similarly, the amount of time people spend on the device, leads to settings meant to save battery life.
One such setting involves the phone turning off when it’s not being used, or when it isn’t being looked at. The screen on a Pixel 4A is one of the biggest sources of battery usage, so limiting the amount of time that it is turned on is an important component of making the battery last longer.
But this can be problematic because you may find that the screen is turning off even when you are using it.
You can turn on a setting called screen attention by going to Settings > Display > Advanced > Screen attention.
Once this option is enabled the screen will stay on when you are looking at it, even if you haven’t touched anything on the screen in a while.
This is a great option to enable if you often read things on your screen for long periods of time, or if you look at pictures or instructions without tapping anything.
Our guide continues below with more information on using the Pixel 4A’s screen attention feature.
How to Keep the Google Pixel 4A On When You Look At It
- Open the app menu.
- Choose Settings.
- Touch Display.
- Tap Advanced.
- Select Screen attention.
- Turn on Screen attention.
Our guide continues below with additional information on how to start using the screen attention setting to keep your Pixel 4A screen from turning off so quickly.
How to Enable or Disable Screen Attention on a Pixel 4A (Guide with Pictures)
The steps in this article were performed on a Google Pixel 4A in the Android 11 operating system.
Step 1: Swipe up on your Home screen to open the app menu.
Step 2: Scroll to the bottom of the app list and select the Settings option.
Step 3: Choose the Display option.
Step 4: Expand the Advanced section.
Step 5: Select the Screen Attention option.
Step 6: Tap the button to the right of Screen attention to enable it.
The information on the Screen attention screen lets you know that Screen attention uses the front camera to see if you are looking at the screen. This image processing takes place on the device so it won’t use any data or impact your privacy because it doesn’t send the information to Google.
Our tutorial continues below with additional discussion about the Android screen attention setting and some things to keep in mind if you are going to start using your phone with it turned on.
More Information on How to Prevent Google Pixel 4A from Turning Off When Looking At It
While this setting is useful if you spend a lot of time reading information on your phone screen without touching it, there is the added downside of the screen staying on if the device thinks you are looking at it.
While this feature is very accurate, placing it on a table or a desk when it’s slightly in front of your face can cause it to stay on.
Another potential downside of screen attention is that your battery is going to drain a lot faster because you will likely have the screen on for longer periods of time. If you had previously not really had an issue with battery life it might be something that you need to start paying attention to.
Matthew Burleigh has been writing technology how-to articles and tutorials for over a decade. He has extensive experience in information technology both in small business and as a consultant.
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