People want this for three different reasons. The power button has started to fail, or has already failed. The button works but it is on the wrong side of a large phone and reaching it is a stretch. Or the phone gets locked forty times a day and a gesture is simply faster than a button.
All three have the same solution, and the solution has a trap in it that costs you fingerprint unlock if you pick the wrong tool. That trap is worth understanding before you install anything, because it is the reason some highly rated screen off apps have reviews full of people complaining that their phone now demands a PIN every single time.
The technical detail that decides everything
Android gives an app exactly two ways to turn the screen off. They look identical from the outside and behave completely differently the moment you pick the phone back up.
| Mechanism | What it needs | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Device admin lock | Device administrator rights, granted in Settings | Forces your PIN, pattern or password on the next wake. Fingerprint and face unlock are skipped, every time. |
| Global lock action | An accessibility service, and Android 9 or newer | Nothing. It behaves exactly like pressing the power button, so biometrics keep working normally. |
The first one exists for company IT departments who need to lock a lost phone hard. Used as a convenience gesture it is the wrong tool, and the symptom is unmistakable: your fingerprint stops being accepted after a gesture lock, but still works after a power button lock.
The second one is what you want. The catch is that Android only exposes it to accessibility services, and accessibility access is the most powerful permission a normal app can hold, because a service that wants it can also ask to read everything on your screen. That is a real concern, and the rest of this guide is mostly about how to get the good mechanism without handing over more than the job requires.
We learned this the hard way. An early build of Unlit used the device admin method because it needed no special access. It worked, and it silently disabled fingerprint unlock for everyone who used the gesture. We took it out in the next release and moved to the global lock action.
Option 1: Android's own Accessibility Menu
Before installing anything, try the one Google already shipped. The Accessibility Menu puts a large on screen menu one tap away, and one of its buttons locks the screen.
- 01
Open Settings, then Accessibility
On some phones it sits under a General management or Additional settings group.
- 02
Tap Accessibility Menu
Then turn on the Accessibility Menu shortcut and accept the prompt.
- 03
Use the shortcut
A small accessibility button appears at the edge of the navigation area. Tap it, and the menu opens with Lock screen among its buttons, alongside volume, brightness, screenshot, recents and quick settings.
This is the best first answer for a failing power button, because it is Google's own code, it needs no third party app, and it uses the good mechanism, so biometrics are unaffected. The downsides are that the floating button is always visible and locking takes two taps rather than one.
Option 2: Double tap to sleep, if your phone has it
Several manufacturers build this in, and when it is there it is the nicest version of the feature, because it is a single gesture with no on screen button and no permission to grant.
- Samsung: Settings, then Advanced features, then Motions and gestures, and look for Double tap to turn off screen. It responds to a double tap on an empty area of the home screen and on the lock screen.
- Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and others: look under a Gestures, Motions or Convenience tools section. Names vary a lot between versions, so search your Settings for the word tap rather than following any menu path from the internet.
- Pixel and Motorola: not included. These run close to stock Android, which has no double tap to sleep, so use Option 1 or Option 3.
One important limitation on every version of this: it only works from the home screen and the lock screen. Double tapping inside an app does nothing, because the gesture belongs to the launcher, not to the system.
Option 3: A launcher gesture
If your phone has no built in double tap, the launcher is the natural place for this, because the launcher is already the thing listening for gestures on your home screen. A launcher that offers screen lock as a gesture action gives you the same single tap convenience on a Pixel or a Motorola that Samsung owners get natively.
What to check before you trust one with accessibility access, in this order. Does it keep fingerprint unlock working, which tells you it is using the global lock action rather than device admin. What does its accessibility service declare that it can see. And does the app have internet permission, because an accessibility service that can read your screen and also reach the network is a very different proposition from one that cannot.
Option 4: A dedicated screen off app
There are many apps whose entire job is this, usually offering a home screen icon or a widget you tap to lock. Some are fine. Many use device admin because it needs no accessibility prompt and is easier to ship, which is precisely the version that breaks biometrics.
You can tell which kind you have in under a minute. Install it, lock the screen with it, then try your fingerprint. If the phone insists on your PIN, it is using device admin. Uninstall it, and remember to remove its device administrator rights in Settings, then Security, then Device admin apps first, or Android will refuse to uninstall it.
A note on Advanced Protection Mode, which some Android versions offer for people at elevated risk. When it is on, Android revokes accessibility services from apps that are not registered as accessibility tools. Any gesture lock built on the good mechanism will stop working on such a phone, and that is Android behaving correctly rather than the app failing. The honest fix in that situation is the power button or the Accessibility Menu.
If the power button is genuinely broken
Everything above solves half the problem. Locking the screen without the button is the easy half. Waking it up again is the part people forget until they are stuck looking at a black rectangle, so set that up first, while the button still works at all.
- 01
Turn on a wake gesture
Look in Settings, then Display, for Double tap to wake, Tap to check phone, or Lift to wake. On Samsung it is usually under Advanced features, then Motions and gestures, as Lift to wake and Double tap to turn on screen. Enable both if both exist.
- 02
Turn on Always On Display if you have it
A screen that is never fully off is a screen you never have to wake, at a modest cost in battery.
- 03
Then set up a lock gesture
Use the Accessibility Menu or a launcher gesture from the options above, so you are no longer pressing the failing button at all.
- 04
Check that plugging in wakes the screen
On nearly every Android phone, connecting a charger turns the display on. It is an ugly fallback, and it has rescued a lot of people with a dead button.
Done in that order, a phone with a completely dead power button stays fully usable. The only thing you lose is the forced restart combination, which matters once or twice a year, and can usually be replaced by letting the battery run flat.
The short version
- If your phone has double tap to turn off screen, use it. Nothing else is simpler and it costs no permissions.
- If it does not, turn on the Accessibility Menu. Google's own code, two taps, biometrics unaffected.
- If you want a one gesture version on a stock Android phone, use a launcher that offers a lock gesture built on the global lock action.
- Avoid anything that forces your PIN on the next wake. That is the device admin mechanism, and it is the wrong tool for a convenience gesture.
- If the button is failing, set up a wake gesture before you need it.