(Solved) Screen Wake When Skipping Songs

[tckssjmy]

I'm trying to figure out if this is a "feature" or not as I can't find any info on this. When I'm connected via Bluetooth and skip a song with the steering wheel controls it wakes the screen which causes increased battery drain. On Pandora the screen stays off to conserve battery. I am using Spotify on a Nexus 6.

[Daniel]

Oh, I have no idea as my phone is always in a dock and charging with the screen on when I use BT controls.

I wouldn't have thought that would be a desired action though. Maybe someone else can check as I can't drive at the moment due to recently having surgery.

[tckssjmy]

To me it doesn't make sense for the screen to come on when switching songs.  As stated it increases battery consumption and you shouldn't be looking at your phone when driving anyway.  I don't know if the same can be said with Bluetooth headphones as I don't have any to test with.  People switch songs until they find one they like.  If they like a song and don't know the artist then they could wake the screen to see the information at that point.  To me this is a HUGE negative as phone manufacturers are making phones thinner and thinner thus reducing battery size.  Not to mention upon switching songs it increases the chance of accidentally skipping another song since the controls come on the wake screen.  I've tested this on wired headphones with controls and the screen doesn't wake so it only seems to be a Bluetooth issue.

[tckssjmy · Accepted solution]

Ok, I was wrong.  It does happen on Pandora as well.  It is "Ambient display" that causes this on the Nexus 6 (I'm assuming this would be the case for Moto X as well and any other phone with this option).  If I turn this off the screen does not wake.

[Daniel]

Ah, forgot about ambient display, yep that'd do it!

I've marked your post as the solution to the problem so hopefully it can help others if they have the same issue

[tckssjmy]

I'd like to request, if this is the case with all ambient displays, could it be possible to use ambient display as intended instead of waking up the lock screen?

[Daniel]

What do you mean? Ambient display is designed to wake the screen when you either pick up the phone or a new notification is received.

When a track changes what Spotify does is create a new notification message to replace the old one... Hence the screen waking. What do you mean by using Ambient display as intended?

[tckssjmy]

The problem is that it shouldn't wake the entire display. The notification itself should only lite up the pixels (only in gray scale, not in color) while the majority of the screen stays black (i.e. the black pixels don't use any power) to save battery power. It is only used for AMOLED technology. Hence why it is used instead of an LED light notification.