S3 LED notifications while screen is ON

**savadepa** · 06-11-2012, 05:28 AM

I have Light Flow installed on my S3, but the LED notifications only work while the screen is off. Is there any way to have my LED blink when the screen is on?

**Skunkape60** · 06-11-2012, 06:46 AM

I've never used light flow but there is an entire thread on xda where they found that light flow is causing the gs3 not to sleep properly and causing battery drain. After removing it the phone starts sleeping again.

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Just Flash It !!!

**Mikest** · 06-11-2012, 08:11 AM

every demo of lightflow I've seen on youtube you have to turn the screen off to see the LED colors. Not helpful but I thought Id throw in my two cents.

**20blks** · 06-11-2012, 08:20 AM

Why would you need it to work while the screen is on?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Android Central Forums

**Lieutenant** · 06-11-2012, 12:36 PM

i guess he wants it there until he actually clicks on the notification.

**savadepa** · 06-11-2012, 01:46 PM

yes. Whatsapp only notifies me in the notification bar for a second or so, so it's easy to miss. Also, I want to know if I received new messages when I'm watching a video or playing a game.

**tdan76** · 06-11-2012, 09:26 PM

How bout that XDA thread link??

edit: okay, easily found the , but only one person has had battery drain issues. No battery problem, but other possible problems with text to speech accessibility settings.

**JNM** · 06-11-2012, 10:11 PM

I use Light Flow on my Galaxy Nexus and it only blinks the LED when the screen is off. Email the developer and see if there is any way to make it work with the screen on on the Galaxy S3.

**droid747** · 06-11-2012, 10:14 PM

Originally Posted by JNM

I use Light Flow on my Galaxy Nexus and it only blinks the LED when the screen is off. Email the developer and see if there is any way to make it work with the screen on on the Galaxy S3.

The led not flashing while the screen is on was something built into the android os in 2.2. Cause my notifications in 2.1 on my og droid would flash when the screen was on but it changed to not flashing while the screen was on after it received 2.2

**Ebdiesel08** · 06-11-2012, 11:25 PM

I asked the developer this when I got my nexus last year and he said, if i recall correctly, it has to do with the os itself or the phone. He has tried to do it but it just can't be done...at least on the gnex.

**SpookDroid** · 06-12-2012, 07:32 AM

I know this thread is for LED, but why don't you give NoLED a try? It uses icons on your screen to show notifications (way cooler than LED blinking). The app was developed with phones without an LED in mind (Hello, Galaxy S and Galaxy S2), and since they've been OLED screens, showing icons with a black background doesn't actually drain your battery so drastically; I'm not sure if a bright LED will, though... Anyway, even if my phone had an LED I'd still go with NoLED IMHO...

**Lanhoj** · 06-12-2012, 08:27 AM

I love LightFlow but I also combine it with a whack of other Notification Apps:

NotifierPro Plus - WP7 style Notifications
StatusBar+ - Custom Status Bar without needing to be rooted
Smart Statusbar+ - Being able to access the Status Bar while within fullscreen Apps
Missed It! - Displays Notifications within a Widget (I keep it on WidgetLocker & Nova Launcher Prime)
TeslaUnread - Put an iOS style "Badge" in the corner for SMS, GMail, Missed called & Voicemail (requires either WidgetLocker or Nova Launcher Prime)

Yeah, combined with LightFlow that's about 20$ worth of Apps that are pretty much only for monitoring my Notifications, but I really can't live without any one of them & they all serve their own important purpose. So, if you're as serious as I am about your Notifications, I highly recommend you look into some of those as well.

PS: I also disable within each of my Apps their specific "pop-up" Notifications like in GO SMS Pro, textPlus Gold, etc... since I don't like how they all look different & overlap.

**Wicell** · 06-12-2012, 02:39 PM

Originally Posted by savadepa

yes. Whatsapp only notifies me in the notification bar for a second or so, so it's easy to miss. Also, I want to know if I received new messages when I'm watching a video or playing a game.

I assume by watching a video or playing a game you man on your phone. There is a setting built in to WhatsApp that gives you ask iOS style pop up notification on screen that doesn't go away until you press "cancel/clear" or "view." This is very helpful for me, just thought I've let you know in case you haven't tried it.

Originally Posted by Spook81

I know this thread is for LED, but why don't you give NoLED a try? It uses icons on your screen to show notifications (way cooler than LED blinking). The app was developed with phones without an LED in mind (Hello, Galaxy S and Galaxy S2), and since they've been OLED screens, showing icons with a black background doesn't actually drain your battery so drastically; I'm not sure if a bright LED will, though... Anyway, even if my phone had an LED I'd still go with NoLED IMHO...

I hate to brag, but Sprint's S2 has a notification light.

**E_man** · 06-12-2012, 03:13 PM

Originally Posted by Spook81

I know this thread is for LED, but why don't you give NoLED a try? It uses icons on your screen to show notifications (way cooler than LED blinking). The app was developed with phones without an LED in mind (Hello, Galaxy S and Galaxy S2), and since they've been OLED screens, showing icons with a black background doesn't actually drain your battery so drastically; I'm not sure if a bright LED will, though... Anyway, even if my phone had an LED I'd still go with NoLED IMHO...

NoLED demolished my battery. Contrary to popular belief, black on an OLED is not off. It's just really close. You can even see this yourself in a dark room. YMMV.

As for an LED, the battery drain for that is minimal. We're talking 10-15 milliwatts.

**andrewpmoore** · 06-15-2012, 05:04 AM

Yes sadly it seems to be something coded into the android OS.
I did look into the source code a while ago and saw where this happens.

The only way I know around this is by using some customs roms that add the option in, then lightflow should work with it.

I've not looked specifically at the S3 code, but I would guess it's just using the standard android code for this (as behaviour is pretty much the same as the galaxy nexus)

I'm testing lightflow on an S3 for the next release to make sure I can get as much lookin ok as I can before release.

**almath** · 06-20-2012, 02:47 PM

I' m just wondering why light flow on GNex? My red, blue, yellow, green and white notification lights work fine. What am I missing out of not having light flow? :o

Sent from Alexis Nexus

**Dennis McMahon** · 01-29-2013, 11:40 AM

I need the LED light notification capability myself while the screen is on, because I want my cell phone to operate for my home office exactly like a regular office phone would: The screen is always on in a holder (set to always on when charging, which is all the time), is always set to the phone screen, is connected to a nice Bluetooth speakerphone, and where the LED should blink red when a call has been missed and there is a voice message waiting. The only part I cannot get to happen is the last part. Is that too much to ask?

**meyerweb** · 01-29-2013, 04:36 PM

LF will do this on a rooted S3, using the S3 root mode checkbox. But I've found with that checked, the alerts themselves sometime don't stay on as long as I've chosen.

Do you really need the screen on when in the charger? It doesn't seem to me staring at the phone screen is particularly useful, since it will turn on anyway if someone calls you.

**Dennis McMahon** · 01-30-2013, 11:26 AM

The reason I keep the screen on is that even with the SoundAbout app, I haven't been able to get it to automatically connect to my BT speakerphone for an incoming call (Jabra speak510, answer by hitting pick up button on speaker, not phone itself) when the screen is off, it only works when the screen is on so far with all my tweaking of the answering settings of the phone and SoundAbout options.