I'm loving the talkback mode, but kind of lost on turning off the screen. On the iPhone, if i triple tap the screen with 3 fingers, i can turn off the screen (note the phone is still "on") and I can continue to use the phone; the idea being that I don't need the screen to be on if i'm blind, hence saving power. Is there anyway to turn off the screen on android phones in a similar way? Btw, I have a Galaxy S3 if that makes a difference.
Thanks
With most Android phones, I believe (I concede that I'm not absolutely certain, but I strongly believe) that for any of the touching of the screen to work, said screen needs to be on. This, of course, could vary by phone brand and model, and so it's possible that there's a model out there somewhere that will do what you're talking about.
However, if it's any consolation, if the screen's brightness is very, very low -- as in down at 1% brightness, for example -- then it will use very little battery, at least for purposes of lighting-up pixels on the screen. And so, then, considerable battery savings would be experienced by so doing. At that point, it's entirely possible that more battery would be being used by the screen touching electronics than by the image displaying electronics; and, of course, you'd need the touching part, regardless. So, then, my point is that only so much battery savings is possible, even by nearly blanking/blackening the screen since the part of the system needed to accommodate screen touching and navigation requires no small amount of battery. Part of the reason battery savings from blanking/blackening is achieved on an iPhone, but maybe not so much on an Android phone, is that so many Android phones -- including your S3 -- use an AMOLED or SuperAMOLED screen, which operates a little differently from what iPhones use.
Your solution, in any case, I think, is to set the screen brightness down as low as it will go...
...however, sadly, on some -- most, in fact, -- phones wherein setting the screen brightness is achieved by means of a slider, the lowest achievable screen brightness is still far above 1%. In fact, most phones have what's called "minimum screen brightness," below which the phone will resist the user setting. With many phones, the minimum screen brightness is 10% to 15%. A few phones may go as low as 5%; however, setting a phone's brightness down to 1% usually requires an app to help.
The solution is to download and install an app that specializes in achieving super-low screen brightness. A typical "screen brightness" app may or may not be capable of achieving the dimness you seek; but an app which calls itself a screen "dimmer" or "filter" may well be...
...however, many of them achieve their results by controlling the phone's backlight; and your S3
has no backlight. It's not that kind of phone. Your S3's screen is a SuperAMOLED type, and so pretty much only changing contrast (beyond brightness) is possible. Still, some of the dimmer and/or filter apps can do wonders with just that; and so it may nevertheless be possible to get that brightness down to 1%, and then to so adjust the contrast that the screen appears almost blank/black, even though it's technically not.
The first step is to find the right app, and that's going to be a challenge. You're simply going to have to trial-and-error a few of them to see which one will make that screen almost black, yet still technically be on. You're obviously going to need a sighted person to help you with that. Once you and s/he figure it out, though, you could either use the dimmer app's ability to auto-dim the screen on boot-up (if it's capable of that); or the app might provide a widget that you could put on a homescreen which, if pressed, will dim the screen; or you could use an automation tool like
AutomateIt, or
Tasker to auto-set the screen to the dimness you seek, on boot-up. Tasker is capable of more in the hands of either a real programmer, or someone who at least thinks like one; but AutomateIt is nearly as capable in most ways, even in the hands of a novice. Personally, I'd start with AutomateIt... though obviously don't even worry about either AutomateIt or Tasker is whatever screen dimmer/filter app you choose is capable of setting screen how you want it as part of boot-up (or that provides a nice homescreen widget that will do it so you can get there in one click once the phone's booted-up).
There are, my point is, several ways to skin this cat. You and a sighted person are simply going to need to do some experimenting to find the perfect solution.
A caveat: Some of these dimmer/filter apps are capable of making the screen completely black (or at least so nearly so that even a sighted person can't see what the heck s/he's doing) which could be a real problem if you actually got the phone permanently stuck that way. Most of them offer emergency recovery instructions, but, sadly, some of them are awkward... like, for example, removing the battery from the phone, and then forcibly disabling/uninstalling the app, etc. You'll probably want to avoid apps like that. It might be better to use an app that's actually incapable of getting you jammed-up like that because it will simply not boot the phone into screen-dimmed mode, and, instead, requires that you manually put the phone into dimmed mode by a button press or something after boot-up. Remember that if you're going to ever be asking a sighted person to help you with anything, it will need to be easy for you or him/her to toggle the brightness from your preferred dim setting to one that's normal for him/her. So be careful about choosing any of these dimming/filtering apps which doesn't accommodate that.
Here are some screen brightness control apps.
Here are some screen dimming apps.
Here are some screen filtering apps.
Again, your solution is probably in a dimming and/or filtering app; but you may well find a "screen brightness" app that's capable of doing it all. Again, sadly, it's just going to have to be trial and error on your part until you find the right app. Whenever you do, if it's free but either has ads in it, or crippled features unless you buy the paid version, by all means go ahead and get the paid version. It'll be worth it for both the extra features and not having to endure the ads.
Hope that helps!
Good luck to you.
Peace.
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